What is the biggest story of the East?

Brenice · Post #1 » by **Brenice** » Wed May 7, 2014 1:21 pm

What is the biggest story in the East? The deterioration of the Pacers or the emergence of the Wizards? Looking at all the NBA/sports programs on ESPN and NBA tv all I see after game 1 Wiz/Pacers is Roy Hibbert and Indy...but IMO, I think the current Wizards would beat Indy at peak in a series.

When I see David West challenging Gooden in GAME 1, that is a sign of desperation.

Your thoughts?

Nivek · Post #2 » by **Nivek** » Wed May 7, 2014 2:42 pm

You've really named two aspects of the same story. The Pacers meltdown is something I don't think has ever happened with a top seed. The emergence of the Wizards is highly linked to the Pacers collapse -- as in, if they were facing the Pacers that was playing great ball up to the All-Star break, they wouldn't be emerging.

Brenice · Post #3 » by **Brenice** » Wed May 7, 2014 2:54 pm

Nivek wrote:The Pacers meltdown is something I don't think has ever happened with a top seed. The emergence of the Wizards is highly linked to the Pacers collapse -- as in, if they were facing the Pacers that was playing great ball up to the All-Star break, they wouldn't be emerging.

The Wizards was an emerging story before game 1 against Indy. Indy was a story before game 1 against the Wizards. It just happened that the 2 storyline's crossed paths.

I know the Pacers meltdown is historical, but I also think the Wizards right now would beat the pre-all star break Pacers. That's what is frustrating David West more than anything. People act like Hibbert was this dominant force, but he was being overrated. David West is already resorting to trying to punk the Wizards because he knows the Pacers are in over their heads.

dlts20 · Post #4 » by **dlts20** » Wed May 7, 2014 2:58 pm

Nivek, I still disagree with that. I still think people are sleeping on us. Again, in Nene's last 35 starts, we are 24-11. When healthy for the first half of the season we had the #4 ranked starting unit in the NBA. #4 and thats when Mia & Ind were dominant and you had a million teams out West. We just had by far the worst bench in the league but thats way way way better now. This was all with our O being suspect and not having nearly as good the ball movement we have right now. We are not a 44 win team right now. We just arent but people cant accept that.

We have a top 10 defense and clearly better then that when we want to turn it up. I can say it enough, those last 4 games of the year were different. The ball movement changed. Its been way better then it has been in the last million years for our orginization and now its the playoffs so you know we will play D every game. We are not the same team. That Bulls team was the team that no one wanted to play. A East best 36-16 since Jan. We beat them in 5. Thats not a fluke and thats not a crappy team.

Alot of people thought the Pacers had turned the corner by the end of the Hawks series and even there fans say they didnt play bad in game 1. We are just playing good right now. I dont care if it was the Pacers that started the season, we would give them hell and we are going to give the Heat hell also. If Wall finds his stroke again then it even goes up another notch

Post #5 » by **Zonkerbl** » Wed May 7, 2014 3:00 pm

Nivek wrote:You've really named two aspects of the same story. The Pacers meltdown is something I don't think has ever happened with a top seed. The emergence of the Wizards is highly linked to the Pacers collapse -- as in, if they were facing the Pacers that was playing great ball up to the All-Star break, they wouldn't be emerging.

Seattle-Nuggets?

http://www.nba.com/history/94nuggets_moments.html

That series was why they went to the 7 game format in round 1, if I recall correctly.

Nivek · Post #6 » by **Nivek** » Wed May 7, 2014 3:13 pm

Brenice wrote:
Nivek wrote:The Pacers meltdown is something I don't think has ever happened with a top seed. The emergence of the Wizards is highly linked to the Pacers collapse -- as in, if they were facing the Pacers that was playing great ball up to the All-Star break, they wouldn't be emerging.

The Wizards was an emerging story before game 1 against Indy. Indy was a story before game 1 against the Wizards. It just happened that the 2 storyline's crossed paths.

I know the Pacers meltdown is historical, but I also think the Wizards right now would beat the pre-all star break Pacers. That's what is frustrating David West more than anything. People act like Hibbert was this dominant force, but he was being overrated. David West is already resorting to trying to punk the Wizards because he knows the Pacers are in over their heads.

I don't agree. The Pacers were terrific through the first 52 games of the season -- +8.8 efficiency differential, which is the differential of a 63-win team (over an 82-game schedule). After the All-Star break, they had a negative differential -- the kind we'd normally see from a 34-win team.

After the All-Star break, the Wizards had the differential of a 52-win team, so they got better (in part because of a weak schedule, but still -- previous Wizards teams woulda found a way to screw that up). Still not in the stratosphere the Pacers were in through the first half+ of the season.

No way to know, of course.

tontoz · Post #7 » by **tontoz** » Wed May 7, 2014 3:14 pm

Indy's meltdown was a big story before the playoffs even started. Getting taken to game 7 by the 8th seed (playing without their best player Horford) just added fuel to the fire.

FAH1223 · Post #8 » by **FAH1223** » Wed May 7, 2014 3:20 pm

The Heat having the easiest road to the NBA Finals in recent history.

Nivek · Post #9 » by **Nivek** » Wed May 7, 2014 3:21 pm

Zonkerbl wrote:
Nivek wrote:You've really named two aspects of the same story. The Pacers meltdown is something I don't think has ever happened with a top seed. The emergence of the Wizards is highly linked to the Pacers collapse -- as in, if they were facing the Pacers that was playing great ball up to the All-Star break, they wouldn't be emerging.

Seattle-Nuggets?

http://www.nba.com/history/94nuggets_moments.html

That series was why they went to the 7 game format in round 1, if I recall correctly.

Yeah, that's an 1 losing to an 8, but I was referring more to the abrupt decline in Indiana's play after the All-Star break. Before the break, they were dominant. After the break, they were sub-.500. They looked vulnerable enough that I blogged back on April 7 that the Wizards might consider tanking for 7th to get the Pacers in the first round.

Which wouldn't have worked out so well since 7th would have gotten them the Heat... :crazy:

But, the central point of that piece stands, which is that the Pacers looked ripe for being upset. That upset nearly got pulled off by the Hawks, which was terrible down the stretch -- but only barely worse than Indy!

verbal8 · Post #10 » by **verbal8** » Wed May 7, 2014 3:50 pm

Story of the East: Nivek vs. Mike Wise twitter battle.

Post #11 » by **montestewart** » Wed May 7, 2014 3:52 pm

FAH1223 wrote:The Heat having the easiest road to the NBA Finals in recent history.

I'm still hoping it's the Wizards easy path. Come on Brooklyn!

Biggest story is probably LeBJ's cute new socks or something.

dlts20 · Post #12 » by **dlts20** » Wed May 7, 2014 5:05 pm

no way. I want the Heat

Illmatic12 · Post #13 » by **Illmatic12** » Wed May 7, 2014 5:18 pm

Brenice wrote:What is the biggest story in the East? The deterioration of the Pacers or the emergence of the Wizards? Looking at all the NBA/sports programs on ESPN and NBA tv all I see after game 1 Wiz/Pacers is Roy Hibbert and Indy...but IMO, I think the current Wizards would beat Indy at peak in a series.

When I see David West challenging Gooden in GAME 1, that is a sign of desperation.

Your thoughts?

The Pacers deserve to be the bigger story right now.

But if we beat them, they will be forgotten and a lot more coverage will shift to us. Obviously teams like Miami and OKC/LAC would get the bulk of the coverage, but it's pretty hard to ignore one of the 4 remaining teams out of 30.