The Chicago Bulls were dead to rights Tuesday night. Losers of four straight, including two to the languishing Knicks and one to the perpetually awful Orlando Magic, they trailed the Indiana Pacers in their home gym late in spite of easily putting in more physical effort over the course of the game.
At three games behind the Pacers and Detroit Pistons, staring down the barrel at four, they were the portrait of disappointment. Then, the Pacers remembered who they’ve been all season, a cluster (bad word) of mixed effort, bumbling in-game decision-making, and an obtuse rotation that has screamed mediocrity since opening night.
The hard truth is, if the Pacers, now in the eighth seed, flop out of the playoffs, it might be time for wholesale changes. That may look like a little classic hyperbole and over-reaction, but this team was built in the off season to alleviate the plodding, lousy effort-ing group that once pushed the Miami Heat at the top of the Eastern Conference.
Then, they just turned into an amalgamation of guys that didn’t like each other, and didn’t seem to like basketball all that much either way.
Out went malcontent Roy Hibbert and occasionally-into-the-game David West, and before that, Lance Stephenson. This year’s roster wasn’t purported to contend for the Eastern Conference title. Not after so many changes not only in roster but in scheme. But the players, regardless of the names on the back of the jerseys, just seem to come to Indiana and have no fight in them.
That means there needs to be a leadership change, either on the sidelines or on the court. Normally, these things in the NBA end up crucifying the coach rather than the players. It’s easier to find another NBA coach than it is to find another Paul George or whomever is the designated franchise player.
Multiple times as the Bulls tripped over themselves trying to win but not knowing how, like someone who realizes they’ve locked their keys in their car and is frantically trying to find anything that makes sense to help them unlock it.
Yet, there were the Pacers, three, sometimes even four of them, ball watching as a Bull swooped in for an offensive rebound. At one point, the Pacers took a 93-92 lead and as they love to do, stopped playing with any remote piss and vinegar about them.
Four possessions the Bulls went hollow. Four mid to long range jump shots, nothing going to the basket.
It’s easy to say with all of the change over the last few years that this is just a symptom, but at this point for the Pacers, it’s become the culture. It seems long ago that they were the plucky bunch everyone rooted for to knock off the Heat. The culture there for the past three years has been one of limited effort, rehearsed statements about losing and being disappointed, and guys that look like they’re going through the motions.
So what should they do? Do you stick with it and say, “these were a lot of changes in one year. What could you reasonably expect?” Well, you can reasonably expect better play in close games. You can reasonably expect that when the local broadcasters that do Pacer games on Fox Sports Midwest are calling out what the Bulls are about to run on their game-winning play and then that player gets the ball for an open 10-footer, that something’s rotten.
Ty Lawson would have been a good pick up, mostly because he’s the only true 1 on the roster, but the Pacers’ staff oddly seems content refusing to play him down the stretch in spite of his decent play. Why? Monta Ellis and George Hill in that spot look as awkward as asking a hipster to frame a basement.
Lawson, since joining the Pacers, is shooting 50 percent from the field and from three-point range. Could he not help? It’s another in a long, vexing line of rotation maneuvers over the last several years, including the disaster that was Evan Turner, the refusal to bench Roy Hibbert until the season was on Orange Alert, and the continued off-season inability to get a true point guard on the roster.
Frank Vogel, though, is Teflon for the most part, probably in part because he’s always gracious to the media. So it’s always someone else’s fault, or so it seems. It’s entirely puzzling, still, why Vogel won’t put the guys on the floor that give the team the best chance to win.
This has seemingly been a constant issue, whether it was the lack of time for Lavoy Allen last year, or the aforementioned Hibbert snafoo.
Against the Nets about a week ago, late, Vogel continued to leave Jordan Hill in the game in spite of the fact that Brook Lopez was treating him like hedge clippers do to bushes. Why the reluctance to mix it up? Rarely will he get called on it, however, it seems.
The aforementioned George has been no better, looking like he’s a top five player one night, and looking disinterested and on a “bad jump shot” quota that he needs to hit to get a bonus. Worse yet, his defense has been sub-par by his standards.
In spite of being gifted an embarrassingly easy schedule down the stretch in a playoff chase, the Pacers have continued to tinkle down their collective legs with ambivalence, and questionable decision making on the court and off.
Get Ty Lawson in more; stop getting out hustled every other game, badly; and start taking the ball to the hoop.
Otherwise, someone needs to start handing out walking papers, long sooner than probably anticipated.
