The Indiana Pacers put up one of the toughest fights of any seventh-seed in recent memory, but it wasn’t enough as the Toronto Raptors held home court in a decisive Game 7, advancing to a second round matchup with the Miami Heat.
Game 7: There was a lot of back and forth early in this game as the Raptors star guard tandem was ready to play early. Kyle Lowry still hasn’t shown consistency through this series, but he finished with 11 points and nine assists. DeMar DeRozan looked impressive if you watched the condensed game on League Pass or happened to view just his line of 30 points with three steals and two blocks, you’d think it was all good. And the contribution of DeRozan on both ends of the floor was important. However, some concern will continue to linger as he needed 32 shots to get his 30 points.
For the Pacers, it was just business as usual. Paul George was the best player on the floor in this series. He kept his team in the game with a double-double of 26 points and 12 rebounds. A fair amount of his points were instrumental in preventing this from being a full-on blowout from the start. George also had three steals, but the downside for George that will be overlooked because of his overall fantastic play was the seven turnovers he committed in this elimination game.
The Raptors got out to a huge lead, but they couldn’t put it away. After pushing the margin to 15 points and looking comfortable, the Pacers made a final surge over the last few minutes of the season. Showing remarkable resilience, they went on a 15-2 run to pull back within two possessions of Toronto. That was as good as it would get for Indiana, a fitting end to a season where they pushed hard the whole way, but still managed to come up a little short.
Looking Ahead: This is what we really want to focus on for Indiana – the future. After Game 7 concluded, Larry Bird was immediately asked about the future of current head coach Frank Vogel. Vogel is out of contract at the end of this season and there seems to be some lingering indecision. Bird wants more offense; Vogel continues to coach great defense. When cornered Bird simply offered, “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Given the uncertainty and the less than concrete answer from Bird, it would seem that a lot is still up in the air. If more offense is really what the team wants, they might need to look at more than just their head coach. Heading into the offseason, the Pacers have $59.2 million on the books, leaving them well above a max player opening and the prime line on re-signing playoff workhorse Ian Mahinmi who will be out of contract this summer.
George and shoot-first guard Monta Ellis are in the Pacers immediate future, both players being under contract for the next two seasons before an option year. However, there isn’t much else to offer at this point for the future of Indiana’s offensive structure and outlet. Myles Turner had a great rookie campaign, but he will be in just his second NBA season. Barring a major step forward for the young man, he’s probably still two or three years from having the kind of offensive touch that can consistently relieve the pressure on a player like George when they get to the playoffs.
There will be a number of mid-level free agents that could be a nice fit with Indiana this summer, but it almost seems like a fool’s errand to try and predict who will actually be available when the time comes. Sure, they’ll take a good look at Kevin Durant. Maybe they’ll even offer him a contract. Them and every other team in the league.
The Pacers have much larger internal issues to focus on right now, and they should let free agency take care of itself when it arrives. Deciding on the future of Vogel will be first and foremost for Indiana’s front office. If they want to move, they better do it quickly. The Sacramento Kings seem to have a line on every available guy and Luke Walton, Scott Brooks and Tom Thibodeau are all off the board already.
Once they clear up the coaching situation, they’ll know more about how they need to build their roster. It’s safe to say that if Vogel is retained, they need to put a premium on players capable of putting the ball in the basket. And hey, they did just watch DeRozan score a whole lot of points on them in this series. Wait, isn’t DeRozan going to be a free agent this summer?
The season may be over for the Pacers, but they worked hard and essentially overachieved in their first round playoff matchup. The season was a win for a team that lost their star player to a freak injury last season and then shipped away most of the players from their Eastern Conference Finals days. It was also a win for their fans, who got to watch their team fight hard. And though their team lost, they still win because they won’t have to watch Drake clown around courtside for the rest of the playoffs.
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