Time for the Circle City to Circle the Wagons

The Indiana Pacers lost yet again last night as the visiting San Antonio Spurs walked into Banker's Life Fieldhouse, punched the Pacers in the mouth, and walked out with their 18th straight victory. Now under normal circumstances, there's no shame in losing to the Spurs especially at this point in the season. Head coach Gregg Popovich has the Spurs playing the best ball of anyone in the league and they look poised to make another Finals run. However, for the Indiana Pacers, the importance of last night's game was much bigger than Pacers fans probably want to realize. With the win over the Miami Heat being Indiana's only win in it's last six games, the Pacers are now subject to doubts, criticism, and skepticism. And rightfully so.

Indiana is now looking up at Miami in the standings

With the Spurs coming to town, this was the chance for the Pacers to prove that they weren't going to give up that number one seed. This was their chance to take down the hottest (and probably the best) team in the league and show the basketball world that they can beat the NBA's juggernauts. Instead, the Pacers had yet another embarrassing shooting performance and never put up a fight (the final score was 103-77). On top of all that, reports showed that Pacer guards Lance Stephenson and George Hill had to be separated on the sidelines during a time out huddle. With that in mind, let's flashback to just about a month ago when the team's president Larry Bird said incidents like this could happen if head coach Frank Vogel didn't buckle down and start getting tougher on the players. "One thing I'd be nervous about is pointing fingers," Bird stated. Oddly enough, here we are a month after his comments and Larry Bird is looking like a fortune teller.

And the thing about this dreadful slump that the Pacers are in is that it's not just one thing that needs fixing. It's not just that they've shot below 40% as a team in their past six games. It's not that they're locker room is falling apart when it once boasted an "us against the world" mentality. And it's not just that they're too worried about the Heat to worry about their own success. It's a combination of the three. The Pacers need to figure out what they want to be worried about. Every guy on their team, including Frank Vogel, was up in arms about last week's game against the Heat saying that that game was for the top seed and that it was like a playoff game. That's all well and good, and they're right, that game had a playoff atmosphere.

But that's exactly what the Pacers' problem is, they only care about the Heat. The Pacers painted the seats in Banker's Life to spell out "Beat The Heat" and when the final buzzer sounded, the ball was thrown in the air as if they just earned a trip to the NCAA Final Four. Really? It's embarrassing that they acted like it was an upset to beat Miami and it's even more laughable that they gave the Heat the respect of decking out their entire arena for a REGULAR SEASON game. You are the Indiana Pacers, you were the top team in the East at the time and you had talked a whole lot of smack about Miami all season. Why act like beating them is a cause for that big of a celebration especially in the regular season? I understand the stakes were high and the top seed was on the line, but if you want to take down the Heat you need to act like you belong. You need to act like you're expected to win instead of having to paint the seat covers and celebrating like you won the title afterwards.

The Pacers celebrated excessively last Wednesday

With that being said, good for the Pacers. However, I don't necessarily agree with how they treated that win over the Heat because now look where they are. The Spurs were just as much of a potential playoff match-up as the Heat and Banker's Life was absolutely dead. No painted seat covers, no chants of "Beat the Spurs". Nothing. Why? Because Indiana is at a point where leadership and maturity are hard to come by. Nobody has grabbed this team by the throat and said "Look, we're the best team in the East and we're going to treat every game like a game seven." Instead, the Pacers have gotten complacent and only cared about when Miami comes up next on the schedule. It's sad, because the Pacers have the skill to make a Finals run, but they have to win eight games before they can truly worry about Miami in the playoffs. If you think teams like the Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets, and Toronto Raptors are incapable of taking down the Pacers, especially with the way Indiana is playing right now, you may want to reconsider. Indiana is showing weakness and lack of toughness at the wrong time in the season and it's only a matter of time before it catches up with them.

Again, the Pacers have the star power and depth to win the East, but this team does not know how to handle success because, quite frankly, they don't have the personnel that know what it's like to grind through the low spots in the season and fight to get back to the top. Chicago has John Paxson, Stacey King, and Scottie Pippen all closely related to the team and all three were a part of the Bulls' championship dynasties in the 90's. Not to mention head coach Tom Thibodeau was on the Celtics' staff when they won it all in 2008. The Brooklyn Nets have figured it out because guys like Jason Kidd, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce know what it's like to make a Finals run. Miami obviously has won the last two titles and have kept their roster intact for the most part. Other than having Larry Bird, who already said his piece and it fell on deaf ears, the Pacers don't have anyone that's been to the NBA Finals before that can lead them through this. It's up to the players to come together and right the ship. Fighting during time outs is not the solution nor is calling your teammates selfish to the media (I'm looking at you Roy Hibbert). Time is running out for Indiana and while they do still have time to get it together, the playoffs are coming and right now they're a bloodied seal in shark-infested waters. Teams can see they're not the team they were before the All-Star break. Somebody, anybody, needs to step up in that locker room and fix this dismal end to the regular season. It's time to wake up in Naptown.