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Here was my reasoning:

Had we drawn a red-hot Philly team and say we lose to them, it would have left an awful, just awful taste in the mouths of both our players and our fans. Especially considering our developing rivalry with them given the fireworks that took place in the last meeting, and also considering the mainstream national media would have instantly declared them as "team of the future" or whatever nonsense if they were to beat us. It would not have provided a good outlook for us going forward.

At least by facing the three-time defending conference champs, win or lose it's going to give us a proper measuring stick on what our strengths are and what we need to improve on heading into the summer. Hopefully we can take at least two games in this series and mercifully put LeBron's consecutive first round games streak to rest...

I don't understand your reasoning.

The Cavs could have an entirely different team next season, wether Lebron walks or Lebron demands better teammates.

The Sixers have a very young promising core who will likely stay together for the next x years.
A win or loss against them would give us a much better idea of the potential the Pacers have and which weaknesses we have.

I don't want to read "it's all sunshine" reports. Reality, sweet or harsh, is what I prefer to know.

Eliminating the Sixers and Simmons, I might reconsider the luxury of having 2 centers and 1 of your 3 best players on the bench. Right now, I would not.
Eliminating the Cavs and there is a good chance Lebron is already thinking about leaving them, similar to how our team chemistry fell apart because Paul George was sending out all kinds of signals that he wasn't happy with the Pacers.

A loss against the young Sixers and we know we have to build a stronger 5 men unit to try to slow down Simmons.
A loss against the Cavs and the best player ever to play the game goes West or to a different team, how much have we learned that we can use again?

Some, but definitely not much.

Pacersike wrote:I don't understand your reasoning.

The Cavs could have an entirely different team next season, wether Lebron walks or Lebron demands better teammates.

The Sixers have a very young promising core who will likely stay together for the next x years.
A win or loss against them would give us a much better idea of the potential the Pacers have and which weaknesses we have.

I don't want to read "it's all sunshine" reports. Reality, sweet or harsh, is what I prefer to know.

Eliminating the Sixers and Simmons, I might reconsider the luxury of having 2 centers and 1 of your 3 best players on the bench. Right now, I would not.
Eliminating the Cavs and there is a good chance Lebron is already thinking about leaving them, similar to how our team chemistry fell apart because Paul George was sending out all kinds of signals that he wasn't happy with the Pacers.

A loss against the young Sixers and we know we have to build a stronger 5 men unit to try to slow down Simmons.
A loss against the Cavs and the best player ever to play the game goes West or to a different team, how much have we learned that we can use again?

Some, but definitely not much.

LeBron is still the gold standard until some team in the east actually beats him. If you can contain him, you can contain anyone - That was the whole point. And even if LeBron heads west (unlikely, but possible), we'll still have Giannis and Ben Simmons to deal with.

HurricaneDij25 wrote:LeBron is still the gold standard until some team in the east actually beats him. If you can contain him, you can contain anyone - That was the whole point. And even if LeBron heads west (unlikely, but possible), we'll still have Giannis and Ben Simmons to deal with.

My point is there is nobody like Lebron.

I wanted to know how Oladipo compares with Giannis, Derozan, Simmons, Wall in the playoffs.

The Pacers have a better team than the Cavs, but how much better compared with Sixers, Raptors, Celtics is hard to tell, because its freaking Lebron, making differences only when its needed.

One superb player, who takes his foot off the gas to save energy for later and shows up when we are starting to think we can beat them.