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They say Rome wasn’t built in a day. It was built, however.
It’s important to remember that sports isn’t dating, so first impressions don’t mean everything … and often, they mean jack squat. The Indiana Pacers hope so, anyway.
Indiana starts off 0-1 after a woebegone loss to the Toronto Raptors, entering a season as maybe the league’s hardest to predict team. After all, this was a group gutted by defection, chemistry issues, and then injury last season when Paul George … who was a top 10 player in the league when he went down … played only six games.
Still, the Pacers game within the final week of a playoff berth in what was honestly one of the more inspiring team stories over the course of the season, sort of like in “Free Willy” where the whale finally makes it out to sea, only the final scene is one where he gets harpooned by fishermen.
Early on, the new look Pacers looked good. The team clearly made the transformation from slow, plodding, half-court outfit to one with a smaller lineup, willing and able to run and needing to do so. Roy Hibbert and David West, who treated hustling back on defense the way someone working a double shift for no extra pay would on a nightly basis, were gone.
The defense seemed alive. George was hooking to the hoop hard like a man fully mentally over the fact that he had a leg injury, and the team was getting open shots they simply weren’t last season. Everything seemed like a scene from “Hostel” when it came to offense for the Pacers.
They’d lead at halftime by eight but lose it, as the game got significantly more physical and the Pacers’ inability to rebound consistently or find points in the paint with the back to the basket were intensified.
The issues projected were the issues manifested, with newly acquired Jordan Hill having a flaccid eight points and eight rebounds but countless gaffes on both ends, and Ian Mahinmi with 10 and eight, but being the foul machine someone who’s a career backup thrust into a starter’s role usually is.
Toronto ate well inside, taking advantage of bad big man footwork and plenty of unnecessary reaching. On offense, the Pacers simply went cold once Toronto found ways to get back and be physical.
This wasn’t going to be a totally seamless transition, but there are positives for Indiana. For one, Toronto is likely a top four team in the east. It’s not like they were going on the road against the New Hampshire School of Culinary Arts … or the Sacramento Kings.
George looks fully healthy and aggressive, in spite of his woeful under 30 percent shooting night. The Pacers got open shots, just couldn’t hit enough of them. Getting them and missing them is easier to look at on film and correct than not getting them at all.
Not that coach Frank Vogel is going to take my advice, but those young fellas (Myles Turner, Joseph Young) drafted this past year who tore it up in the Summer League are actually allowed to play live minutes in the regular season. Just throwing that out there.
There’s much work to be done, but this team feels like it has a little more heartbeat in it than last year’s version. The Pacers will be in the mix for a home court first round game, whether you see it tonight or not.
