Its been a season of ups and downs for the Pacers. If the playoffs were to start today the team once seen as title contenders wouldn't even make the playoffs.
The season started off on a bad note when Reggie, Johnson, Foster, Jermaine were all injured coming into game 1. Even injured this team somehow managed to pull together a 6-2 record entering a game vs the world champion Pistons on there home floor. No Miller, Johnson, Foster, Pollard, Bender, this team was extremely short handed. They came out the gates strong and never looked back. This was the best Pacer team I had seen in a very long time, a lot better than the team that showed up in the eastern conference finals. Of course Tinsley and O'neal were near 100% compared to the ECF last season which proved to be a huge difference.
But during the final seconds of a blowout game the season flashed before the Pacers eyes. You guys know what happened, no need to tell the story again as well as Sterns decision.
Due to suspensions, and injuries this team struggled to just put together a team. The night after the brawl they put out a 8 man team but played only 5 of them. This pattern continued and they lost a lot of ground on the standings.
Here's all the games missed so far:
Jermaine O'Neal: 16
Ron Artest: 36
Jamaal Tinsley: 6 (Doesn't include his 9 minutes tonight)
Stephen Jackson: 30
Reggie Miller: 16
Fred Jones: 2
Austin Croshere: 8
Jeff Foster: 17
David Harrison: 11
Scot Pollard: 28
Jonathan Bender: 37
Anthony Johnson: 18
Total: 225 Missed Games
225/43 = 5.23
On AVERAGE, the Pacers have missed 5 of their key players every game. Even if it wasn't 5 every game, JO and Artest have barely played in any games together this season.
Jermaine is back, Jackson is back, everyone is seemingly banged up but this team is coming together somehow, but they are not producing wins. The team I see on the floor has 0 chemistry, and is emotionally and physically drained. But I think we all know even without Ron this team is capable of much much more, I think they can still hang with the best teams in the league.
The real question is can they recover in the short time they have, or is this team just lottery bound or setting themselves up for a first round knockout?
In my opinion, I think its just too late and from what I have seen recently this team has nothing left. I rather save the embarrasment of a 1st round knockout and not make the playoffs but come back next season with same team that crushed the Pistons on the 19th and the team who won 61 games the year before.
Just wanted to hear your opinions on this up and down season and what you think they can make of it.