The Pacers are playing outta their minds right now

“We want to step away from that shadow as the ‘little brothers’ of this division,” Paul George told NBA.com. “Their success is the Michael Jordan era. This is a new age, this is a new team. It’s ours till they take it.”

Baby steps Indiana, baby steps. (or Baby Dragons, if you ask Jason Whitlock. 
Yes, it is early, but the Pacers have clearly taken care of business so far. They beat the teams they should beat every time, and they passed the first test of the season. (Grade: A) It is a young season and plenty of things will happen between Game 5 and Game 82, but the Pacers are monsters at the moment. 
At the moment, being the key word. 
Before we start talking about what's down the road for the Pacers, let's look at where they've been.

A year ago, the Pacers were 2-3 at this point, and I was cursing be decision to purchase NBA League Pass. There wins were over the Toronto Raptors and Sacramento Kings, and neither looked pretty while they got destroyed 101-79 by the San Antonio Spurs. Roy Hibbert looked like he took the money on his deal and hadn't practiced since. Paul George was the future, but the future looked no more than slightly above average. Obviously the Pacers grew into a team that challenged the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, but they didn't look like much of a team until late in the season.

So what has changed in Indiana?
Well, with the caveat that these are small sample sizes, let's take a look.

Paul George is playing like a monster.

Paul George through five games

25.8 points per a game, 48.3 field goal percentage, 44.4 percent from three. 8.2 rebounds, 4 assists per a game. PER of 27.17.
He's actually shooting more from range than at the basket, which is working well so far for him as he's the league's third leading scorer.  Looking at his shot performance, he's doing no worse than average from any part of the court with smart shot selection. He has no hesitation when he pulls up for three pointers, but is still working his way to the basket more than he did last year. Last year he had eight free throws attempts through give games. This year he's averaging 6.4 per a game. Let's hold up superstar talk, but he's certainly updating his resume so far this season. I hate to try to talk about intangibles because I'm not talking to Paul George or watching enough to really guess what his mindset really is, but he looks more aggressive and confident than ever. He looked great in the ECF, but now he looking like and playing like he's one of the league's best. We'll see how long he keeps this going because right now he's playing at a career high level. Even if these numbers fall slightly, he's still showing he's making his way up the chart of the league's best players.

But what else is going on in Indiana so far? What is so different about this year's team that is off to a franchise best 5-0 start.

Roy Hibbert isn't playing like crap, and he's averaging 5.2 blocks a game. rebounding slightly better than last year, and playing better defense even if his offense is slightly down. The Pacers run through the playoffs has earned him the reputation as an elite defender, and so far he's averaging one less foul even with the bad Pelicans game as far as foul trouble.  We'll see, but so far it looks like he's getting the benefit of a doubt when he goes to block shots. He has worked on using the NBA's rule of verticality well. When 12.5 percent of plays end in a Hibbert block, their opponents defense isn't going to do very well.
Opponents are shooting under 30 percent at the rim with Hibbert there. It certainly a team effort as the wings help force opponents into bad situations, but those numbers are ridiculous. 

Lance Stephenson a year ago was an unknown commodity, even to Pacers fans. He had 35 points through five games and wasn't starting until the seventh game of the season.
This year?
16.4 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 4.6 AST, .470 FG% .538 3P%
Like many of the Pacers we saw him grow in the playoffs and right now he, like PG and Hibbert, are playing out of their minds right now. It was natural to expect progression out of this team, but all of this so far has been rather amazing. Lance was a starter for most of last year, but was still a very raw player. Even when he slumped against the Bulls in the first half, he wasn't slacking off on defense or anything. he played through and shot out of it like a good player should. He's been part of the success that maybe hasn't gotten enough attention. We knew Paul George was slated for a break out year and Hibbert was a good interior defender, but Lance so far was somewhat unexpected. He had grown certainly, but I didn't expect him to be a player who was going to start to draw defenders away from the basket like he's going to if he keeps this up. He still drives it to the basket hard and finishes well, but if he can hit a couple of threes a game, and right now he's a 2.8, he's going to help the Pacers offense spread out opposing defenses. 

Lastly, the bench is no longer go awful that the sight of Tyler Hansbrough, D.J. Augustine and Gerald Green checking in made coach Frank Vogel cry, knowing any lead the Pacers might have had was about to put down like Old Yeller, but in a more violent, snuff film fashion.
This year, we've even seen C.J. Watson has been able to hold down the point with George Hill taking time off to heal. Indiana's bench is now average, but that's an improvement. If nothing else mentally the Pacers, or at least their fans can know their bench isn't the 29th in +/-. Last year Tyler Hansbrough was the only Indiana bench player with a double-digit PER. This year only Hill, Ian Mahinmi, and Luis Scola have PER's under 10. The league average is 15. I'm not counting Chris Copeland and Rasual Butler because they've played less than 5 minutes. 
Again, small sample sizes, but this bench is showing itself to be a definite improvement so far.

Needless to say, we should expect some regression and low points as the year wears on. All these numbers are amazing and the best of these players careers right now for the most part, so that's natural. But what it is showing is that some of the players individual ceilings might be higher than expected.

Game 14: San Antonio Spurs at Indiana Pacers

Ugh.

Game 4: Pacers at San Antonio Spurs

This is all you really need to see.

Not a single player had a positive +/-.
The Pacers entire team struggled, and there was little to know good to take out of the game. Play looked sloppy and disconnected. It was 1-on-5 most the time in offense, and it doesn't take an expert to know that passing the ball creates open looks, but that wasn't happening.

1st Quarter
In Indiana first three games, they had been collapsing into the paint often, making it hard on opposing offenses to drive the lane, but also making them susceptible to kicking the ball out to an open shooter. Early on it didn't matter as the Spurs were shooting  3-13. But eventually the tempo of the game increased San Antonio began to get in rhythm and jumped out to a lead as Indiana was playing hero ball on offense and not getting open shots. First possession when they stopped doing that lead to a Gerald Green 3-point basket.
The Pacers were not doing a good job of creating offense and should be thankful the Spurs couldn't find their own offensive rhythm, only down 26-18 to end the first quarter. Simply, San Antonio played better team basketball, keeping the Pacers offense shooting at 26%, to the Spurs 46%. But rebounding was even at 14.

2nd Quarter 
We're losing by 20 POINTS!?!?!? Yup, Indiana looks like they are going to get blown out of the gym. However, The Pacer offense began to get their shots to fall, surprising without really coming together as an offense. However, the defense finally stepped up slow and eventually stop the San Antonio offense (Missed the last six field goals before half). Somehow the Pacers are coming back to close the gap to 47-38 at the intermission. The Pacers 13-2 run certainly helps, but as we wait for halftime to end, you have to wonder if they'll be able to cut the gap and keep the game from getting out of hand. Indiana needs to continue forcing the ball into the lane and getting to the foul line. David West was the only one hitting shots from range, hitting his two shots from the top of the key, everyone else had to create their offense from short range. Going 9/10 at the line and out rebounding the Spurs 14-8 helps as well.

3rd Quarter
The Spurs look happy driving to the top of the key and then making their play, usually by passing out. The Pacers continue to just to shoot and try to create their own offense. Of course when they do pass it always seems to be a bad one. Any momentum the Pacers had is gone in two minutes. I wish there was something to point to, but the players just looked unmotivated. Time and time again the Pacers try to play 1-on-5 basketball. Do we really need Danny Granger this badly? On the plus side, I at least like the aggressiveness of Tyler Hansbrough. He's not the most talented Pacer, but you know he's going to play physical ball and forced teams to foul him if they don't put up a fight. He gets in the game and makes Bonner push and shove (and foul) to try to get position on defense.  Also, I miss Stephen Jackson, strangely.

4th Quarter
This...is... ugh. What am I suppose to say? It was the same thing all game long. Not playing team offense, the Spurs did a good job or trapping and deciding which players they were going to let shoot. I'm not even going to finish watching this replay. The Pacers look like a lottery team tonight.

Game 3: Sacramento Kings at Indiana Pacers

(Quick bit of housekeeping: I got behind so some of the previous game breakdowns will be quick summaries instead of longer ones.)

The Pacers defense seems to want to collapse to the paint, making them susceptible to kick outs for threes. The Kings seemed to be the first team (then two days later, the Spurs with more success) that began to almost rely on Indiana's tenaciousness to create open shots. One would think that with someone like Hibbert protecting the paint, there wouldn't be the need to collapse in like that. While Sacramento struggled and shot only .363 percent from the floor. This certainly helps give the Pacers their 67-47 rebounding advantage in the game, one wonders how well this strategy will work against teams with better shooters. (Say, the Spurs?)

On offense the Pacers went to the post as usual. Often relying on West to either make a jumper or pass out of a double team.  (7-21 shooting, only 1 assist. However, thanks to his defense, his +/- was +21)

It was good to see the Pacers score with Paul George late in the game to tie. The Pacers went with a low four to create isolation for George, and he had no problem creating space for himself and knocking down a three pointer.

The big thing I took away from this game was that the Pacers should have lost. The Kings had so many opportunities to take the lead late in the game, but they couldn't get their good shots to fall. A day later we would see the Spurs exploit all these short comings.

Game 1: Pacers vs Raptors

It is much too early for me to make any grand and bold statements, so I’ll leave it to a group of experts to look at the storylines from the Pacers win. However, I will begin my work to break down the some of the Pacers' X’s and O’s.

Summary
 The Pacers starters efficient, we knew that last year as West and company showed that their adjusted +/- is well above any other starting group in the league.With Danny Granger out West stepped up his game with 25 points, and 14 important ones in the fourth when Indiana had been flat out struggling. Roy Hibbert was a no show as the defense closed him down, but it may have come at the expense of letting West run free. The 19 Pacers turnovers came mostly from the second unit, but considering this is game one of eighty-two, there is no need to panic yet. Most of the team posted healthy Player Efficiency Ratings. Stats aside, the stretch in the mid-third quarter to mid-fourth was not good, to say the least. They Pacers second unit will to come together if the Pacers want to compete with the heavyweights this season.

1^st Quarter

As pointed out before on other Pacers blogs, Indiana has a habit of starting strong, faltering as the first quarter ends and the second begins, then turning it back on at the end of the game. Tonight was no different. With the starting five in the game, the Pacers looked organized and had no problem working the ball towards the basket and using Roy Hibbert to create chances. Hibbert went 4-6 in the first quarter, with four of those chances coming in the post with his back to the basket.  Each time he spun towards the basket (right twice, left twice). The defense gave him the room to choose his path, and he seemed to favor the spin towards the basket early on. Paul George had 10 points to Hibberts nine, so offensively things looked good for the Pacers.

However, as the bench came in, chaos seemed to ensue. Ian Mahinmi doesn’t provide the same threat down low and Indiana was forced to work its offense from outside the paint. They looked disorganized and had too many bad possessions and shots. Nothing noticeable from the bench, with the exception being Tyler Hansbrough who seemed serviceable and played well enough on defense.

However, looking at the numbers, the Raptors only shot 36% from the field, so maybe the defense was doing better than I think. The five turnovers aren’t going to help anything though.

2^nd Quarter

The Pacers were still getting beat by the Raptors second unit,  but once Hibbert and the 1^st unit cycled back in Indiana found their rhythm again. Hibbert would be limited in his scoring but not in his effectiveness, when put in the post, the first two times Hibbert registered an assist, the first on a baseline drive by George Hill, the second on a pass to Paul George thanks to a Hill screen to help clear the way. In this third real post chance, Hibbert quickly turned baseline for an easy bucket against Jonas Valanciunas.  The Pacers were out rebounded though, helping explain why the teams went end tied despite Indiana out shooting the Raptors (47.9% versus 42.9%). Indiana missed a chance in the closing seconds to take lead.

The Pacers decided to run a double screen for Paul George after he inbounded the ball to George Hill. George Hill held the ball until around 14 seconds left and Paul George set the play in motion as he ran by a double screen set by Hansbrough and Hibbert at the foul line.

Paul George took the pass and looked to penetrate, but was stopped by a pair of Raptor defenders. Once Paul George saw he was trapped and Hibbert wasn’t an option, the he passed it to Gerald Green, who had spent most of the play rotating around the entire floor.

The play’s success was marginal as a collision of the Raptors double team on Green ruined the fact that Toronto had managed to sniff out the play (DeMar DeRozan tried jumping the route, colliding with Kyle Lowry.). Green’s shot was too hard, but Green did make up on the other in with a block to leave the game tied 48-48 at the half.

We’ll keep an eye out to see if they run the high double screen play again.

3rd Quarter
Nothing significantly different. The Pacers offense tried to work Hibbert in the post. Hibbert spun baseline every time as the defense defended the lane, and it worked to stifle Hibbert. Hibbert missed four attempts but did hit West on a baseline pass for an assist.

4th Quarter
Toronto begins to double team the ball at the top of the key mainly, also running a screen and roll defense. However, the Pacers passing improved down the stretch and Indiana only had one fourth quarter turnover. They had 18 in the game.

On the George Hill game winning basket, the Pacers chose to run an iso, with West feigning a pick and roll to the left of the paint. Hill took the lane and shot from around eight feet out to earn the Pacers the victory.

After the inbound pass, George Hill dribbles at the top of the arc while all but West faded to the far side of the court.

As the clock hits 10 seconds left, Hill begins to lean into his defender, Kyle Lowery, and West start drifting towards the two as if he is going to set the pick. 

 West feigns the screen and rolls to the left side of the paint, leaving a wide open lane as Bargnani is forced to respect the red hot West and cover his man, leaving Hill and Lowry one one one again.

With Hibbert bracketed by Valanciuns and Alan Anderson, and West also occupied, George Hill drives the lane and shoots before anyone can rotate into the to provide help for Lowry. Hill hits the runner and the Pacers go on to win.