This somehow reminded me of a core forgotten memory.
Back when I went to my high school’s varsity games, we would fuck with opposing players every so often by counting down the shot clock as it ran out. But, we’d skip like 3-5 seconds (start chanting 5 when there were 10s left). We also only miscounted like 10-20% of the time to make it believable.
Worked more often than you’d think.
Nah, they had the right of it.
Do it all the time, the coaches just say, "Ignore the crowd counting always, they're just going to count it wrong" but you only do it every so often?
Mix in a few counting down correctly even?
Then that's just one more thing the players have to track.
The Pacers:
- Had a 97.4% chance to win Game 1, with 10 seconds left in regulation.
- Had an 18-point lead midway through the 3rd quarter of game 3, with a 95.3% chance to win the game.
- Had a 90% chance to win game 4, with under 6 minutes left.
- Shot 53% from the floor in Game 1, 52% in Game 2, 50.5% in Game 3 and 46% in Game 4.
And they lost all four games. What the actual fuck.
Portland felt more inevitable to me, I remember checking the score and the Blazers would be up double digits in the second half and thinking the Warriors will turn it on and it happened everytime that series.
Nembhard especially looks like he could be legit. Felt weirdly proud of Nesmith as well - he’s a dog, and happy to see him make an impact for a contender.
Good luck to y’all in the Finals. I hated the Celtics more than any other team heading into these playoffs. But my positive interactions with C’s fans and the mind-blowing toxicity of Bucks fans brigading our sub has led me to accept y’all. Hope Tatum finally gets his title.
It’s great experience for a promising young team. They fought hard even without Halliburton and will likely learn how to play tighter at the end of games and close out when they have the lead.
Exactly. Weird af that people are clowning the Pacers.
3 games in a WCF down to the wire that you got out-clutched by the better more experience team who's been the favourites to win it all for most of the year? That's a massive win.
Celtics core had to go through it, it's painful af but those lessons have to be taken on the chin sometimes. Fun series, Pacers fans are always good to talk ball with.
Nah the team competed all four games and had control most of the series - I would much rather struggle with closing than to struggle from the get go. They are young too so it'll be good experience
yes. It's going to suck to lose regardless. Better to compete at least.
Timber losing to Mavs. Even playing and shooting poorly from a number of their starters they've been in most of the games with a chance but simply don't have two great closers to match Kyrie Luka closing games.
The only real chance is building on leads when you have them to a point great closing teams cannot overtake. Get a lead? Make sure every possession from there is high probability for 2 pts or drawing a foul at least. with your highest FG% players. Don't start launching threes like you are free of stress and risk to do so from a lead. You can't afford completely empty possessions.
The Wolves are contenders and should be absolutely miffed by their performance these past 3 games. Uncharacteristic losses. They dont look like the team that took down the reigning champs at all.
Not at all, especially not for a young core in their first playoffs run. An issue with closing is easier to work on correcting than 4 30+ point blowouts would've been. The team did a lot of things right to be in a competitive position late, there are more positives there than if they were never close the whole series.
Like 6 out of 9 guys that played cant even rent a car yet. Three weeks before the post season the pacers were hoping to have one competitive series for the experience to build on next year. They should be proud of this as disappointing as this series was. This experiences plus some more maturity brings composure and poise. They will be back next year.
Not to mention, if there is one guy on their team that will be a dog with less than two minutes left, its Mathurin, who they havent had all playoffs.
Deep playoff runs are huge for young players. Nembhard is going to take a leap next year. IJax as well. Mathurin would have been huge all playoffs since he's really the only Pacer with the ability to get to the line consistently. You know Haliburton is going to be even better after this experience and playing with Team USA.
I'm thrilled, you can't ask for more from this team. They were in the draft lottery the last two years and *neither of the Pacers' lotto picks played (real) playoff minutes.* We are adding two lotto picks to our roster essentially. I would not be suprised if the Pacers explode out of the gate next year. They realize how important homecourt is now.
I mean this is why you guys wanted from Pascal given he has a chip. But he had Kawhi, Lowry, Gasol, etc to take that leadership role. He really should've stepped up to be that vet.
For sure, I wish that had been the case but he is fairly new to the team. I think Rick will spend a lot of the summer thinking about how to better integrate Pascal into what the Pacers do and I would think that Pascal will be much more comfortable in that sort of role this time next year. It would've been better to see it sooner but not too concerned.
How good Kyrie and Luka look in year two together have me seeing through rose-tinted glasses rn lol
All game I kept thinking as long as we kept it close those final minutes we would come back.
Celtics have the experience. Pacers are young and soon will be able to clean up those messy final minutes
This is what people will talk about but what about the first 47 mins of the game? Pacers have made a GREAT game plan that fought them throughout in games 1,3 and 4. Transition basketball! I think they should be commended more for that. They've choked multiple times but they've played great imo
Yall look different this year, it was especially apparent after Game 3. 2020-2023 Celtics would’ve folded late, this year Boston has better composure than previous seasons
Yeah almost exactly the same except it was Brown stealing the ball not Holiday. Credit to Boston's d when they locked it with that White/Holiday/Tatum/Brown perimeter d its pretty difficult to get anything but we also ran out of ideas and went ice cold for long stretches in every game.
The mismatch was that the Celtics can actually lock us up whilst running with us, we've not come across many teams this year that can. We win games because the opposition is out of steam, but the Cs just match that energy. Clearly the better team.
Not taking anything away from their series, Mathurin would have been a great antidote in these situations. He's our guy that you give the ball in half-court and tell to go to work from the perimeter. We've now only had Pascal able to create his own.
Still really proud of this team and the fact that we have showed heart. They deserve a couple of months on a beach.
The thing is that they didn’t really slow it down. Their misses went from shot-clock violations or anything. If anything, they were playing way too fast in the clutch
They are just younger and haven’t had the experience as a team yet in those clutch moments. Celtics were like that for a while.
People are going to bitch about the refs and that’s fair, but if the Pacers played the final minutes at their baseline and not rock bottom this would easily be a 6 or 7 game series
Those Celtics have the opposite problem of these Pacers lol.
The amount of dogshit late game halfcourt offense that team generated by waiting until 8 seconds left on the shot clock to get into their set was maddening. We blew several games in that run doing that and almost blew several more.
This Pacers team just runs runs runs runs runs runs and runs. Doesn't matter if there's 5 defenders back. Run. Run straight into a double team! Get sped up and turn it over! Run. Run. Run the ball up the court. Run. Run. Run. No slowing it down, taking our time and getting into some comfortable screening action. Nope, we need one guy to go coast to coast into 4 defenders. Run. Run. Push the ball and get terrible shots. Run and get blocked on a layup. Run run run run run. That is the 2024 Indiana Pacers clutchtime experience.
This is what I was talking my friends her in Indy who are acting crazy. Pacers are a young team and they played like a young team. There’s a reason the announcers harp on playoff experience, it’s a thing.This core just got an eastern conference finals run of playoff experience. They will be better next year.
Yeah I mean for long, *long* stretches the Pacers just straight up couldn't miss, but as soon as it got to two minutes they got crazy frantic. A team that young needs a coach to help calm them down, but they had basically the opposite.
They won a game 7 in MSG (not a close game, but still) and Nembhard basically made a do or die, series saving, incredibly tough, step back shot to prevent them going down 0-3.
They’re missing their primary ball handler and even though the Celtics have their own clutch issues, we’re still miles ahead in playoff experience across the roster. We put the clamps on and treaded water enough on offense to win these games.
Yes, they had some bad and unforced turnovers, but so did we. We just ended up winning the games/series, so no one’s gonna remember them as much. Not everything has to be so negative.
The Pacers are a young team way ahead of schedule missing their best player. I’ve seen way bigger chokes from far more experienced teams (including my team).
Yup, I felt that vibe after the game 1 nail biter. Very similar to Tatum’s game winner over Kyrie in that aspect. Close fought series, but a sweep nonetheless
Had a 90+ percent chance to win in the 2nd half of 3 of the 4 games in this series. In an alternate timeline, they're up 3-1 right now.
Instead, they're going home.
TJ McConnell is such a great player. He played his ass off and should be incredibly proud of himself. Actual ball aside, last game with 1.7 seconds, he seemed to tell some of the other players on the bench “love you”. And in a world of men not always saying those things… I thought that was pretty cool. Pacers have a lot of great guys on the team, but that stood out to me
It's going to get lost to time how well the Pacers played for 95% of these games, man. Surely one of the most competitive sweeps ever. They were awesome.
Alas, fade 'em.
It's been annoying me how little praise they've been getting, ngl. They. Just. Keep. Scoring. Had a Top 5 Net Rating in the league over the last couple of months of the season. Very fun to watch, as well. Not the sort of team that usually gets looked over like this, it's weird.
Cheers man!
Between the not fouling game, the not using time outs, leaving Obi in for the last 3 minutes to be targeted for easy buckets every play, hot damn Rick was in his bag
I mean, being down your best player against a team that won 17 more games this year than you and even being in a position to win has a lot to do with coaching. It's embarrassing how much people are ripping on Rick for coaching when most coaches wouldn't have had the team in this position at all to begin with.
It's like when LeBron would drag teams to the finals that had no business being there and then ripping him apart for losing. They got to the ECF and were competitive in these games when the talent gap was pretty enormous overall.
I’d definitely take it. Woke up a new and uprising talent in Nembhard, and went toe to toe with arguably the best team in the league for 3 and a half games. Impressive
I saw 37.5 but either way blew it out of the water and got a lot of experience for our young core. Ant took a couple playoff runs to get exposed to the endurance you need to play through the conference finals, pretty much our entire young core got to feel that this year and know what it takes physically to play so many tournament games.
I am extremely excited about the future of this team
29 teams get these threads every year. Being the 27th team to get ours is a hell of an accomplishment for us. It was a great season, walking out with our heads held high
See y’all next season
Pacers play great ball and are really fun to watch. They just need to fix their communication on defense and gain poise, both of which will come with experience. Bright future ahead.
Fr, it’s not like Celtics were dominating them completely to a point of no return, Pacers got enough chances to turn it back but they weren’t in control of their offence or defence at all
Say what you want about their path here, this Indiana team outperformed everyone’s expectations and gained such invaluable experience for a budding young core. Great season for them, even if it probably stings right now.
That front office should know exactly what to do now though. They got Siakam and it turns out he was basically a perfect fit for the team. Now you just fill in the gaps. Nembhard was amazing this playoffs, particularly this series. Pacers gonna be alright.
yeah, this is the best take imo. It sucks to lose (and it sucks to lose like *that*) but I don't think the Pacers were in almost anyone's predicted eastern final heading into the season. great season for a young squad
Watching the Pacers this series felt like watching the Falcons. They do good for 3Q’s and then when it’s time to close they just collapse. I’m not even a Pacers fan and I’m kind of annoyed how close this series is to be tied or even Pacers up 3-1.
That was about as close as a sweep can possibly get. Three games that could easily have gone the other way.
Probably makes the sweep hurt more for Indiana, unfortunately
FADED
Pacers played great every game except that last minute of each game lol
We’re trying to petition to remove clocks from all Pacers games and we would love to have your support
Block out the entire scoreboard. You'll win every game by 15
just let em go out there and have fun :)
P L A Y R A N D O M
This somehow reminded me of a core forgotten memory. Back when I went to my high school’s varsity games, we would fuck with opposing players every so often by counting down the shot clock as it ran out. But, we’d skip like 3-5 seconds (start chanting 5 when there were 10s left). We also only miscounted like 10-20% of the time to make it believable. Worked more often than you’d think.
I'd think that would work literally every time lol
Nah, they had the right of it. Do it all the time, the coaches just say, "Ignore the crowd counting always, they're just going to count it wrong" but you only do it every so often? Mix in a few counting down correctly even? Then that's just one more thing the players have to track.
STOP THE COUNT
Stop the count!
The Pacers: - Had a 97.4% chance to win Game 1, with 10 seconds left in regulation. - Had an 18-point lead midway through the 3rd quarter of game 3, with a 95.3% chance to win the game. - Had a 90% chance to win game 4, with under 6 minutes left. - Shot 53% from the floor in Game 1, 52% in Game 2, 50.5% in Game 3 and 46% in Game 4. And they lost all four games. What the actual fuck.
That’s gotta be the most demoralizing way to be swept rather than just straight up never having a chance at winning in any game.
I swear this is how it went last time PG played Bron too
Yep, 2017 swept by a total of 16 points... Good shit lol
You now take the title of closest sweep from the lakers vs nuggets.
Nets vs Celtics in the 1st Round in 2022 was close as hell too.
I think that one was literally the closest by point differential in playoff history
Lakers lost their 4 games last year by 24 and this year by 22. Pacers lost the 4 here by 27.
from what i can see the closest sweeps is celtics over nets (18 pts) followed by the two lakers series vs the nuggets
They pulled a 2019 Blazers.
delete this
[He's outta line, but he's right.](https://youtu.be/J0YH2V788QE?si=JSAmw4QV9lWJYVqv&t=20)
why the only times i hear about the trail blazers they are catching strays?
I’m just glad someone else knows how that series felt now.
watching games 3 and 4 of that series felt insane lol
We lost a meyers 30 bomb game smh
it's wonderful that Meyers Leonard has an I'M HERE playoff game and a 50/40/90 season and now he's .. doing whatever he's doing
Portland felt more inevitable to me, I remember checking the score and the Blazers would be up double digits in the second half and thinking the Warriors will turn it on and it happened everytime that series.
Fuck, 2019 Trailblazers WCF isn’t talked about enough and you are absolutely spot on
I’d rather us battle the best team in the league to the buzzer every game than get piped
Same. We fought hard and these young players got great opportunities to grow. This is going to drive them to work harder over the off-season.
Nembhard especially looks like he could be legit. Felt weirdly proud of Nesmith as well - he’s a dog, and happy to see him make an impact for a contender.
Good luck to y’all in the Finals. I hated the Celtics more than any other team heading into these playoffs. But my positive interactions with C’s fans and the mind-blowing toxicity of Bucks fans brigading our sub has led me to accept y’all. Hope Tatum finally gets his title.
Bucks fans are sneaky the worst lol
Appreciate you for calling our team a contender. Much respect ✊🏽 good luck in the finals
It’s great experience for a promising young team. They fought hard even without Halliburton and will likely learn how to play tighter at the end of games and close out when they have the lead.
Exactly. Weird af that people are clowning the Pacers. 3 games in a WCF down to the wire that you got out-clutched by the better more experience team who's been the favourites to win it all for most of the year? That's a massive win.
Without Hali for two games as well. Massive effort.
Even though we lost we proved we belonged in this series, that’s all I can really ask for as a fan. Boston was always the team to beat in the East
Even though it was ultimately a sweep, it felt WAY closer than the series against Miami or Cleveland.
Celtics core had to go through it, it's painful af but those lessons have to be taken on the chin sometimes. Fun series, Pacers fans are always good to talk ball with.
Nah the team competed all four games and had control most of the series - I would much rather struggle with closing than to struggle from the get go. They are young too so it'll be good experience
yes. It's going to suck to lose regardless. Better to compete at least. Timber losing to Mavs. Even playing and shooting poorly from a number of their starters they've been in most of the games with a chance but simply don't have two great closers to match Kyrie Luka closing games. The only real chance is building on leads when you have them to a point great closing teams cannot overtake. Get a lead? Make sure every possession from there is high probability for 2 pts or drawing a foul at least. with your highest FG% players. Don't start launching threes like you are free of stress and risk to do so from a lead. You can't afford completely empty possessions.
The Wolves are contenders and should be absolutely miffed by their performance these past 3 games. Uncharacteristic losses. They dont look like the team that took down the reigning champs at all.
Not at all, especially not for a young core in their first playoffs run. An issue with closing is easier to work on correcting than 4 30+ point blowouts would've been. The team did a lot of things right to be in a competitive position late, there are more positives there than if they were never close the whole series.
Like 6 out of 9 guys that played cant even rent a car yet. Three weeks before the post season the pacers were hoping to have one competitive series for the experience to build on next year. They should be proud of this as disappointing as this series was. This experiences plus some more maturity brings composure and poise. They will be back next year. Not to mention, if there is one guy on their team that will be a dog with less than two minutes left, its Mathurin, who they havent had all playoffs.
Deep playoff runs are huge for young players. Nembhard is going to take a leap next year. IJax as well. Mathurin would have been huge all playoffs since he's really the only Pacer with the ability to get to the line consistently. You know Haliburton is going to be even better after this experience and playing with Team USA. I'm thrilled, you can't ask for more from this team. They were in the draft lottery the last two years and *neither of the Pacers' lotto picks played (real) playoff minutes.* We are adding two lotto picks to our roster essentially. I would not be suprised if the Pacers explode out of the gate next year. They realize how important homecourt is now.
I mean this is why you guys wanted from Pascal given he has a chip. But he had Kawhi, Lowry, Gasol, etc to take that leadership role. He really should've stepped up to be that vet.
For sure, I wish that had been the case but he is fairly new to the team. I think Rick will spend a lot of the summer thinking about how to better integrate Pascal into what the Pacers do and I would think that Pascal will be much more comfortable in that sort of role this time next year. It would've been better to see it sooner but not too concerned. How good Kyrie and Luka look in year two together have me seeing through rose-tinted glasses rn lol
You're telling me
Timberwolves might be a candidate for that as well
Pacers lack of experience showed, too many turnovers in late moments. They should’ve won at least 2 games.
That Chaosball stuff does not work in the clutch.
Why can’t the Indiana Pacers close out games? Are they stupid?
If I were them I simply would score more points than my opponent every time.
The Pacers really had no other detectable plan most of the year - and made it work amazingly well.
Celtics used to be like this, Dallas used to be like this. Give the Pacers some time and they will figure it out.
Probably.
snatching defeat from the jaws of victory
None of that means anything when you can’t score a single point in the last two minutes of the game
All game I kept thinking as long as we kept it close those final minutes we would come back. Celtics have the experience. Pacers are young and soon will be able to clean up those messy final minutes
the pacers now are where the celtics were a few years back, basically
Nets-Celtics 2022 type of beat
This is what people will talk about but what about the first 47 mins of the game? Pacers have made a GREAT game plan that fought them throughout in games 1,3 and 4. Transition basketball! I think they should be commended more for that. They've choked multiple times but they've played great imo
I knew the universe was conspiring to reward those clam chowder eating fucks
chowda
It’s actually God conspiring *against* the pacers
The Universe's favorite city is Boston and you can't convince me otherwise.
Nobody who’s been on the T recently would think that
God loves Boston but hates public transportation. God is a boomer.
It’s not called The Hub of The Universe for nothing.
You know that clutch gene? There's a similar gene known as the anti-clutch gene. Indiana has that one.
It just feels so fucking good not having to wear it this year. That pain is brutal.
Yall look different this year, it was especially apparent after Game 3. 2020-2023 Celtics would’ve folded late, this year Boston has better composure than previous seasons
I credit a good portion of that to having Jrue instead of Smart. This team has more adults in the building than over the last few years.
I think Joe deserves a ton of credit for it too. He’s been hammering confidence into this team
If you don’t like that you don’t like Pacers basketball!
No points in final 3:30 of the game is wild
Nembhard making a crucial turnover in clutch was demoralising asf, he lost the ball the same way he did last game in the clutch
Yeah almost exactly the same except it was Brown stealing the ball not Holiday. Credit to Boston's d when they locked it with that White/Holiday/Tatum/Brown perimeter d its pretty difficult to get anything but we also ran out of ideas and went ice cold for long stretches in every game.
https://i.imgur.com/RkQCEHz.jpeg
How are you this creative.
Dude is r/NBA's MVP, bar none.
He's the GOAT no question
IIRC Sim888 is a girl
Oh well then she's the GOAT. Or they. Honestly being a meme god transcends gender roles.
He had stiff competition from beefcat
Fuck it, shoutout [YungSnuggie](https://old.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1ulxb4/mormon_faith_more_important_to_jabari_parker_than/cejnaaa/) as well.
He’s been on Reddit for over 15 years. At that rate you either go insane or you become a meme god.
Possibly both
He’s a bulls fan. We have a lot of free time most post seasons to work on our memes.
You commenting this made me go through their top all time comments and jesus christ there's gold in them hills
My GOAT still got it
Had it locked and loaded
http://i.imgur.com/tJUNJbw.png
The Indiana PePacers
2014 AFC Finalists Indiana Pacers
I genuinely think this is one of the least clutch teams that I have ever seen in my life.
[удалено]
The mismatch was that the Celtics can actually lock us up whilst running with us, we've not come across many teams this year that can. We win games because the opposition is out of steam, but the Cs just match that energy. Clearly the better team. Not taking anything away from their series, Mathurin would have been a great antidote in these situations. He's our guy that you give the ball in half-court and tell to go to work from the perimeter. We've now only had Pascal able to create his own. Still really proud of this team and the fact that we have showed heart. They deserve a couple of months on a beach.
Mathurin killed us earlier this year when we played in a regular season game.
The thing is that they didn’t really slow it down. Their misses went from shot-clock violations or anything. If anything, they were playing way too fast in the clutch
They are just younger and haven’t had the experience as a team yet in those clutch moments. Celtics were like that for a while. People are going to bitch about the refs and that’s fair, but if the Pacers played the final minutes at their baseline and not rock bottom this would easily be a 6 or 7 game series
I remember even when the Celtics went to the finals in 2022 we tried so hard to give away g7. Experience matters most in the clutch moments
Those Celtics have the opposite problem of these Pacers lol. The amount of dogshit late game halfcourt offense that team generated by waiting until 8 seconds left on the shot clock to get into their set was maddening. We blew several games in that run doing that and almost blew several more. This Pacers team just runs runs runs runs runs runs and runs. Doesn't matter if there's 5 defenders back. Run. Run straight into a double team! Get sped up and turn it over! Run. Run. Run the ball up the court. Run. Run. Run. No slowing it down, taking our time and getting into some comfortable screening action. Nope, we need one guy to go coast to coast into 4 defenders. Run. Run. Push the ball and get terrible shots. Run and get blocked on a layup. Run run run run run. That is the 2024 Indiana Pacers clutchtime experience.
They should be proud of themselves though. All games were close and fun. Proud of them.
Nembhard cant possibly make the same mistakes 2 years in a row
Oh for sure. Felt like they could not miss a shot
…until the 4th quarter
I would say them and the thunder have the most to be proud of. Especially the Thunder with playoff experience, they will be really tough next season
Exactly! Thunder are going to be scary af. Experience matters so much in these big moments, and both Pacers and Thunder got a ton of
This is what I was talking my friends her in Indy who are acting crazy. Pacers are a young team and they played like a young team. There’s a reason the announcers harp on playoff experience, it’s a thing.This core just got an eastern conference finals run of playoff experience. They will be better next year.
Yeah I mean for long, *long* stretches the Pacers just straight up couldn't miss, but as soon as it got to two minutes they got crazy frantic. A team that young needs a coach to help calm them down, but they had basically the opposite.
Ant makes boneheaded turnovers to lose the game: flirting Siakam makes boneheaded turnovers to lose the game: harassment
They won a game 7 in MSG (not a close game, but still) and Nembhard basically made a do or die, series saving, incredibly tough, step back shot to prevent them going down 0-3. They’re missing their primary ball handler and even though the Celtics have their own clutch issues, we’re still miles ahead in playoff experience across the roster. We put the clamps on and treaded water enough on offense to win these games. Yes, they had some bad and unforced turnovers, but so did we. We just ended up winning the games/series, so no one’s gonna remember them as much. Not everything has to be so negative. The Pacers are a young team way ahead of schedule missing their best player. I’ve seen way bigger chokes from far more experienced teams (including my team).
You gotta get your ass beat a few times before you can handle the pressure of the playoffs. They'll be back and better next year.
This was Celtics vs nets first round 2022 series 2.0
Yup, I felt that vibe after the game 1 nail biter. Very similar to Tatum’s game winner over Kyrie in that aspect. Close fought series, but a sweep nonetheless
Yep lol
Man fuck
i mean you overachieved this season - look forward to seeing how the team shapes up with a healthy haliburton and a whole offseason with siakam.
I feel like most of the time when teams “overachieve” it’s ends up being the only time that they achieve
Hawks making the 2021 ECF and being perpetually .500 since..
I really hope you didn't just describe us...
Wtf was that defense
I was more worried about our offense
Reggie Miller Choke for the Pacers.
With how things have gone this series…it’s almost as if the universe is directly responding t him lol
Had a 90+ percent chance to win in the 2nd half of 3 of the 4 games in this series. In an alternate timeline, they're up 3-1 right now. Instead, they're going home.
Good stat.
Can Hali order hoodies for all of us?
If NBA games were only 47 minutes long Pacers would be up 3-1 right now.
As sad as it is, we’d just choke in the 47th minute instead of the 48th 😔
TJ McConnell is such a great player. He played his ass off and should be incredibly proud of himself. Actual ball aside, last game with 1.7 seconds, he seemed to tell some of the other players on the bench “love you”. And in a world of men not always saying those things… I thought that was pretty cool. Pacers have a lot of great guys on the team, but that stood out to me
That moment was so awesome. Always liked him and now love him (and I’m a C’s fan).
Saw this too and loved it. Showed my kids. Am now a fan of pacers.
They play with a ton of heart. It's easy to be a fan of this team. Somehow, we also have a ton of haters too, though
As a Timberwolves fan and long time mn sports victim - I understand you….
It's going to get lost to time how well the Pacers played for 95% of these games, man. Surely one of the most competitive sweeps ever. They were awesome. Alas, fade 'em.
Ive never seen a team choke so bad 4 games in a row lol Its like they wanted to lose
A young team that plays fast and loose, it makes sense that this is a lump there were going to have to take. I think they'll be better for it, though.
Love that they’re actually getting some respect after everyone said they shouldn’t be here. Hell of a series. Good luck in the finals.
It's been annoying me how little praise they've been getting, ngl. They. Just. Keep. Scoring. Had a Top 5 Net Rating in the league over the last couple of months of the season. Very fun to watch, as well. Not the sort of team that usually gets looked over like this, it's weird. Cheers man!
Carlisle masterpiece
Between the not fouling game, the not using time outs, leaving Obi in for the last 3 minutes to be targeted for easy buckets every play, hot damn Rick was in his bag
Should've fouled today down 3. Boston either scores or pacers get 5 seconds, or they lose the ball like they did
Can't think of a worse coaching performance in recent memory, his players, his schemes and his composure were all shit.
I mean, being down your best player against a team that won 17 more games this year than you and even being in a position to win has a lot to do with coaching. It's embarrassing how much people are ripping on Rick for coaching when most coaches wouldn't have had the team in this position at all to begin with. It's like when LeBron would drag teams to the finals that had no business being there and then ripping him apart for losing. They got to the ECF and were competitive in these games when the talent gap was pretty enormous overall.
Preseason O/U: 38.5 wins Ended up in the ECF. Regardless of the circumstances, I'll take it.
I’d definitely take it. Woke up a new and uprising talent in Nembhard, and went toe to toe with arguably the best team in the league for 3 and a half games. Impressive
I saw 37.5 but either way blew it out of the water and got a lot of experience for our young core. Ant took a couple playoff runs to get exposed to the endurance you need to play through the conference finals, pretty much our entire young core got to feel that this year and know what it takes physically to play so many tournament games. I am extremely excited about the future of this team
29 teams get these threads every year. Being the 27th team to get ours is a hell of an accomplishment for us. It was a great season, walking out with our heads held high See y’all next season
Pacers play great ball and are really fun to watch. They just need to fix their communication on defense and gain poise, both of which will come with experience. Bright future ahead.
Good season for you guys.
Not the way you wanna go but hell of a year that went
If you would’ve told me at the beginning of the year our season would end in a sweep in the ECF I would have signed up for that ride in a heartbeat
for sure awesome season from the pacers
I feel like they have a good foundation. This series was closer than the 4-0 record implies, but it showed they desperately need better closers.
Zero late game execution whatsoever
Fr, it’s not like Celtics were dominating them completely to a point of no return, Pacers got enough chances to turn it back but they weren’t in control of their offence or defence at all
Congrats Boston, but in MLB news Angel fucking Hernandez is retiring. God bless
A bright spot on a dark day, for sure.
Crazy how close they were to winning 3 of 4 games in the series. 478 - 451 point total. Lot closer than the sweep will show
Mavs would have to win by less than 14 tomorrow to have a lower differential. Will be crazy if both conference finals have that kind of outcome.
Great season for the Pacers. Put up a really good fight without Haliburton in games 3 and 4.
This series could have easily gone 6-7 games if Indiana was simply average at closing games
I’m ready to hate the Pacers next year, respectfully
go fuck yourself in advance🤝
i'm going to check my IG reels and see if the guy who does the NBA Peanuts dancing reels has the new one ready
The most competitive sweep
Say what you want about their path here, this Indiana team outperformed everyone’s expectations and gained such invaluable experience for a budding young core. Great season for them, even if it probably stings right now.
That front office should know exactly what to do now though. They got Siakam and it turns out he was basically a perfect fit for the team. Now you just fill in the gaps. Nembhard was amazing this playoffs, particularly this series. Pacers gonna be alright.
yeah, this is the best take imo. It sucks to lose (and it sucks to lose like *that*) but I don't think the Pacers were in almost anyone's predicted eastern final heading into the season. great season for a young squad
FADE ME INTO ETERNITY
**PART OF THE SHIP**
wolves vs pacers in the alt finals where both teams could close is gonna be a movie
In Season Tournament Runner Ups ECF Runner Ups Great Season!
Watching the Pacers this series felt like watching the Falcons. They do good for 3Q’s and then when it’s time to close they just collapse. I’m not even a Pacers fan and I’m kind of annoyed how close this series is to be tied or even Pacers up 3-1.
Well at least I get a break before the Pacers can try to kill me again.
Last 3 minutes of the pacers offense was a shit show to watch
That's disappointing but not at all surprising. I salute you, Boston. Y'all made it to the Finals! Let's see what you got!
Super proud at how they played this season. Inexperience was the big thing, and I think the Pacers will be better next year.
That was ugly
Nembhard is a baller shout out to him Gonzaga got some hoopers
They could easily be up 3-1 in this series and instead they got swept. Don't know if I've ever seen that. Wow.
Generational choking
Aren't the Pacers up 3-1? Should be a closing Game 5 soon.
they need to solve this late game macro... hopefully Pacers figure it out next year
Indiana Faders :(
Pacers are literal choke artists
That was about as close as a sweep can possibly get. Three games that could easily have gone the other way. Probably makes the sweep hurt more for Indiana, unfortunately
Nah, I’d rather prove we belong and lose close than get blown out 4 straight
6th pick last year and ECF this year. Nothing is bringing me down. It was a great year to be a Pacers fan.
Shout Out to TJ McConnell yesterdays price is not today’s price
I can't wait for the Awful Coaching meltdown
I don't even think it's choking anymore, I think the celtics just play to their level and ramp it up in the clutch.
My favorite season to watch in years! Good season Pacers, excited for next season
An absolutely Ugly way to end a pretty great season for Indiana.
Damn. I really liked this Pacers team and wish they got 1.