That’s what happens when your team is decimated by injuries. They fight hard, and on some nights it’s enough, and on others, when the effort is not there, they get smashed.
Exhibit A, the Indiana Pacers over the last couple of games. First up, they head to Miami after snapping a 6-game losing streak against Utah, and shock everyone by downing the Heat 81-75 in impressive fashion, grabbing their first road win of the season. The Pacers just played harder than the Heat, hustling on defense, diving for loose balls and crashing the glass with relentlessness . The rebounding edge of 53-28. They shot just 37.5% from the field and committed 15 turnovers, both worse than the Heat, and yet they managed to pull out the victory.
Then, with a chance to string together a 3-game winning streak, the Pacers head home to Indiana, only to be embarrassed by the Denver Nuggets in a 108-87 blowout. That turned out to be the Nuggets’ first road of the season. Maybe it was tired legs with so many inexperienced guys playing so many minutes, or maybe they just ran out of gas in the emotion tank. Either way, games like this are bound to happen when the top half of the team isn’t playing.
By the way, CJ Miles returned from injury against the Nuggets only to hurt his calf in the first half. Not clear how long he’ll be out.
Now, the 3-7 Pacers head to Chicago to face a scary Bulls team, though they catch a break as Derrick Rose remains out with yet another injury of his own. The Pacers have shown that they can compete with the good teams, and sometimes even beat them if the stars align, but before guys like David West, George Hill and CJ Watson get back it’s going to be a nightly struggle to earn respect.
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