Playoff Preview: Pacers face pressures of proving progress
By CHRIS GOFF
ISL Correspondent
Paul George needed only a nanosecond to answer the question.
Given last season’s trip to the Eastern Conference semifinals, he was asked, ought not these Pacers be expected to advance past the second round?
“We should,” he said, making eye contact.
And therein lies a new way of life for a team just two years removed from rebuilding.
Once a franchise knocks on the door of elite status in the NBA, solid regular seasons are not enough, and that’s where George and the Indiana Pacers find themselves as their latest postseason trek commences Sunday against the Atlanta Hawks.
The Pacers start the playoffs in a position that seemed every bit their destiny in October. They are the East’s No. 3 seed, a 49-32 team – with a similar winning percentage as the 2011-12 team that tested Miami – starting a best-of-seven series in which they are heavily favored to dispatch Atlanta, which lost key contributors Lou Williams and Zaza Pachulia to season-ending surgeries.
Noted for their offensive balance, the Pacers struck a balance between two priorities when they lost a crucial piece of their own this season. Leading scorer Danny Granger unexpectedly participated in just five games, forcing the team to let future star George grow up fast while remaining competitive in the present. In a manner even the eternal optimist had trouble envisioning, George mastered all tasks, and the future became the present, with a gain instead of a drop-off.
Quite publicly, the Pacers believed they were a conference title contender when they began training camp, saying as much even with unknowns such as George Hill’s transition to full-time point guard, Gerald Green’s major role in lieu of flashier offseason additions and the development of third-year players George and Lance Stephenson.
Internally, the Pacers were resolved to prove that last season’s playoff showing was not a fluke, that they weren’t going away and hadn’t hit their ceiling.
The funny thing about expectations is that they only harden when theory becomes reality. Most pundits saw Indiana as repeating with a high playoff seed. Now that one vision came to fruition, the Pacers go to work on another: predictions of a deeper playoff run. And they endorse the burden.
“The chemistry is much better this year,” Tyler Hansbrough said. “Last year (David) West came in off an injury and this year everyone’s much more used to his game. You have PG’s growth into an All-Star. And also Roy (Hibbert) is back in his form where he’s doing everything.”
Bobbing his head, ever in twitching motion, Hansbrough emphasizes how much he likes their chances.
“We’re very ready,” he said. “We’re not just trying to make a deep run. We feel we got our feet wet last year. For us we’re trying to win.”
Championship talk is not over-the-top brash for a team that started and ended the season cold but warmed the middle with searing desert heat.
Remember, the Pacers gave new contracts to Hill and Hibbert, mid-20s starters, to be mainstays of a core that management believed could win. They justified big money with their play. Hibbert rivaled any defender in the league. Hill was the team’s top passer and best outside shooter. Confidence in the cause understandably followed suit once that duo produced.
Now come the bright lights, and with them real opportunity. Not that the second season doesn’t carry its own challenges.
“It’s more physical,” George said. “The intensity is higher. The room for error is much smaller. Every possession counts and everybody is locked in to what everybody else does. It’s another level of being scouted. It’s going to take that much more focus.”
Hansbrough said it’s easy for the muscles and mind to grow tense in the playoffs.
“The atmosphere is honestly where there’s no easy play,” he said. “Nobody takes a play off. You know everybody’s watching on the big stage.”
Whether Indiana beats the Hawks – the best-of-seven starts at 1 p.m. Sunday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse – depends on how its defense, which allows the fewest points per possession in the NBA, can recover from April flounders to give Indiana May staying powers.
“We’ve got to take pride in our one-on-one matchups,” West said. “We’ve got to draw a line in terms of what we’re going to give up. It’s going to be a tough first-round series. But winning cures all.”
From Josh Smith, to the looming specters of Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James, big, quick athletes dot the Pacers’ path to the Finals, and no doubt exists over who will do the sparring.
“I know I’m going to guard the best player,” George said. “My mind is already wrapped over that. I’ll just try to shut them down.”
Question is, can George sweat and hustle and bang and leap on defense for 42 minutes and still post his team-leading 17.4 points per game? At age 22, an enormous burden rests on George’s broad shoulders for the first time in the playoffs.
“Whatever my job is, I’m up for it,” he said with a shrug. “I’m going to have to be an offensive threat and a defensive stopper.”
They make it sound so easy, these Pacers. Is a competitive rematch with the Heat truly in the cards? A press secretary would direct you to the Optimist-in-Chief, coach Frank Vogel.
“I like how complete we are,” he said. “Turnovers we’ve gotten under control. Our rebounding is solid. They play for each other. I like our guts and determination. Last year was a big help.”
Vogel’s one caveat: Even with three consecutive playoff berths, these aren’t the Boston Celtics in terms of seasoning.
“Our playoff experience is a little thin,” he said. “Teams with the Anthony’s and the James’s and the (Kevin) Garnetts are a lot further along.”
But as Vogel well knows, the Pacers have not advanced past the second round since 2004, and after the recent postseason exploits of the kiddies in Oklahoma City, experience is never an excuse in the face of fulfilling people’s reasonable anticipation.
After the proud milestone of a division title and months of suffocating defense, the Pacers are ready for whatever comes their way in the next few weeks, knowing that the 2013 playoffs call for a long stay to legitimize a franchise’s persistent drive back to prominence.
“We took another step forward,” George said. “We gained another year of experience. We’ve been battle-tested playing the Miami Heat. We should have high expectations.”
