PLUCK THE HAWKS
-VS-
Game Time Start: 7:00 PM ET
Where: The Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN
Officials: D. Crawford, J. Capers, J. Tiven, N. Buchert
Media Notes: Indiana Notes, Atlanta Notes
Television: / SportSouth
Radio: WFNI 1070 AM, 107.5 FM
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PACERS Andrew Bynum – racing Fesenko to be Pacers' least effective midseason pivot pickup (out) HAWKS Gustavo Ayon - right shoulder surgery (out) Al Horford - right pectoral muscle surgery (out) John Jenkins - lower back surgery (out) |
Pace Miller: PREVIEW - Pacers (1) vs Hawks (8) And so the real fun begins. The No. 1 seeded Indiana Pacers (56-26) open their 2014 playoff campaign against the 8th seeded Atlanta Hawks (39-43) . No one gave the Hawks a chance after they lost Al Horford for the season with a pec injury, but they managed to hang around and finish the season strong by going 6-2 in their last 8 games. Conversely, the Pacers’ struggles since the All-Star break have been well documented, so there’s no need to go there again. The last time these two teams met, April 6, the Hawks dropped the Pacers to their lowest point of the season, a 107-88 drubbing at Bankers Life Fieldhouse that ended a dreadful 3-8 stretch. Since then, the Pacers are 3-1 and finished the season with 2 consecutive wins, including one against the contending OKC Thunder. Two of the games (Milwaukee and Orlando) were essentially played by the reserves, so it’s hard to tell whether the Pacers have really turned the corner or will continue to struggle. Analysis On paper, and judging by regular season records, the Pacers should demolish the Hawks, as a first seed should do to an 8th seed. But with the Hawks playing well despite injuries and the Pacers playing like crap despite health, it won’t be a shock to find a lot of people who believe the Hawks can pull off an upset. The two teams split their regular season series 2-2, with each team winning once on the road. Though the Hawks don’t have Al Horford, Paul Millsap remains a nightmare, as does Jeff Teague. In fact, the entire Hawks team provides matchup problems for the Pacers because they like to shoot from the outside, with Kyle Korver being particularly deadly. That negates the Pacers’ biggest strengths, which are interior defense, rim protection, and funneling opponents towards the big fella in the middle. We’ve seen what Antic can do, and he was apparently the reason Hibbert only played 9 minutes the last time these two teams met. “Matchup problems,” as coach Vogel called it. So the big question remains whether the Pacers can regain some of their unstoppable early season form that pushed them to a 33-7 record to start the season. If they can, then there’s nothing for Pacers fans to worry about. But it’s a big IF. As many analysts have pointed out, the Pacers drop off has been staggering. Historical. More than “norm” than a “slump.” Since the All-Star break they have had the worst offense in the league apart from the Philadelphia 76ers, which, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe put it, the worst among real NBA teams. That said, history has shown that teams who play well entering the playoffs don’t necessarily play well in the playoffs, and teams who struggle heading into the playoffs don’t necessarily continue to struggle. It really is a clean slate, and it’s the same reason why no one is seriously concerned about the Miami Heat’s near-equally bad end to the season. As this article suggests portion size...CONTINUE READING AT PACERS PULSE |
Chase Thomas: Analyzing the Hawks vs. Pacers series The Hawks find themselves the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference which means a trip to Indiana to face the Pacers in the first round. We breakdown the match-ups and what to expect in this first-round series. The Hawks will travel to Indiana on Sunday to take on the Pacers at 1 PM (TNT) to begin their first-round series. Atlanta has played Indiana four times this season to an even 2-2 split, with each team winning both home games. The Hawks will have to break that trend and get a road victory if they are to move on to the second round. The good news, beating the Pacers at home is not an impossible task. The Pacers were 30-11 at home this year, but have lost three of their last four home games. Indiana possesses about as much of a home-court advantage as the Hawks do (IND: 25th in attendance, ATL: 26th) which is why this is the 1 PM game on Sunday, and will be "featured" on NBATV on Wednesday night (7:30 PM). Here, we will breakdown the key match-ups that will be the deciding factors in this series. Can the Hawks really upset the Indiana Pacers in the first round? It's plausible, and that's what matters. For a while it didn't look like the Atlanta Hawks were going to be lucky enough to draw the struggling Indiana Pacers in the first round of the 2014 NBA Playoffs. But it actually happened. I wrote last week about how the Hawks really needed to draw the Pacers rather than the Miami Heat. Sure, the Hawks have had moderate success against the Heat. The Hawks could have swept their season series with the Heat, but the playoff result would have remained the same: eliminated in the 1st round. The Hawks probably aren't going to eliminate the Pacers, but what's important is that it's plausible. Plausibility is what makes the playoffs a sensational experience for fans. The Golden State Warriors weren't going to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals the year they upset the Dallas Mavericks in the opening round of the playoffs, but that didn't matter. Going into a series knowing the end result makes it hard to get emotionally invested as a fan for obvious reasons. If they're not going to advance why get worked up for it? I'm not sure there is an easy fix for this. This is what makes being an NBA fan hard at times. With the seven game series format it's incredibly difficult for lower seeds to advance very far in the postseason. Like anything else, there are positive and negative things that come with a format like this. So when a matchup like the Pacers vs. Hawks comes along it's important to embrace the moment. The Pacers are vulnerable, and the Hawks blew them out on the road not too long ago. Where this hope, there is excitement. This playoff matchup encompasses both. In four games against the Pacers this season the Hawks have scored 104.6 points per 100 possessions while surrendering just 97.3 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com. The Pacers sit alone at the top of the league in defensive efficiency. Their offensive inefficiencies, however, has plagued the team for months now. In a vacuum, the Pacers defensive metrics should...CONTINUE READING AT PEACHTREE HOOPS |
2013-2014 Playoff Previews: Indiana Pacers vs. Atlanta Hawks The playoffs begin on Saturday, thankfully, which means it’s that lovely time of spring (and it is spring, right? It’s not going to snow again, is it?) when the minds behind Ball Don’t Lie offer you their thoughts on the upcoming pairings in the first round of the NBA’s postseason. Kelly Dwyer’s Old Grey Whistle Test One year ago, the Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks met in a first-round series that was ridiculed for its boring play, Indiana’s inability to close out what felt like a lesser Hawks squad, and its relegation to the NBA TV end of things rather than a more nationally sponsored showcase. This... this doesn’t figure to change in 2014. Indiana, at its best, is a fearsome outfit. They admirably paid tribute to its own fans and own potential while coming out of the gates swinging last autumn, restating a point with both words and play the team treated home-court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference bracket as a priority, an understandable goal considering the outfit’s Game 7 loss in Miami to the Heat in 2013. The Pacers held the NBA’s best record for a goodly chunk of the season’s first half, it more than held its own in both Indianapolis and Miami meetings with the defending champs, and it finished the season with both the top seed in the East and a 35-6 record at home. It also finished the season on a 23-19 run, hardly a mark befitting a championship contender working with a healthy starting lineup and designs on knocking off the two- time champion Heat. Its offense sunk terribly, its particulars whined and moaned about each other on record to the media, and its top players fell off in ways that made the midseason summations of their respective seasons seem almost laughable in retrospect. Paul George won’t be battling Kevin Durant and LeBron James for All-NBA honors, much less MVP honors. Lance Stephenson doesn’t feel like much of a fringe All-Star anymore. Roy Hibbert may even lose out to Joakim Noah for Defensive Player of the Year honors, something that seemed unthinkable even a few weeks ago. And the Atlanta Hawks? They’re not exactly a needed salve, sent from on high to straighten Indiana’s ship. The Hawks split the season series with Indiana, with one midseason contest working as just the Pacers’ seventh loss in 35 tries, and it’s very much possible Atlanta’s 107-88 triumph over Indiana from earlier in April acted as the Pacers’ low point. Indiana scored just 23 points in the first half of that contest, and partially as a result Indiana coach Frank Vogel decided to wipe his entire starting five off the books for the team’s next contest in Milwaukee, a borderline unprecedented move for a team whose status as the top overall seed was still in question. The Pacers responded with a win over those Bucks, in a way, because they were eventually blown...CONTINUE READING AT BALL DON'T LIE |
Matt Dollinger: Can stumbling Pacers handle Hawks? Matchup: No. 1 Indiana Pacers (56-26) vs. No. 8 Atlanta Hawks (38-44) Season Series: Tied 2-2 Efficiency Rankings: IND (22nd offense, 1st defense), ATL (15th offense, 15th defense) The Matchup Few things seemed more inevitable this season than an Eastern Conference finals rematch between the Heat and Pacers. That is, until last month, when everything that made the Pacers the best team in the first half of the season vanished without a trace. Indiana went 8-10 in March, saw its tight-knit group ripped apart by poor play on the floor and bickering off it, and looked like a team in turmoil. The Hawks, meanwhile, rebounded from losing 14 of 15 games in February and March to stave off the Knicks for the No. 8 seed despite the absence of two-time All-Star center Al Horford. Indiana and Atlanta met in the first round of the playoffs last season, when the Pacers triumphed 4-2. The Case For The Pacers Even for a team in disarray, the Pacers are staggering favorites to beat the Hawks in a seven-game series. They have more talent and experience, the league's No. 1 defense (96.7 points allowed per 100 possessions) and an avalanche of motivation (or is it pressure?) after falling one game short of the Finals last season and stumbling into the playoffs this year. Indiana appeared to turn the corner with an encouraging win over the Thunder last Sunday, but a single victory can't erase doubts created by a month's worth of poor play. Indiana's defense declined and offense deteriorated in recent weeks, but there's reason to believe that the Pacers will still handle Atlanta. The Hawks give up size at every position and lack an imposing shot-blocker, which should allow the Pacers to do what they do best: Bully opponents and dominate the paint. The Case For The Hawks Atlanta beat Indiana twice this season, including their most recent meeting, on April 6, when the Hawks held the Pacers to a franchise-low 23 points in the first half. One player in particular who has given...CONTINUE READING AT THE POINT FORWARD |
Pacers Candace Buckner @CandaceDBuckner Jared Wade @8pts9secs Tim Donahue @TimDonahue8p9s Tom Lewis @indycornrows Ian Levy @HickoryHigh Whitney @its_whitney |
Hawks Chris Vivlamore @ajchawks Jason Walker @JasonWalkerSBN Kris Willis @Kris_Willis Bo Churney @bochurney Raj Prashad @RajPrashad Co Co @cocoqt81 |
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