After Wednesday's victory against the Dallas Mavericks, the Indiana Pacers are now 39-29. Additionally, they are now one game above the Milwaukee Bucks for the No. 4 seed (and don't look now, but they are also just four games behind the No. 3 seed New York Knicks).
At this point, the Pacers are primed for another playoff appearance and will have a chance to replicate their postseason success from last year. However, the Pacers are far from a flawless team, and they still have some problems they must find solutions to. Recently, head coach Rick Carlisle spoke about what may be the team's biggest problem, and it is one they need to fix before it comes back to bite them in the playoffs.
The Pacers must work out their inconsistencies
In his postgame interview after the Mavericks game, Carlisle spoke about the team needing to be more consistent. While they came back from a seven-point deficit with less than a minute remaining in the game, Indiana should not have put themselves in that position in the first place. By being more consistent, they can avoid this problem altogether, which will help them string together more victories.
"You can't make a living with this kind of inconsistency," Carlisle said. "We've gotta be better tomorrow. ... The last eight days we've won three very, very close games that could've easily gone the other way. You gotta give the guys a lot of credit for that on one hand. On the other hand, there are some things in those games where it shouldn't have been that close."
It is important to mention that the Pacers are not fully healthy at the moment. Tyrese Haliburton has missed five games so far in March, and it is clear that the team misses his presence when he is on the court. Regardless, it is clear they still have some areas they need to improve in if they want to compete for a championship this year.
The Pacers are a top clutch team in the NBA, and that makes them an even bigger playoff threat than they already are. However, as Carlisle makes clear, this is still a habit they will want to kick before they go up against the best teams in the league in the playoffs. Fortunately for them, there is still a lot of basketball left to be played before the beginning of the playoffs.
With less than a month remaining in the regular season, there are plenty of reasons for Pacers fans to be excited about what the team can do in the playoffs. They made the conference finals last year and may be even better this season. There is still some legitimate competition in front of them in the Eastern Conference. However, the Pacers have already proven they can go head-to-head with any team in the league. Hopefully for them, they can work out their problems just in time to make another deep playoff run.