The Pacers were sluggish tonight against the Knicks in the second game of a back-to-back on the road. Outhustled, missing open shots — it wasn’t looking good.
But when Andrea Bargnani, who was killing David West and the Pacers, fouled out in the 4th, the Knicks couldn’t figure out a way to score down the stretch and the Pacers prevailed, 92-86.
Rodney Stuckey didn’t have a good shooting night (no one did) but finished with 17 points on 4-12 shooting and 8-8 from the line. George Hill had 15, David West 14 and CJ Watson chipped in with 13, including a huge 4-point play that swung the momentum in the Pacers’ favor.
Big win, not just because it was the 5th in a row and 11th in the last 13 games, but because the Pacers have suddenly found themselves in the 7th playoff spot in the East.
Miami somehow eked out an OT win against Sacramento tonight and is currently 8th but with an identical record, while the Hornets, who have one less loss and one less win, are idle at 9th. Boston and Brooklyn are both 2 games back, though with 20 games still left to play, you can be sure it’s going to be a dogfight down to the wire.
There are two pertinent questions to be asked at this critical juncture. First of all, can the Pacers sustain their momentum all the way to the playoffs? And secondly, who will they likely play if they get there?
The answer to the first question is probably YES. The Pacers have the arguably the easiest remaining schedule of the teams battling for those last 2 seeds. They have 11 home games remaining compared to 9 road games, though only 8 of their 20 games are against teams with losing records.
The team is relatively injury free for now and don’t have to incorporate any new pieces. Plus Paul George could very well return later this month to give the team a spark, even if he’s not going to be the same player.
Hollinger’s playoff odds say the Pacers current;y have a 70.9% of making it, with Charlotte carrying a 51.2% chance and Miami a 34.2% chance.
If the Pacers do make the playoffs as the 7th seed, they’ll likely face LeBron and the Cavaliers in the first round. The Cavs are currently in 6th place but have the same record as the Bulls and will likely leapfrog them into 2nd given all the injury woes in Chicago. Toronto and Washington have both dropped off and don’t look like they’ll catch up.
If the Pacers fall to the 8th seed, then they’ll be playing Atlanta in a rematch of last year’s first round series (won by the Pacers in 7), except this time the Hawks will be the 1st seed.
To be honest, even with a healthy Paul George, I don’t favor the Pacers’ chances in either of those series. The question, therefore, is whether the Pacers could possibly even make a run for the 6th seed, which looks like it’s Milwaukee’s to lose. The Bucks have a full 5-game lead on the Pacers, so the odds of being overtaken are close to zero, though with 20 games still left to play anything is possible. If the Pacers can win both their remaining games against the Bucks — one home. one away — then things could get very interesting.
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