| Rotation Issues In Indiana Authored by Andrew Perna - March 24, 2008 - 7:13 pm
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At the beginning of the 2007-08 campaign their struggles began with a host of injuries – Jermaine O’Neal and Jamaal Tinsley have missed roughly half of the season with a myriad of symptoms. With the team’s two most-established stars spending more time on the bench than the court, the rest of Indiana’s ‘rotation’ issues have appeared.
The Pacers, who sprinted out of the gates with a 15-13 record, have stumbled in the second half of the season without O’Neal and Tinsley. Since knocking off the Wizards at home on Dec. 22, Indiana has compiled a dismal 14-28 mark. Sadly, the East is so weak that the Pacers were less than two games behind the Hawks for the final playoff spot in the conference heading into Monday night’s games.
“When we are healthy it’s hard to beat us. We’re going to score points,” said Tinsley.
Jamaal is right, to a degree. Indiana puts up 103.5 points per game, which ranks seventh in the entire league. However, putting up a ton of points isn’t going to help you win games when your defensive philosophy resembles a sieve. The Pacers are allowing opponents to score 105.6 points a night, the fifth-worst average in the NBA this season.
Indiana’s defense is atrocious, but entire blame cannot be placed on the players that suit up for the team night-in and night-out. O’Neal is easily the team’s best single-defender, and his help defense was a huge part of the team’s attack in recent years as well. He was blocking 2.24 shots per game before his extended stay on the training table.
O’Neal’s presence on the bench, or lack thereof in the rotation, has allowed teams to punish the Pacers in the paint in a multitude of ways. Indiana is seventh in the league in rebounding this season, but they have a minus-two differential when compared to their adversaries. Opposing teams are crashing the glass to the tune of 45.1 boards per game; only the Warriors and Nuggets allow a higher average.
Defense and rebounding aren’t Indiana’s only faults this season.
Jim O’Brien has installed a high-powered offense, something vastly different than the half-court flow that Rick Carlisle preferred during his tenure with the team. It seems as though some of the Pacers are still trying to adapt to the new system, as Indiana often crumbles down the stretch.
“Sometimes we just run out of gas [in the fourth quarter] and other times it’s just a lack of defensive effort or execution. Once we get those two issues figured out we should be okay,” said Danny Granger.
The only problem is that time is running out.
Indiana posted a perfect 4-0 record last week with wins over the Knicks, Bobcats, Timberwolves and Bulls – allowing them to breathe even heavier down the neck of the eighth place Hawks. The Pacers didn’t exactly knock off the toughest of teams during their recent four-game streak, but this time of year a win is a win.
In case you were wondering, none of those games were won with defense. They averaged 111 points in the four victories, while allowing the opposition to score 102 points per game. Maybe the Pacers have gotten used to running up-and-down the court for forty-eight minutes, but it seems more plausible that the losses will return once the offense cools down.
If all the statistics, and a losing record, aren’t enough to convince you that the Pacers are among the worst defensive teams in the league, consider this – O’Brien has used Kareem Rush as a defensive stopper at times this season.
“Coach told me that I had been getting more time in the lineup because I was playing good defense, and a lot of times he’d match me with the opposing team’s best perimeter player,” Rush said of the increased playing time he was getting in both January and February.
Nothing against Rush, but it’s not a good sign when you’re putting him on the opponent’s best shooter.
Tinsley will not return to the floor for the Pacers this season, because of lingering knee issues, which isn’t going to help Indiana improve defensively. Jamaal isn’t an incredible defender, but he’s certainly better than the other options – namely Travis Diener and Andre Owens.
The Pacers have good one-on-one defenders in Jeff Foster and Granger, but the team is communicating extremely poorly with one another. It could be poor chemistry, or too much emphasis on offense, but even guys like Foster and Granger are getting burnt with alarming frequency on the defensive end.
A sequence that has been burned into my memory took place against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden in early February. Foster was out of position on back-to-back plays against Eddy Curry of all players. Curry made consecutive baskets, including an uncontested dunk, within the game’s first forty seconds. He finished the night 8-for-10 with 20 points and three offensive rebounds.
Although the Pacers came out victorious in that game, Curry was able to put up one of his best, and most efficient, performances of the season. Once again, the blame shouldn’t be placed solely on Foster for Curry’s performance – it’s worth noting that Zach Randolph had 26 points and 9 rebounds as well against Indiana that infamous night – because the absence of O’Neal has made the interior an easy place for opponents to play. Guys like Foster always benefited from O’Neal’s help defense.
Troy Murphy, who has been playing more minutes in the paint with J.O. out, is often a mismatch because of his ability to shoot from behind the three-point line. However, he’s also a below-average defender. He works well in Indiana’s system because of his shot and rebounding prowess, but he hasn’t helped Foster shut down opponents in the paint.
If O’Neal comes back, which could happen as early as this week, the Pacers might be able to improve defensively. If not, they better hope their offense gets hot at the right times, because they will need to score 110 points to ensure victories.
Indiana’s injury woes and their problems defensively have caused a third ‘rotation’ issue to crop up. They have the lowest attendance numbers in the entire league, worse than the notoriously empty arenas in Memphis, Seattle and New Orleans.
Conseco Fieldhouse is welcoming just 12,059 fans on average this season, despite it’s reputation as one of the NBA’s best arenas and Indiana’s hallowed status as a basketball hotbed.
Unless the Pacers are able to get healthy and improve their defensive rotation, they aren’t going to see an increase in rotation at the gates anytime soon.
It might take a while for Indiana to improve on their interweaving trio of rotation issues, but at this point up might be the only direction for this team to go.
Andrew Perna is a Senior Writer for RealGM.com. Feel free to contact him via e-mail (Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com) with comments of questions. |
