Tag: Indiana Pacers
Pacers Tuesday

See, I Told You So About Malcolm Brogdon and the Pacers

- by Fox Doucette

Last week, in this weekly Indiana basketball portion of your Pace and Space program, I spoke at some length about the importance of Malcolm Brogdon to the well-being of the Indiana Pacers. And it just so happens that I tend to decide on an angle for this column around the time the Pacers play a game on a Sunday or Monday night before this feature runs. And this Monday, against the Joel Embiid-less Philadelphia 76ers, your President and mine showed out to the tune of 21 points (despite 5-of-15 shooting, thanks to an 8-of-9 night at the line and 3-of-6 …

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Pacers Tuesday

The Indiana Pacers Without Malcolm Brogdon Are a Mess

- by Fox Doucette - 1 Comment

The Indiana Pacers are losers of five of their last eight games, including a couple of awful losses to the 8-29 Hawks and (in a blowout) the 12-25 Pelicans. Not coincidentally, Malcolm Brogdon has missed six of the last seven games, and the seventh was a decisive 18-point victory over Philadelphia in which Brogdon was ineffective (five missed shots and two assists in eight minutes before leaving with an aggravation of his injury.) Without Brogdon this season (10 of the team’s 37 games), the Pacers are just 5-5, and that once again includes getting destroyed by an awful Pelicans team. …

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Pacers Tuesday

Where Are the 2015-16 Indiana Pacers in 2020?

- by Fox Doucette

As the 2010s draw to a close, it is perhaps instructive to think about just how much can change in four short years, as in the four years since Pace and Space first launched on our old webhost (which sadly lost the Year 1 archive in a server wipe, one reason this has been on the current WordPress server since 2017), my favorite team has gone through so much roster upheaval that only one player from that debut season’s team—Myles Turner, who was a rookie—is still in the blue and gold. Some Pacers left under poor circumstances, and by “some …

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Pacers Tuesday

Are the Indiana Pacers Really “Without Their Best Player”?

- by Fox Doucette

As the NBA tips off its Christmas Day games Wednesday, the Indiana Pacers are 21-10, sixth in the Eastern Conference, just one game behind second-place Boston in the standings, all “without their best player having played one second,” as just about all of Pacers Twitter has said in some form or fashion. Indiana owns wins over the Celtics, Lakers, and Raptors in just the last two weeks alone. Sure, they’ve been thumped by double digits by the Bucks (twice) and Clippers, but c’mon, that just means they lost to the favorites to make up the 2020 NBA Finals. Of course …

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Pacers Tuesday

The 19-9 Indiana Pacers Are Passing the Good Teams Test

- by Fox Doucette

For the observant, Pacers “Tuesday” is once again running on Wednesday this week. The difference is that this week, it’s because how this column was going to turn out was in the balance right up until Domantas Sabonis made a free throw to put the Pacers up 3, good defense forced a bad shot on the ensuing possession, and Indiana beat the freaking Los Angeles Lakers 105-102 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, sending LeBron James and his jolly band of mercenaries back to Tinseltown with their delusional Twitter following brim-full of excuses as they learn for the first time that you …

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Pacers Tuesday

Pacers Fans and Paul George: A Win-Win

- by Fox Doucette

The Los Angeles Clippers went into Bankers Life Fieldhouse and spanked the Indiana Pacers 110-99 in front of a bunch of fans still bitter over the OG Anthony Davis situation that was the drama involving Paul George forcing his way out of town after the 2017 season. George erupted for 36 points on 10-of-26 shooting after a rough start, hitting 7-of-16 from long range and posting a game-high plus-20 during his 36 minutes on the floor, showing the NBA in the process that the “load management” of Kawhi Leonard doesn’t look like any more of a liability for the 2nd-in-the-West …

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Pacers Tuesday

Myles Turner Vs. the Filthy Casuals

- by Fox Doucette

One of the problems with social media is it gives an equal forum to experts and idiots, watering down the discussion and often drowning out nuanced discussion with the bleating of Orwellian sheep. And while the first thing one might immediately think of is politics and “the death of democracy” (how’s that for irony when the idea is to give everyone a voice?), sports suffer from it far more insidiously. Take Myles Turner for example. The Indiana Pacers standout is averaging 12.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 31.1 minutes per game, causing a certain subset of Pacers Twitter …

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Pacers Tuesday

Indiana Pacers: By the Numbers Through 16 Games

- by Fox Doucette

The Thanksgiving holiday is fast approaching, and before we all head out on congested roads for plywood turkey, salmonella stuffing, that uncle that nobody can stand any of the other 364 days of the year, and riots masquerading as commerce on Black Friday, let us take a moment to examine whether the Indiana Pacers, at 10-6 following a win Monday over the Memphis Grizzlies, are overwhelming, underwhelming, or merely whelming statistically. Pardon my lack of my normal erudition in this space; I work back office for a retailer and it’s been my job to make sure the point of sale …

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Pacers Tuesday

How Well Do the Indiana Pacers Force Other Teams Into Bad Shots?

- by Fox Doucette

On Sunday in this space, I introduced the D’Antoni Index, a stat that combines three hallmarks of efficient basketball—3-pointers, shots near the rim, and free throws—into one handy stat that can be compared team to team and game to game against either a team itself (do they improve during the season?) or against the league (by using league average as the “index” part of the stat’s name.) The worst team in the league for D’Antoni Index is, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, the Indiana Pacers, one reason the #FireNate chants echo across Twitter every time the Pacers lose a …

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Pacers Tuesday

Don’t Let the Indiana Pacers’ 7-4 Start Fool You. They Have Major Issues.

- by Fox Doucette

The Indiana Pacers have started this season 7-4 after clobbering the Oklahoma City Thunder 111-85 on Tuesday night. They have won seven of eight after starting the season 0-3, Domantas Sabonis has been in beast mode ever since Myles Turner got hurt, and Malcolm Brogdon has emerged as a genuine All-Star-caliber player now that he’s out of the shadow of Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee. Everything should be sunshine and lollipops, especially with Victor Oladipo engaging in full court practice with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants squad today, right? Wrong. Because behind that 7-4 facade is an edifice that isn’t on …

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