Would the Pacers be a top team if they could just win games against the bad teams? Are there as many losses to the bottom 5 as wins over the top 5? Someone please count for me
Edit: thanks to Tony East on X addressing this
5 NBA teams (Detroit, Charlotte, Portland, Washington, San Antonio) have a winning percentage below 30% this season.
The Pacers lead the NBA in losses against that group with 5.
— Tony East (@TonyREast) February 13, 2024
by MilesJ392
9 Comments
Playing down to your competition like we do constantly is a sign of an immature team
Might be a hot take but I don’t care…bad losses like these go on two people, your coach and your best player. It is on those two people to bring the energy and set the tone for the whole team.
We can score on anybody and anybody can score on us. So it doesn’t really matter who we play much
Against the Celtics, Cavs, Bucks, Knicks, and 76ers: 12-6 or 67%
Against the Nets, Raptors, Hornets, Wizards, and Pistons: 6-4 or 60%
So it’s close, but yeah, we play better against the top 5.
Have a problem taking bad teams lightly
We’d be positioned higher in the playoff standings no doubt. Call it 3 losses to bad teams that are flipped – we’d be sitting right with NYK in the 4/5 spot. Make it 5? In the 2-3-4 hole. The top of the East is really good.
We’re dangerous to all teams if three things happen.
1 – Hali gets his defense up and continues to play at his current offensive production levels.
2 – Mathurin smoothes out his inconsistency (I know he’s recovering from illness right now) and starts putting together all the flashes we’ve seen in spots this year.
3 – Nesmith continues to progress, working on his ballhandling and composure.
Meaning – not this year (obviously). We don’t have the talent to compete with Boston this year assuming full health.
We seemed nervous or something with the ball.
The good news is that there are no bad teams in the Playoffs.
Young team plays down to competition, nothing shocking here. Although, it does suck it is our team. OKC is certainly an exception to this general rule.
Maybe they’ll figure it out this season and maybe it will be a brutal lesson that they’ll have to stew over all off-season.