2014 Playoffs: (1) Indiana vs. (8) Atlanta

[Kevin]

Good bye Pacers

[NovU]

Pacers quickly gaining the momentum. Enough time left to catch up. gasp

[Moz]

phpBB [video]

[Andrew]

That's one unhappy fan.

[Alpha_]

It's a little too late for the Pacers.

[NovU]

Well... that was boring.


I never really enjoyed seeing the Pacers playing and tonight's game was another confirmation why.

[Sauru]

i really hate what has happened to indiana at the end of the season. it was nice to have another team in the championship picture. the more the better imo

[shadowgrin]

Pacers got tired of their tough guy act, they don't even care anymore.

[SoF'nAwesome]

Wizards for ECF!

[NovU]

Roy Hibbert, it's kinda astounding. He's been a big time playoffs performer in last two seasons. Basically, he performed better in the playoffs than in regular seasons.

2011-12
Regular season PER: 19.3
Playoffs PER: 20.8

2012-13
Regular season PER: 17.3
Playoffs PER: 21.2
(Minutes per game also increased in the playoffs for both seasons since he was playing better.)

But this season, his regular season PER is down to 13.5. This is his career low by big margin and below league average. Basically his role within the team has diminished overnight and team has found success away from him during regular season. This would be tolerable if he maintained this sub-par level of performance in the playoffs as the team still were able to find success with other players stepping up to a bigger role, but that below average performance further diminished and totally crashed to a point where he's completely useless and detrimental to the team. His PER is 0.8 (which is 2nd worst in the league out of players that played 100 or more minutes). That makes him arguably the worst player in this year's playoffs. Now note that he was among one of the best in last two seasons, this makes the Pacers completely different team from past two seasons with him struggling in limited minutes/role.

I'd love to give tons credits to the Hawks for making Hibbert completely obsolete in this series but I believe something more has been going on with him. It's been awhile he's been losing his mojo. Team chemistry, change in Vogel system, confidence, what the heck do you think is the major factor in his unseen level of decline?

[Kevin]

Its the team chemistry. You have a veteran (West) that cant control the locker room, a coach that cant make up his mind, a rising star (George), an overrated center (Hibbert) and of course the m-fcking guy who thinks he's a legend. Just my opinion tho

[Lamrock]

Obviously Vogel has to take some blame for not making adjustments (and will probably lose his job over it) but Roy Hibbert's implosion over the second half of the season is truly bizarre. Gotta wonder if he's injured or something has happened off the court that has caused him to become Michael Olowokandi

I lean towards the injury angle myself. Never a good sign when Andrew Bynum is giving you pointers on the bench though

[shadowgrin]

Never a good sign when Andrew Bynum is giving you pointers on the bench

Bynum was taught by no less than Kwame Brown himself.
Hibbert is lucky to even receive such wisdom.

[NovU]

Roy Hibbert, who scored just six points on Saturday, had dinner with Pacers' brain trust Larry Bird, Donnie Walsh and Kevin Pritchard on Friday night in Atlanta.
"Larry and I talked (earlier) and he asked if (I) wanted to go to dinner on (him). He had plans and he invited me with the three amigos," he said. "One thing Larry told me was to just work on my balance when I'm out there on the offensive end. I tried to do that tonight whenever I got the ball." Hibbert has a terrible matchup with the Hawks and he's not likely to see the court in the fourth quarter of any of the remaining games. However, his attitude was great on Saturday and he was the biggest cheerleader off the bench with the game on the line. And if he's not going to be productive on the court in Round 1, playing the role of cheerleader is a much better look than pouting at the end of the bench. Apr 27 - 10:06 AM
Source: Indianapolis Star

Roy Hibbert's probably been exposed by many teams over the years: how to attack him and throw him out of his comfort zone. It was Vogel's job to utilize him more efficiently but I guess they never really found out how in time. I have a feeling the issue expands beyond this series. It'll be interesting to see how things pan out in Indiana with Hibbert over next couple seasons. Obviously he's a big part of the Pacers' plan to contend at high level.

[benji]

[Andrew]

And so the Pacers hold on, despite Hibbert's best efforts.

[Alpha_]

My gut instinct says the Hawks will win Game 7.

[NovU]

The Hawks blew the golden opportunity. On the road game 7 is a different animal. I see a blow out coming. The Pacers have something to prove and they will do so. Nothing the Hawks do matters now. Pacers by 18-23 point victory. That's my prediction.

[shadowgrin]

Larry Bird must have went to the locker room and told the Pacers they played like a bunch of women after game 5.

[Mandich]

Mahinmi just blocked Atlantas last hopes. Also Millsap shooting and flopping around doesn't help. CJ Watson really sucks this year.

Indiana just has way too much size and talent.

[JoeJames]

Mahinmi just blocked Atlantas last hopes. Also Millsap shooting and flopping around doesn't help. CJ Watson really sucks this year.

Indiana just had too much lucky.

FIX

The way they played the first games, Atland should've finished them in 4 or 5 game, but they didn't and this is the result.

I hope Pacers learned from this experience, because if the choke the same way vs Wizards or Heat, they will be sweep or at least in 5 games

[shadowgrin]

Might as well say Atlanta got lucky in making their three-point shots earlier in the series that made this one go 7 games.

[NovU]

What's promising though is Hibbert having a great game in a lot of minutes. This could be huge going forward in this playoffs.


Props to the Hawks though. I liked how the lowest seed Hawks from top heavy eastern conference took this series to distance. Big fuck you to those that were saying East is shit. Look how competitive this series was and the Heat Bobcats' series full of intense moments and excitement.

[SoF'nAwesome]

East is shit. It's just that Pacers(the strong team in East) went to shit as well. Mavs-Spurs matchup is what you might say exciting.

But I agree, nothing more exciting than a limping knee VS a rested knee

[NovU]

Baloney.