The Indiana Pacers have been one of the top defensive teams in the NBA in the past few seasons, including this season. As of late though, the Pacers defense has not been playing well lately though. To start, last night James Harden scored 44 points on them. The loss to the Rockets last night was the Pacers sixth loss in a row, and the problems right now are the defense. They have had many defensive flaws as of late, and Harden was clearly able to show them to everyone.
The Pacers’ defensive minded center, Roy Hibbert, spoke on the Pacers bad defense as of late. Candace Buckner from the Indianapolis Star wrote ,
“The Pacers are sliding because their defense is declining. On Saturday, they allowed the Brooklyn Nets to hit a 61.3 field-goal accuracy, the highest allowed by a Pacers team ever. The past five games, four opponents have reached the 100-point mark and over that stretch, the Pacers have averaged 22.2 personal fouls per game, seventh highest among their peers.
‘I’m going to give you a real answer, not a (B.S.) answer,’ Roy Hibbert said, before offering his opinion on what has been ailing the defense. ‘I think that sometimes we take the easy way out.’
‘In the years past, we’ve been able to earn no calls and get stops,’ Hibbert continued, ‘and I think the easier way out has been to foul, myself included. I haven’t done a good job guarding my own man and sometimes my help rotation is not as good as it has been. Sometimes we foul and that’s what’s leading the guys to shoot a lot of free throw.'”
The Pacers big man is clearly unhappy. The Pacers need a turnaround on defense, and Paul George is expected to return this season, and being the defensive standout he is, the Pacers defense should be revitalized and play much better defensively whenever Paul George is going to return.
Right now the Pacers are 1 game out of the playoffs. They need to turn it around in order to beat out the other teams looking to be that 8 seed. Right now there is 4 teams fighting for that spot. Either Paul George needs to come back sooner, or these Pacers need to turn around their defense to make the playoffs.
