Stumbling at the Wrong Time

By: Mat McGowan

After leading the Eastern Conference for the majority of the season, the Indiana Pacers have relinquished their top spot to the two-time defending champion Miami Heat.

The Pacers were booted from the playoffs last year in the Eastern Conference Finals by none other than the Miami Heat.

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During the offseason players and coaches from the Pacers uttered a consistent message, which was to win the number one seed and have home field advantage throughout the playoffs, something they did not have last time out against Miami.

All of that looked fine and dandy for them up until their recent struggles.

And struggles are a nice way of putting it.

The Pacers are 20-18 over their last 38 games which is very mediocre compared to the 33-7 record they posted in the 40 previous games.

Last week, starting small forward Lance Stephenson and starting point guard George Hill had to be separated on the bench while their team was being absolutely anialated by the San Antonio Spurs.

Pacers head coach, Frank Vogel, had to bench his entire starting five this past week after seeing his offense post a mere 23 points in one half. To put that into perspective, the average offense scores 25 points per quarter.

There is a glimmer of hope Pacer fans.

Amidst their mediocre play, the Pacers were able to beat the Heat 84-83 at home and looked pretty good while doing it.

The Pacers and Heat do not like each other one bit and the last meeting between the two proved that the Pacers can still play their best ball when the see the team that has knocked them out of the playoffs two years in a row sitting on the other bench.

With that being said, basketball has a different playoff system then some other sports, like football. It is most comparable to baseball.

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The major difference between football and basketball is that in basketball, it take four losses to be kicked out of the playoffs. In football it just takes one game bad game and just like that, you're gone.

This puts an emphasis on well, just having a better team than the one you're facing, and having home field advantage could be the advantage that tips the scales in a tough matchup.

This is will ultimately be the downfall of the Pacers, a team that seems to be in disarray right now, a team that said their goal was the number one seed.

However for a third year in a row, it will probably come down to these two heavyweights to battle it out for the Eastern Conference Championship.