The Indiana Pacers played most of this season without their best player in guard Victor Oladipo as he suffered a major injury in January 2019 and needed a full calendar year to recover. That the NBA season is on suspension actually helps Oladipo. The Pacers were 39-26 before the NBA season was postponed. Here’s an overview of the Indiana Pacers 2020 season so far with NBA Odds and NBA Championship Odds.
NBA Indiana Pacers 2020 Season Analysis
Indiana Pacers Team Analysis
Perhaps the suspension of the season came at a bad time for Oladipo as he had largely struggled in his return from that knee injury and dealt with some soreness but scored a season-high 27 points with seven rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block in Indiana’s final game before the suspension vs. Boston. Oladipo made his season debut vs. Chicago on Jan. 29, played his first game since Jan. 23, 2019, and made the game-tying 3-pointer with 10.3 seconds remaining to force overtime in the win over the Bulls.
Indiana has already lost another rotation player to a season-ending injury in Jeremy Lamb. He tore a torn anterior cruciate ligament, a torn lateral meniscus and a lateral fracture in the bone in a late February loss at Toronto. Lamb started 42 games and was averaging 12.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists. He joined the team as a free agent last summer and had been the staring guard until Oladipo returned from his knee injury.
The break might have come at a good time for another Pacers guard Malcolm Brogdon, as he had been lost for an indefinite period due to a quad injury. For the season, the former Rookie of the Year is averaging a career-best 16.6 points, 7.3 assists and 4.8 rebounds. He has been a terrific offseason addition. Brogdon also has missed time with a concussion, back spasms, sore hamstring and a hand injury among others. Brogdon ranks 10th in the NBA in free throw percentage at 89.5 percent on the season.
Brogdon wouldn’t commit to playing in another regular-season game because of what the team has called a “torn left rectus femoris muscle,” which attaches to the hip and extends and raises the knee as well as flexing the thigh. Aaron Holiday, who fell out of the rotation with Oladipo’s Jan. 29 season debut, had been starting in Brogdon’s place.
Domantas Sabonis has flourished this season as he has been inserted into the Pacers’ starting lineup. As Indiana’s leading rebounder, he currently ranks fifth in the NBA with an average of 12.5 rebounds per game and second with 50 double-doubles on the season. He recorded 30 double-doubles all of last season, which was a career high for him at the time.
Indiana Pacers Key Numbers & Key Players
Indiana holds a 21-11 record at home this season and has outscored its opponents by an average of 4.5 points per game. Opponents are shooting 44.6 percent from the field and 32.6 percent from 3-point range for an average of 106.2 points per game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
The Pacers rank just 22nd in the NBA in scoring average, but have ranked among the NBA leaders in all three shooting categories throughout most of the regular season. Indiana has posted a 19-5 record in games in which the team shoots at least 50 percent from the field. The Pacers are 18-6 when they shoot at least 40 percent from 3-point range.
Indiana has continued to make its mark on the defensive end as the team has ranked in the top 10 in points allowed, defensive field goal percentage and 3-point percentage for most of the regular season. The Pacers are 12-2 this season when holding opponents to 100 or fewer points, and 6-0 when they hold opponents to under 40 percent shooting from the field.
The Pacers rank fifth in the NBA this season in turnovers as they are committing an average of 13.1 mistakes per game. That average extended over an entire season is currently second behind the franchise record for the fewest turnovers committed in a season (13.0 per game in 2017-18). The Pacers lead the NBA this season in team assists-per-turnover ratio (2.01). T.J. McConnell leads the team and ranks fifth in the NBA with an assists-per-turnover ratio of 3.63.
Doug McDermott ranks fifth overall in the NBA this season in 3-point percentage at 44.5 percent. His 118 3-pointers off the bench currently ranks seventh in the NBA. Justin Holiday ranks eighth with 115 3-pointers off the bench.
Indiana Pacers Playoffs panorama and Championship Odds
If the playoffs started today, the Pacers would be the East’s No. 5 seed, and they are +8000 at Mybookie to win the first title in franchise history.
