The Indiana Pacers gave the Miami Heat a run for their money in the postseason last year, coming within a single win of the NBA Finals, and are now the sexy pick to make it to the NBA Finals out of the East this year. <\/p>\n
Indiana Pacers
\nEastern Conference
\n2012-2013 Record: 49-32
\nOdds to win title: 10 to 1
\nOdds to win conference: 5 to 1 from [dfads params=’groups=63740&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\nIndiana Pacers<\/strong><\/p>\n
Team Page<\/a> | Past Results<\/a> | Remaining Schedule<\/a> | Player Stats<\/a> | Player Roster<\/a><\/div>\nKey Losses<\/h3>\n
Tyler Hansbrough \u2013 Hansbrough brought a heck of a motor night in and night out for the Pacers in his time in Indiana, but he\u2019s gone now and the team will have to get its energy from somewhere else.<\/p>\n
Check out our in-house Handicapper!!! Buy Razor Ray’s NBA Season Package Today!<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n
D.J. Augustin \u2013 Augustin took a big step forward in Indiana after a poor start to his career with Charlotte.<\/p>\n
Top Newcomers<\/h3>\n
Luis Scola \u2013 One of the more underrated players in basketball, Scola can create offense from the low post while rebounding well and playing good defense. He\u2019ll be a strong asset off the bench.<\/p>\n
Chris Copeland \u2013 Copeland won\u2019t get as many chances to shoot from beyond the arc in Indiana as he did in New York, but his ability to stretch the floor is something Indiana sorely lacked last season.<\/p>\n
C.J. Watson \u2013 Watson is another player that doesn\u2019t get the credit he deserves. He\u2019ll get a chance to show off his skills filling in for Augustin at the point.<\/p>\n
Top Players<\/h3>\n
Paul George moved climbed into the elite ranks with his outstanding performance in the playoffs last season, going nose-to-nose with LeBron James. He won\u2019t be able to catch anyone by surprise after that performance, but expect him to remain in the elite ranks. Roy Hibbert and David West have established themselves as one of the better big-men combos in the Association. Getting Danny Granger back at full strength will be a tremendous boon. [ad-6571516]<\/p>\n
Strengths<\/h3>\n
The Pacers were the best defensive team in basketball last season. Getting better at the other end was a priority over the summer and they did that. The team greatly improved their bench in the offseason with the additions of Scola and Copeland.<\/p>\n
Weaknesses<\/h3>\n
Considering they made it to the final four last season, the Pacers really struggled to score points, finishing 23rd in the NBA in points per game. Getting back Danny Granger will help, as do the new additions off the bench, but they may not climb the ranks all that much given their pace of play.<\/p>\n
2013-14 Prediction: 52-30<\/h3>\n
The Pacers again appear poised to make a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals, even if that means getting knocked out by the Heat again. LeBron James still remains between them and the NBA Finals, but there aren\u2019t many more obstacles for them to get past in the East, so a trip to the semifinals is all but a lock.<\/p>\n
How effectively they can transition Danny Granger back into the lineup will determine how well they perform in the regular season, as will the effectiveness of their new weapons on the bench. Scoring points may not be a top priority though, particularly if they can play the type of smothering defense that they demonstrated a year ago.<\/p>\n
Roy Hibbert is a strong candidate for defensive player of the year, while Danny Granger could make some noise for Sixth Man of the Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Indiana Pacers Season Preview \u2013 NBA Predictions The Indiana Pacers gave the Miami Heat a run for their money in the postseason last year, coming within a single win of the NBA Finals, and are now the sexy pick to make it to the NBA Finals out of the East this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":976,"featured_media":68026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[53103,2160,2443,66499,3925,22399],"class_list":["post-67893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-53103","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-nba","tag-nba-predictions","tag-pacers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/976"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67893"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68028,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67893\/revisions\/68028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}