The Indiana Pacers are in a position that they haven't been in for a while. They have a chance to make the playoffs this season. They have already clinched a winning season and will at least be in the play-in game. This is a much better situation than they were in the last two seasons.
As all Pacers fans know, the Eastern Conference standings have been a jumbled mess for a while. They have changed every night for a while. Indiana has lost a few close games that are starting to haunt them now. Those extra losses are making a big difference now.
There are a few things that Pacers fans should root for down the stretch. Obviously, rooting for wins is understood. The team also needs some certain play from the guys on the roster right now. The first thing they should root for is their starting point guard to keep his shooting going.
1. Pacers fans should root for Tyrese Haliburton to keep increasing his shooting splits
For a while after the All-Star break, Tyrese Haliburton was not playing well at all. He just stopped making threes all of a sudden. His shooting had cratered. At one point in a ten-game stretch, he was just 19% from deep. Things have turned around in recent games.
Haliburton seemed to fix his shot on that road trip. In the last six games, he has shot 42% from three. Whatever was dogging him seems to have gone away. Pacers fans have to hope that continues through the end of the season because they need him to have his entire offensive arsenal at his disposal.
Haliburton's three-point shot opens up the rest of his game. When he's a threat from outside, it forces defenders to step up on him and give him less space around the arc. That gives him better opportunities to blow by and either kick to an open shooter or finish at the rim.
If Haliburton's shot continues to get better, the Indiana Pacers are going to be in a great spot. The second thing that fans should root for comes to us from the bench.
2. Pacers fans should root for Ben Sheppard being aggressive
We don't get to see it very often, but I love it when Ben Sheppard gets aggressive on offense. He doesn't take a lot of shots yet, but he shows flashes of aggressiveness. I'm not just talking about when he has the opportunity to shoot an open three or not either.
Sheppard has moments where he pump fakes and drives to the rim and really tries to create his own shot. He shows us some potential that he may unlock next year when he gets a little bit more time. We should still be seeing it more though. His handles are good enough to keep trying this.
Sheppard has scored in double digits only once in the last ten games in close to 20 minutes a game. He doesn't quite have the confidence to take more shots and really try to unlock his offensive game. But when he does show it, it's fun to watch.
The Pacers need someone with aggressiveness off the bench other than T.J. McConnell. Especially with Bennedict Mathurin out for the year. Opi Toppin isn't a guy that creates his own shots and neither is Jalen Smith. Sheppard has that capability and it'd be nice to see it come out a little more down the stretch.
The final thing Pacers fans should root for has to do with keeping all of their current players on a good and healthy path.
3. Pacers fans need to root for good health for the rest of the year
What's one thing that all playoff teams hope for at the end of the year? It's good health. The Pacers have already been dealt a couple of tough blows in that department over the course of the year. Mathurin is already out for the year with his shoulder injury. We know what Haliburton has dealt with on the hamstring front.
Another injury would truly be devastating for the Pacers. While they are a deep team, they need to have a deep team to win in the playoffs. Aaron Nesmith missed a few games and the defense was much worse. An injury to the wrong player could sink the Pacers.
The Pacers could survive an injury from one of the bench players. They couldn't from one of the starters, especially Haliburton or Pascal Siakam. Those two are the most important players on the roster. With fewer than ten games left, those are they guys who run the offense.
There is nothing that the Pacers can do to necessarily prevent a fluke injury. To be honest, that's what Haliburton's was. He slipped on a new floor that the Pacers put in against the Celtics for the "City Edition" uniforms. That's not likely to ever happen again.
Now that we have talked about what Pacers fans should root for, let's talk about the two main things they should root against.
4. Pacers fans should root against the Miami Heat
The Heat are the biggest threat to the Pacers keeping the 6th seed. They are a team that has had to deal with a myriad of injuries so they haven't been able to improve their seeding as much as they should have. Yet, we all saw what they did last year as an 8-seed.
Miami became the first team to make the NBA Finals after having played in the play-in game. They have guys you want in a seven-game series or down the stretch in the regular season. They sit either a half-game or a game back on the Pacers depending on the day.
Keeping Miami behind them prevents the Pacers from having to battle someone in a play-in game. It also likely would mean they would take on the Cavs in a 3/6 matchup in the playoffs. If they end up in the play-in, there's a chance they could get stuck having to play the Celtics.
Boston is by far the best team in the East and anything that they can do to avoid them would be best. In order to do that, Miami has to keep losing games. The good news for Indiana is that Miami's schedule is harder than there's so it will be harder for the Heat to catch them.
Fans of any East team should take the Heat seriously. They have the best coach in the league and they win games that no one has business winning. This is about the time of year when they buckle down and really start to play hard.
The final thing that Pacers fans should root against has to deal with another team in the East.
5. Pacers fans should root against the 76ers
The other team that the Pacers have to worry about catching them is the Philadelphia 76ers. This is especially scary now that Joel Embiid is coming back this week. Philly is going to be a better team with him back in the fold. He makes them a completely different team.
On the bright side, the Pacers have a bigger gap between them and 8th-place Philly. That doesn't mean that the 76ers can't make up that gap now that Embiid is back. Looking at their schedule, they play three playoff teams in their final seven games. That's not bad.
Indiana also plays three playoff teams to finish things out. Two of those games are at home, which helps. As long as the Pacers win two of those games, they should be in a good spot to stay ahead of Philly. Having both the Heat and Philly overtake the Pacers would be a nightmare.
That would mean that Indiana has to face one of those two teams in a play-in game. Then if they advance, they would either take on Boston or the Bucks depending on how many play-in games they'd have to play. That is not where the Pacers want to be.
As long as the Pacers win all of the games they should to finish things out, they should be okay in the race for 6th. It's time for a young team to step up and win some games that matter down the stretch. This will be a fun thing for Indiana Pacers fans to watch for the final couple weeks of the year.