23 years ago today the Indiana Pacers won the last game that ever really mattered, so far, for the franchise in the NBA

[Peck]

Honor and glory to those teams. In my lifetime they simply were the best team we ever had.

[idioteque]

94-2000 is my favorite era of Pacers ball by far, but they’ve played plenty of consequential basketball since then.

[Kstat]

94-2000 is my favorite era of Pacers ball by far, but they’ve played plenty of consequential basketball since then.

I think the word "won" is doing the heavy lifting here.

[BillS]

I never thought you'd buy into the "finals or nothing matters" culture. You might say it was the win that mattered most, but given the ECF runs under Frank and even the potential of the 2003-2004 team I can't say it was the last one that mattered.

[Peck]

I never thought you'd buy into the "finals or nothing matters" culture. You might say it was the win that mattered most, but given the ECF runs under Frank and even the potential of the 2003-2004 team I can't say it was the last one that mattered.

The other games mattered, but we didn't win them. We did win this one, so IMO, it is the most important and last time we won a game that mattered.

[BillS]

The other games mattered, but we didn't win them. We did win this one, so IMO, it is the most important and last time we won a game that mattered.

Again, you're saying only getting to the Finals matters. Therefore, wins that end short of the Finals don't matter. Which I disagree with.

[Phree Refill]

I understand the premise of the title (and I dont know that I disagree) but at the very least I'm throwing either game 6 of round 1 2014 when David West saved the entire season against the Hawks in the last 3 minutes -OR- game 6 of 2013 vs Miami in ECF when Lance went apeshit and hit a dagger to end the 3rd qtr that catapulted a blowout win on the way of giving the franchise its 5th "1 win away" game to reach the NBA finals.

(Damn thats a long sentence)

[kent beckley]

Does someone live near Peck? You might need to check on him…

Seriously though, what is up with the melodramatic thread titles??

[Peck]

Again, you're saying only getting to the Finals matters. Therefore, wins that end short of the Finals don't matter. Which I disagree with.

Well that's not what I'm trying to say, although I obviously have written this very poorly. Winning is better than losing, can we agree on that? This was the last time we won a game that mattered to send us to the championship level playoff round. We have lost every other game that mattered since.

So I'm not sure we really disagree, I just have a poor way of explaining it I guess.

[natjjohn]

Well that's not what I'm trying to say, although I obviously have written this very poorly. Winning is better than losing, can we agree on that? This was the last time we won a game that mattered to send us to the championship level playoff round. We have lost every other game that mattered since.

So I'm not sure we really disagree, I just have a poor way of explaining it I guess.

Still doesn’t make any sense. It’s retroactively making games that did matter that they won, into games that didn’t matter because of unknown reasons since you’ve now said games that get you to the finals aren’t the only games that matter.

So what defines a game that matters? Based on what you’re saying, almost none of the games matter for any franchise. If that’s the case, quit watching the NBA and sign off this message board

[yoadknux]

I would call it "The game that mattered most", but I agree. At the end of the day, the most important thing is winning a championship. If you don't win one, then it's about the game that is as close as possible to the finals.
As for the attitude, well, over the last 18 years we've only managed to make it out of the first round... twice? So what can you honestly do other than reminisce?

[BillS]

I would call it "The game that mattered most", but I agree. At the end of the day, the most important thing is winning a championship. If you don't win one, then it's about the game that is as close as possible to the finals.
As for the attitude, well, over the last 18 years we've only managed to make it out of the first round... twice? So what can you honestly do other than reminisce?

18 years is an interesting cutoff, since it is essentially "post brawl" and so includes everything done to try to recover from that without counting any previous success.

But the count is actually 3, not 2.

[Sollozzo]

The 04 team and the 13 & 14 teams certainly played important games. And I’d put 12 in there too since we did have a 2-1 lead over a Lebron/Wade/Bosh team in the semis. The problem is that we’ve done next to nothing for almost a decade. All of the accomplishments that you can list for the franchise are basically the same as they were in 2014.