Back on January 23rd the Indiana Pacers were the third seed in the East and looking like a they would be a serious problem for boyz to deal with come playoff time. Then all of a sudden Victor Oladipo’s leg buckled in the second quarter against Toronto and the outlook in Indiana changed drastically.
Ole boy ruptured his right quad tendon and would be out for the remainder of the season. At that moment everybody and their baby’s momma, Uncle LeRoy and cousin Man-Man thought that the Pacers season would be shot without their All-Star shooting guard.
The following morning I was asking the legitimate question “where are they going to get the leadership from to finish the season competitively? Who’s going to step up and give them the confidence they’re going to desperately need to get through?”
Well playas…cats like Bojan Bogdanovic stepped up and was the consistent scorer the rest of the way. They added Wesley Matthews to start in place of Oladipo and he did well, Myles Turner led the league in blocks and Thaddeus Young gave them the leadership to survive.
So when the smoke cleared at the end of the regular season they were the fifth seed behind Boston and here we are in the playoffs. Key word!!! PLAYOFFS!!! Now that they’re in the playoffs it’s an entirely different animal. The leadership and confidence that Oladipo brought to the table is surely being missed at this point.
They were able to put a band aid on it during the regular season but there are critical times during these playoff games that a veteran superstar is needed. In Game 1 Indiana went on a scoring drought in the third quarter and got ran out of the gym. In Game 2 the offense jumped out of the ride or seemingly got pushed out of the car like Ole Eddie Kane Jr. in the fourth quarter.
At some point we all knew that the absence of Oladipo would rear it’s ugly head but not like this. Indiana was clearly the aggressor in both games but the wheels fell off down the stretch and nobody could seem to find them.
Now down 0-2 in a series that would have been winnable had Vic still been healthy is a serious problem. Now they’ve got to figure out how to win the next two games at the crib to give them any chance of advancing. Lose one of them and it’s a wrap. Their backs are against the wall at this point. Now wrong turns or slip-ups. Stop me when I start lyin’!