Yes, a small part of this is stubbornness. You make pre-season NBA picks in half an hour with some great predictions (though man did we whiff on the Knicks) that include NBA immortality for that solid-but-title-less franchise in Indy, and you want to see it happen.
For the first few months of the season, it didn’t even look like a reach. The Pacers had the best record in the League, big-selling SLAM 174 cover subject Paul George looked like Diet LeBron and the East looked like it would offer about as much resistance as the NCAA does to cheating coaches.
Then the mid-season malaise hit the Pacers hard. Those ugly dog days of March that get overlooked while a nation watches college basketball. There were distractions in the form of catfish (a Paul George hater) and dogs (Andrew Bynum). Meanwhile, the Bulls got over their Derrick Rose hangover and the Nets woke up. And the Heat stayed the Heat. Just like that, the Pacers were back to looking like a reach.
Well, you know what? The reasons we picked the Pacers haven’t really changed. They’re big (really big), they’re motivated and PG is still ascending. They’ve had a stretch of ugly ball while still sitting atop their conference? Welcome to human nature. The Heat still have major concerns regarding Wade, and the Bulls/Nets/Raptors can’t win a seven-game series over Indy. The West is undoubtedly the better conference, but by the time the Thunder run the gauntlet of that side’s Playoff bracket, they won’t have anything left for the rejuvenated Pacers.
