The 2024-25 Pacers are among the many few groups in NBA historical past to make a deep playoff run with no designated No. 1 scoring possibility. They’ve had Aaron Nesmith, Myles Turner, Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam take turns taking part in hero, with every scoring 20 or extra in a number of video games.
Remarkably, the Pacers have 5 gamers averaging no less than 14.0 factors, and one other three giving them over 8.0 by means of 13 playoff video games. They’re the primary workforce for the reason that 1991-92 Blazers to have their starters rating 10 or extra factors in eight completely different playoff video games.
Indiana’s equal-opportunity offense could be a curse, simply as a lot as a blessing. In Sunday’s Recreation 3, for instance, the offense stagnated within the fourth quarter when six gamers tried a mixed 19 pictures, a technique that will have prevented any of them from catching hearth.
Throughout their wins in Video games 1 and a couple of, Nesmith (20 factors) and Siakam (13 factors) took over down the stretch, with Haliburton pushing the tempo. Nonetheless, most of their pictures have been throughout the movement of the offense. There weren’t many situations of both going ISO, a talent set Charles Barkley believes the Pacers have to probably win an NBA title.
“The Pacers aren’t going to beat you in the event that they play a half-court recreation,” Barkley mentioned after Recreation 3. “Their offense isn’t that good. They do not [have players] who can take over. They must get out and run.”
To Barkley’s level, Siakam, Indiana’s main scorer, is averaging just one.8 ISO factors within the playoffs, considerably decrease than Jalen Brunson (5.6), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (5.5) and Anthony Edwards (5.3).
The aforementioned 1991-92 Blazers made an identical Cinderella playoff run earlier than working into the Bulls within the NBA Finals. These Blazers, too, had six gamers averaging double-digit factors, however their equal-opportunity offense was finally no match for Michael Jordan’s solo greatness.
One wonders if the identical destiny will befall these Pacers.
If these Pacers go the gap, they’d be bucking a pattern and presumably paving the best way for extra groups to embrace an equal-opportunity offense. The 2003-04 Pistons have been the final to seize the NBA title with no famous person scorer, however their superpower was protection.
