April is Go-Time for the Pacers
By TYLER SMITH (@TylerSmith_ISL)
ISL Editor
INDIANAPOLIS — It’s resurrection season, and the Indiana Pacers hope that sentiment rings true for their season as well. They need a fresh start after a brutal month of March. It was their first losing month since December of last season.
The calendar has turned to a new month, and it’s go-time.
Five games remain, and the Pacers are tied in the standings with Boston for the No. 4-seed in the East. Boston will own the tie-breaker, so Indiana needs to be a game on top in order to secure home-court advantage.
Here’s the bad news- The Pacers have missed huge opportunities in the last few games against Boston and Orlando.
Here’s the good news- They still control their own destiny, and the Pacers have been good in April under Head Coach Nate McMillan.
In the last two seasons, the Pacers have gone 8-3 in the month of April to close out the regular season, (not including the one game where the Pacers rested everybody.) They did have Paul George one season and Victor Oladipo the next to help win those games. But it should at least give Pacer fans some hope that they’ve responded down the stretch before in the last few years.
“We’ve got to get tougher,” said Darren Collison. “If we’re able to cut down on some of these mistakes in the fourth quarter of games, we’ll be fine. You have to be mentally tough to withstand these obstacles. If you can’t, you don’t belong in the NBA.”
Nate McMillan added: “We have to keep working- try to work our way out of this thing. That’s all you can do.”
Here’s how things look in the Eastern Conference with just a handful of games remaining-
Not only do the Pacers host the Celtics on Friday night, but they play the Pistons twice in a row this week, while the Celtics play Miami twice. The Pacers will also play the Nets on Sunday. All of these teams are battling for their playoff or seeding lives.
Will the Pacers keep fading, or will they put March behind them and rise to the challenge? We will soon find out.
