It’s just ‘one game’ has always been the motto in sports, but sometimes a team simply may not really have it them to be champions.
If the NBA handed out rings in December, the Indiana Pacers would have had two parades to celebrate their blistering start to the regular season.
The Pacers finished the season looking like a defeated group. Saturday they opened up the first round of the Eastern Conference at home against the Atlanta Hawks and looked like they actually should have been the No. 7 seed in the playoffs.
Indiana was terrible on defense and Roy Hibbert was the epitome of everything that has gone wrong in the past two months. Hibbert had 8 points on 9 shots, plus 8 rebounds in nearly 30 minutes of court time. He had no blocks, yet got his shot swatted into the stands by Kyle Korver twice.
Hibbert admitted that his play has been lackluster and told the Indy Star that he’s the “Pacers weak link on defense.”
“I’m gonna keep working at it,” Hibbert said dourly after the game, his head down, his words sparse. “I’m gonna come in and keep doing what I do in practice, work on my hook and get in position down low. Hopefully when I’m called upon I can do it consistently….
“We just have to get certain guys under control as a team,” Hibbert said. “I’m sure we’ll look over film. I’m the main culprit in terms of being the weak link on defense because they have a spread-five lineup. I guess we’ll have to adjust.”
