Post#10 » by CubColtPacer » Thu Jun 19, 2025 7:32 pm
The important history of this question is that the 2013 Pacers of course took them to 7. And that's after them losing the heartbreaker in game 1 in OT. Then they lost to them in 6 the year after in a series that really was two teams that were broken and not nearly the teams they were the year before.
I think most would say the 2025 Pacers are at least equally as talented as the 2013 Pacers. The run the Pacers have had since December 9th is more impressive than anything that Pacers team had done to that point. Both teams relied on starting lineups that worked really well together, but this team has a deeper bench than that team did.
But Hibbert was almost specially built to face that Heat team. That was a matchup advantage that's hard to figure out exactly how much impact it had on how long and hard fought those series were, but it had a decent amount at least.
That Pacers team played suffocating defense, struggled to score, and crushed the offensive boards against the Heat. This Pacers team would score way more, but would struggle with the rim pressure of the Heat offense and wouldn't be nearly as good on the glass. But their ball pressure would still lead to some great things.
I think the Heat in 6-7 would be my leaning, but really it's just hard to compare teams from different eras, especially teams which are so stylistically different.