Andy Lyons/Getty Images
On Wednesday evening, Victor Oladipo suffered what looked to be a severe injury to his right knee, and the Indiana Pacers suffered what will likely be a fatal blow to their hopes of making a deep playoff run.
Late in the second quarter of the Pacers’ 110-106 win over the Toronto Raptors, Oladipo fell to the floor while trying to deflect a pass intended for Pascal Siakam. He was stretchered off, and the NBA‘s biggest stars took to social media to offer thoughts and prayers.
Oladipo and the Pacers will have some clarity on his diagnosis after he undergoes an MRI on Thursday, but ESPN.com’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported they are expecting the worst—that the injury will be season-ending. In their initial press release, the Pacers called it “serious.” It is safe to assume that Oladipo won’t be playing basketball for the foreseeable future.
Bleacher Report @BleacherReport
Players around the league send their best wishes to Victor Oladipo
https://t.co/VoFpIoNjEX
His loss is a devastating turn of events for the Pacers, who had quietly put together an impressive season and a case as a dark-horse Finals contender.
Oladipo isn’t a household name like the stars on the other Eastern Conference powers—Jimmy Butler, Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid in Philadelphia; Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry in Toronto; Kyrie Irving in Boston; Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee—but until the injury, he was building on the breakout season he had last year that positioned him as one of the East’s top guards.
What this team lacks in star power it has made up with a smart, balanced attack and few weaknesses.
The Pacers have the league’s second-best defense, holding opponents to 104.1 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com. Young big men Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner have made strides at both ends of the floor, and they have plenty of shooting with Bojan Bogdanovic, Darren Collison and Doug McDermott, along with Sabonis and Turner.
Being well-coached and fundamentally sound has made the Pacers a playoff team, but Oladipo made them bordering on elite. He can take over a game with his scoring—both on the perimeter and at the rim—and with his defense. They don’t have anyone else capable of scoring 25 or 30 points on a regular basis.
Until Wednesday night, Oladipo had a strong possibility of making a second consecutive All-Star team. Nobody else on Indiana will even be in the running for that honor.
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
The Pacers held their own without Oladipo earlier this season, going 7-4 when he missed 11 games with knee soreness. Since then, he has been slowly working his way back into an offensive rhythm.
The rest of the team picked up the slack while he struggled in recent months with inconsistent play; if he’d stayed healthy and regained last season’s form, the Pacers could have been dangerous in the playoffs.
Staying afloat in the regular season is more than manageable, especially for a team as deep and talented as this one. Making a run in the postseason is another story.
The Pacers will still make the playoffs—not a high bar to clear in the East. But with Oladipo likely done for the year, they have no chance of challenging the Raptors, Bucks, Celtics or 76ers in May and June. His injury takes what was a five-team race at the top of the Eastern Conference down to four.
The Bucks and Raptors look to be the best of the bunch, with elite defenses and plenty of depth. The Sixers are still feeling out what has been at times a contentious dynamic between their three stars following the November trade for Butler. The Celtics have been up and down all season, failing to recapture the formula that made them last year’s No. 2 seed as they navigate ever-changing roles.
Kyrie IrvingTodd Kirkland/Associated Press/Associated Press
The Pacers, with their stability, continuity and understated execution of smart team concepts, could have been poised to take advantage of some of that uncertainty come playoff time. Certainly, their defense would have been something any of those other teams would have dreaded seeing in a seven-game series.
Oladipo had already proved with a few huge performances in last year’s hard-fought, seven-game loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round that he’s capable of reaching another gear in the playoffs. With another year with this group, one that’s better and deeper than last year’s team, they may have had a shot.
Instead, they will look to stay above water while dealing with the gut-punch of losing their best player. Oladipo’s injury is unfortunate for everybody—for fans, for the Pacers and most of all for him.
One of the NBA’s brightest young stars is now out of the picture, and the rest of the season and the playoff race will be worse for it.
Sean Highkin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. He is currently based in Portland. Follow him on Twitter, @highkin.
from News fore today http://bit.ly/2sIYzuu
0 Comments