Stats Show Pacers Can Repeat Last Year's Playoff Success

The Indiana Pacers enter this year’s playoffs as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. Last year, they had a magical run as the sixth seed, eventually losing to the NBA champion Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.

It is safe to say people won’t be underestimating them as much this year. However, the team is a bit different from last season. The core players are the same, but from a statistical standpoint, the team was slightly different.

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Looking at the team’s advanced stats, the Pacers this year had a similar overall net rating as last year’s team but had a slightly different journey to getting there.

This year’s team finished the regular season with a net rating of 2.1, ranking them 13th in the NBA. For comparison, their first-round opponent, the Milwaukee Bucks, finished the regular season with a 2.4 net rating.

Despite being a higher seed than last year, this net rating is actually lower than last year’s 2.9 rating, which put them tenth in the NBA.

The differences in offensive and defensive net rating are also interesting, as last year’s Pacers were second in the NBA with a 120.5 rating, while this year’s team had only a 115.4 rating. That means that while the team got worse offensively, they were better defensively.

Last year’s team ranked 24th in defensive net rating with a rating of 117.6, while this year’s team ranked 14th with a rating of 113.3. That defensive improvement makes them a different team on paper than last year in an interesting way heading into this year’s playoffs.

Another key difference between this year’s team and last year’s team that could be a huge positive is how they performed in the clutch. Last year’s Pacers ranked 17th in the NBA in clutch win percentage, which carried over in the playoffs for a 2-5 record in the clutch.

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This year’s Pacers have been much better in the clutch, ranking fourth in the NBA with a 63.2% win percentage. If that improvement can carry over in the playoffs, the team could reach the Eastern Conference Finals once again.

Despite the roster being very similar on paper, the Pacers are a different team, for better or for worse, heading into this year’s playoffs. They were very offensive-minded last year, but are a bit more balanced this year.

They also are a bit healthier entering the playoffs, but so are their opponents. While they may arguably be a better team on paper, they will likely once again have to overcome the Boston Celtics to improve on last year, and also probably have to deal with the drastically improved top-seed Cleveland Cavaliers, likely in the second round.

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For more news and notes on the Indiana Pacers, visit Indiana Pacers on SI.