Let’s make room in the Nba Buzz Machine for a dignified and neglected team playing some of the best basketballs through the League right now.
Yes, the Pistons de Detroit are the hottest team of the game. The riders reaffirmed themselves as an elite force to the east and beyond. The Lakers were on fire, even before acquiring Luka Dončiċ on the deadline for exchanges, and the Warriors have gathered in a groove since their own addition of the trade in the trade of a Jimmy Butler. Even Denver’s Nuggets do things from Denver Nuggets, after finding the form that recalls their 2023 Nba Championship run.
But it is the Indiana Pacers, too often ignored and undervalued, who deserve serious respect.
Let’s start with their recent history. Unlike all the teams mentioned above, they come out of a conference final place in last year’s qualifiers. And it turns out that the experience is important: few teams go from the playoffs after the fact to a real competitor in a single season, and races like the Pacers carried out last year are often the constituent elements of the big things to come.
They also have the right songs to be worthy of a little respect. Pascal Siakam is a proven winner, an NBA champion and a reliable star. He may not have the offensive and breathtaking performance of a Donovan Mitchell or the catchy nickname of a bucket of Jimmy, but he has a real NBA title on his CV. It is a coherent, solid and reliable star who, like hers, does not always obtain the shine of his talents.
Tyrese Haliburton has shown lightning of being the kind of potential superstar that we associate with the pretenders of the NBA, and Myles Turner could be one of the most underestimated players in the game. Ditto for their head coach Rick Carlisle, a champion himself.
There are also the uncertainties of some of the Eastern teams who are not called Cleveland Cavaliers or Boston Celtics. New York Knicks, darling from this city and jealousy kept by their fans and media allies, still have real worried and disturbing faults. Their defense is poor and, when you classify the NBA defenses against the first 10 offenses, New York is downright horrible.
The Milwaukee Bucks have as many talents as questions and a head coach with a history of underperformance in the playoffs.
The rest of the East is a combination of question points and also of Rans: the Magic Orlando with an offensive challenge, the post-with flickering Miami Heat, the Hawks of Atlanta from top to bottom, the bad but-mon-time in the game of Chicago Bulls and a team of 76ers which seems that hell on the claim of this season is somewhat saving. This is not the case.
But the main argument for the Pacers is their game recently, just as convincing as most of the other “hottest teams” of the NBA obtaining more love, attention and buzz.
Since mid-December, when Indiana was 10-15 years old and an unhappy game team, they have been phenomenal-if they are ignored. They have gone from 23-9 since December 13, the third best NBA record on this section, with only Oklahoma City Thunder and the riders in front of them.
They are also the seventh best offense during this period – no surprise for an offensive team of the top 10 this season – but, more importantly, much better in defense: ninth in defensive note, by putting them, on a sample size of 32 games, as an offensive and defensive team of the TOP 10, key indicator of the viability of the qualifiers.
That they are very good in attack is not a surprise. That they are also great in late defensive should not be.
The NBA media and fans’ ecosystem often operates in an echo room, fueled by NBA Twitter’s trend to self-renfree, and the propensity of NBA media members to worry, to make fun, to ostracize.
The stories count in the league, and for a good reason: Luka The Laker, the Jimmy qualifiers teamed up with Steph, during nest a trade in Golden State, Nikola Jokiċ and his team finding their groove, the pistons ending in shape after years of brutally bad – they are interesting and worthy stuff.
But that sometimes leaves teams that are not as interesting, sexy, or convincing out of the neglected field. Often these teams are far from the coasts and their main media. Often they are exactly like the Indiana Pacers.
This team made the final of the conference last year. They are one of the hottest teams of the game right now, on a section large enough to be a model, not a statistical blip. And, in the fourth row of the Eastern Conference, they do not look at a kind of hope for the longshot qualifiers (even if the Oddsmakers always have them as an outsider of 40 to 1 to win the east).
Put them on your list of teams to watch and take seriously. They won it again.
