Essentials
- Teams: Detroit Pistons (14-25) at Indiana Pacers (15-25)
- Date: January 16
- Time: 7:00 p.m.
- Television: FSD
Get in the Game
The Detroit Pistons will be in the heartland of basketball tonight to take on an Indiana Pacers team that continues to follow the lead of head coach Frank Vogel.
There’s something to be said about the fact that Indiana lost Paul George (broken leg) and Lance Stephenson (free agency), and yet the Pacers have stuck to their identity. Keep in mind, few teams if any can recover from the loss of its top-two players and come out of the fire unscathed.
Think of the Cleveland Cavaliers when LeBron James left during the 2010 offseason, and the Orlando Magic after trading away Dwight Howard in the 2012 summer. It took multiple seasons for these teams to recover after losing one player and the Pacers doubled down on losses.
George was the team’s best two-way player and an emerging force on a team that finished the 2013-14 campaign with the top record in the Eastern Conference.
Stephenson was perhaps a bit off as a teammate, but his playmaking gave Indiana a slight twist of unpredictability, which in turn gave a poor offense just enough life to outpace teams with its dominant defense.
Naturally, the absence of the perimeter tandem makes for a disastrous scenario for the Pacers, and a sub-.500 record certainly qualifies. Still, Indiana fights for a playoff spot – the Eastern Conference never ceases to amaze – amid a regular season that hasn’t produced a terrifying anticipated outcome.
The Pacers are still awful offensively, as evidenced by their next to last ranking in offensive efficiency. Scoring is always going to be a difficult task for Indiana by virtue of the talent at its disposal coupled with the emphasis on defense.
Despite the absence of George, the Pacers boast a top-10 defense thanks in large part to a fairly simplistic scheme that forces the action in Roy Hibbert’s direction. He’s as good as it gets in terms mind games within the painted area. Hibbert wants opponents to challenge him at the rim, because the verticality rule belongs to him.
Call it the Hibbert Effect.
Opponents switch up their shots and ultimately miss whenever he is in the vicinity, and the Pacers happily enjoy the rewards of Hibbert’s labor.
That’s how the Pacers manage to remain competitive despite a glaring lack of talent on its roster. It’s worth noting, it takes near maximum effort on a per-possession basis in order to consistently get that defense operating at a high level, and that’s exactly what Indiana accomplishes in the face of a rather trying season.
Give their coaching staff some credit, because it’s giving the Pacers a puncher’s chance, something very few thought they had coming into the season.
Read about the Pacers