So…while the 25-game mark has no meaningful statistical or symbolice relevance in a 66-game season, it still feels like a nice round number. Besides with Pacers dropping bad performances last night and on Saturday, it’s worth getting some perspective on the season-to-date.

17-8

Indy’s best start since the 2003-04 season, when the Pacers won 19 of their first 25 on the way to a 61-win season. Of course, a 61-win season is already impossible, as the most they could win with 8 losses is 59 games this season. But if you prorated by dividing 61 by 82, then multiplying it by 66, you’d end up with the equiv…oh, never mind.  Good start, though.

5th, 20th

The Pacers have slipped just a little bit in their rankings for both Defensive and Offensive Efficiency. Defensively, they remain very good – Top 5 – and they continue to drive that with very good field goal defense (4th in Def FG% at .421, 5th in Def eFG% at .462). As I’ve said before, field goal defense is far and away the single most important aspect of defending. If you’re very good at that, you’ll never be worse than above average at overall defense.  Their work on the defensive glass has gotten better, but is still poor (.728, 23rd). For perspective, however, that is probably what keeps Indy’s defense from being elite, as opposed to just very, very good.

Offensively, the Pacers are really a case of “everything but the girl.” They don’t turn the ball over a lot, they do a good job on their offensive glass, and they get to the line on a pretty regular basis. They just can’t make shots. Their .461 is good only for24th in Off eFG%, and remains a lower eFG% than their own vaunted field goal defense allows their opponents. That’s why Indy doesn’t get the girl and is a below average offensive team (20th).

.564, .326

Those two numbers represent the Pacers’ shooting at the rim and from 16-23 feet according to Hoopdata. These have improved since last time, but not by leaps and bounds.

The .564 at the rim is dead last in the Association, and the Pacers only have three players – Jeff Foster, George Hill, and Paul George – shooting at or above the league average of .629.  Worse, eight of their thirteen players have at-the-rim conversion rates lower than the New Jersey Nets’ .582 (2nd worse in the NBA). These include Hansbrough (.571), West (.569), Granger (.557), Hibbert (.548), and Collison (.543).

Indy has managed to claw past Orlando and Toronto in their 16-to-23-foot accuracy, but they’re still not even approaching good. Hibbert and West are both above 40%, but they get drowned out by another general lack of accuracy, led by Danny Granger (.270) and Tyler Hansbrough (.300). Let’s face it, when Lance Stephenson is your third most accurate shooter from 16-to-23 feet, it’s not going to be pretty.

.514, 15th

The Pacers’ “SoSHR,” which was one of the lowest in the league, has moved to the middle of the pack on the strength of last few games.  This is basically the Weighted Strength of Schedule – Home/Road in Pacers’ games thus far.  This is a metric I use regularly, and you can find a more detailed explanation here.

Indiana went 3-2 in their toughest five-game stretch of the season, posting wins on the road over the Lakers, Bulls, and Magic. The truth of the matter is that the Pacers’ schedule for the season will never be “tough” by this metric. They play in a weak Eastern Conference and have one of the easier schedules against the Western Conference. Indy’s final 41 games are currently rated as the 5th easiest in the Association.

Still, this measure doesn’t contemplate 7-game-in-10-night stretches like the one the Pacers just entered. Those will be the landmines this squad will have to negotiate to be able to capitalize on the overall weakness of their slate.

7, 10-4, 6-1, 4-3

In this condensed season, the Pacers have played seven back-to-back (b2b) sets. They’re 10-4 in those 14 games, winning 6 of the 7 first-nighters, but only 4 of the 7 second-nighters.  They have swept three of them.

Even with the loss to Atlanta on Wednesday, Indiana’s 10-4 record is the second best in the league in B2B situations, trailing only Oklahoma City’s 12-3. The Pacers are tied with the second best record on the first night, and have the 10th best record on the second night.

Thirty of their remaining 41 games will be played as part of b2b or b2b2b situations. That’s more than any other team has left. Indy will play 12 traditional b2bs, and two of the lockout-induced back-to-back-to-backs. The first of which starts next Tuesday, when Miami comes to town.

13-12

That’s the number of wins I had projected after 25 games as part of ESPN’s pre-season predictions. The full season number was 37, but I think that probably should be adjusted upwards. It’s getting close to the time where anything short of 40 would be considered something of a disappointment.

9 of 11, 4 of 14

Tyler Hansbrough scored in double figures in 9 of his first 11 games, but only 4 of the next 14. It is somewhat encouraging that he’s played well in two of the last three, but a little disconcerting that those excellent performances coincided with two of the worst overall Pacer performances of the season. We’ve seen this phenomena before, and I discussed it last season when reviewing Tyler’s performance in March.

The disconnect between Hansbrough’s performance and the team’s is something that may bear watching, but probably doesn’t bear worrying about. It is most likely the result of the continuing evolution of this team made up of a lot of either new players or players in new roles. The evidence isn’t particularly compelling at this point (8-5 when Tyler scores double figures, 9-3 when he doesn’t), but I’m sure all of us are looking forward to both Hansbrough and the team as a whole playing well at the same time.

-21 per 100

Darren Collison has played about 70% of the minutes at point guard this year for the Pacers. When he is replaced by either George Hill or A.J. Price, the offensive efficiency drops, on average, about 21 points per 100.  The defense gets just a little better (3 points per 100), but overall, the net differential for the Pacers gets worse by 18 points per 100.

Last season, Collison played 60% of the minutes at the point. The offense suffered slightly (1.3 per 100) when someone else played the point, but the defense improved by almost 6 per hundred – so the team more than 4 points better with DC on the bench last year. This is probably the biggest sign of Darren’s turnaround this season.

99, 5th

I continue to watch the Pacers’ accumulated rank in the Four Factors, and it continues to be the most encouraging thing to me. The Pacers’ continue to stay in the 90s, which historically puts them in a group that has won 63% of their games. As long as Indy can keep their production in this range, I will feel relatively confident projecting 40 or more wins for them in this lockout-shortened season.

As with almost all of my other work, the marvelous Basketball-Reference.com was indispensable in my research and analysis on this piece. Further kudos to BasketballValue.com for their unit and on/off information.

Related posts:

1. By the Numbers 2012: The Pacers’ First Ten Games
2. By the Numbers: Recapping the Preseason
3. By The Numbers: October – November 2009

Not sure why this happened. The only things I’m sure of are that it is probably Jared’s fault, and it most certainly had nothing to do the fact that I kept forgetting to put them together, eventually forgetting about the series altogether. That was clearly a non-factor.

So, here we are now, and ten games into the Pacers season seemed to be a good time to give this another try.

7-3

We’ll always start with the Pacers record. This 7-3 start is Indy’s best performance over the first 10 games since the 2005-2006 season. That team finished 41 wins after enduring the Ron Artest trade saga, and was probably the least likable, least watchable Pacer team I have ever seen. They also started 7-3 the year before that, but they elected to include a brawl in those first 10 games, which kinda put a damper on things.

I’m gonna hafta hope history doesn’t repeat here, and go ahead and mention that the Pacers are on pace to win 46 games this year – the lockout-shortened equivalent of 57 wins! Huzzah! (Now would also be a good time to mention that with only 10 games played, all of these numbers could be features of small sample size theatre – to one degree or another.)

4th, 18th

Win-Loss Record is the ultimate arbiter of a team’s regular season success, but Offensive and Defensive Efficiency – points scored or allowed per 100 possessions – are good barometers. Each must be looked at in the context of not only the rest of the league, but also in relation to each other.

The good for the Pacers is that they are allowing only 97.1 points per 100. That’s 5.3 points below the league average and good for 4th.

The not-so-good for the Pacers is that they are only scoring 100.6 PP100, which ranks them a middling 18th in the Association.

5th & 5th

One of my go-to sets of statistics is the “Four Factors of Winning.” For those unfamiliar, it is a set of four metric that measure what are considered to be the most important drivers of performance – shooting, rebounding, making/forcing turnovers, and drawing/committing fouls (as represented by FT/FGA). There is a set of four for each offense and defense.

Teams have become good at either end by balancing these four factors, and while there is no single way to succeed, history has shown the shooting category (eFG%) as the single most correlative to success at both ends, and ultimately, winning. Over the past 30 years or so, a team’s rank in eFG% (or DEF eFG%) has had a 0.8 or better correlation to that team’s rank in Offensive or Defensive Efficiency. Further, it has hovered around 0.7 in terms of that team’s rank in Winning Percentage.

And here we can see the strength and the weakness of the Pacers so far. The Pacers defense has been the 5th best in DEF eFG% – allowing only .454 vs. a league average of .480)  and when coupled with above average performance in the other factors, they have established themselves as a top defensive team.

However, the Pacers have also been the 5th worst shooting team – only .451 eFG% – which largely explains their below average offense. The Pacers are a good example of “balancing” the four factors. Indiana has been able to approach being an average offense team (in this year’s NBA) by being very good on offensive glass (7th in ORB% at .279) and by getting to the line (7th in FT/FTA) at .244.

Still, these last two items -ORB% & FT/FGA – have been the least correlative to success over the years (0.2 and 0.3, respectively). Therefore, unless Indy starts hitting more of their shots, there’s a high risk that their overall Offensive Efficiency rank will start gravitating down towards their eFG% rank.

.544, .289

Those two numbers represent the Pacers’ shooting at the rim and from 16-23 feet according to Hoopdata. Indy is dead last in both. Why does this matter? Because these two areas are Nos. 1 and 2 for both the league and the Pacers in terms of frequency of shots.

The .544 at the rim is .085 below the league average, and cleaning that up would go a long way towards stabilizing their shooting . I’m looking at you: pretty much everybody not named George Hill (.650).

Meanwhile, David West has started to make strides in his 16-23 shooting as he’s at about 43%, hopefully on his way back up to matching his 47% mark from last year. It’ll take a lot though, to overcome the efforts of Danny Granger, Darren Collison, Tyler Hansbrough, and Dahntay Jones. Those four have combined to take 122 of the Pacers’ 197 shots from this range, but only hit .238 of them.

.420, 27th

The Pacers’ “SoSHR,” which is one of the lowest in the league, but you play who the schedule maker puts in front of you.  This is basically the Weighted Strength of Schedule – Home/Road in Pacers’ games thus far.  This is a metric I use regularly, and you can find a more detailed explanation here.

7 of 10, 17, 2

Seven of the next 10 Pacer games are on the road, played over the next 17 days, with two back-to-backs.  The SoSHR of those 10 games is only .510, but there’s a five game stretch starting at the Lakers on the 20th (vs. ORL, @ CHI, @ BOS, @ ORL) that may be the toughest stretch of the season .

37

That’s the number of wins I had projected as part of ESPN’s pre-season predictions. I still think that’s a pretty solid number, but it’s worth mentioning that I had them only at 6-4 through 10 games, and at 10-10 after 20. Based on what I’ve seen, I think 12-7 or 13-6 is possible, and the 40-win mark (the rough equivalent of a 50-win 82-game season) may be attainable.

9 of 14

From Elias: Danny Granger scored nine of the Pacers’ 14 points in overtime as Indiana topped the Cavaliers (on 12/30) after Kyrie Irving‘s missed layup at the fourth-quarter buzzer resulted in the NBA’s first overtime game this season. Granger had never before scored as many as nine points in an overtime period during his NBA career. His previous OT high was seven points on Halloween night in 2007.

5 by 5

Paul George hit all five of his three-point field-goal attempts as the Pacers rolled to a 108-94 victory over the Nets in Newark. Troy Murphy went 6-for-6 from three-point range for the Pacers in a game in 2009 and Danny Granger went 5-for-5 from downtown in a game in 2007; but George became the first Pacers guard to have a game in which he took at least five three-point shots and hit them all since Reggie Miller did if for the fourth and final time in his career in 2004. (from Elias)

.296 to .640

In his first three games playing for his hometown team, George Hill hit only 8-of-27 shots. Since then, he has hit 24-of-43, including seven of 13 three pointers, for an eFG% of .640

97, 7th

I feel I’ve lingered a bit on some of the less flattering numbers, perhaps a bit more than is warranted with a 7-3 team. Some of that is due to the nature of my day job, and some of that is reflexive after watching the Pacers over the years. Still, it’s important to look at the one big number that I think indicates a sound foundation for the Pacers.

A couple of years ago, I began aggregating the team rankings in the Four Factors, which I blatantly stole from SI’s (who was then-Celtics Hub’s) Zach Lowe. Here’s a (not-so-) brief explanation I used in a piece trying to determine if the 2010 Pacers were the worst Pacer team ever.

Back in November, Zach Lowe of Celtics Hub did a really interesting piece called “Pushing the Boundaries of the Four Factors” in which he was trying to understand if a team could contend for a title if it was sub-standard in certain areas of the Four Factors.  In essence, Zach took the the team’s ranking in each of the Four Factors and added them together to create a number. This game himan accumulated rank. If a team was ranked 10th in each of the Four Factors for offense, for example, it’s total accumulated rank would be 40. Simple enough. And logical enough to yield some interesting analysis.

Stealing the use of this mechanism, I took the results of all of the teams from the 1980 to now and ranked them on their Four Factors for both offense and offense.  Then, by adding these together, we get one accumulated ranking number for each team on the “Eight Factors” (four for offense, four for defense). So here, a team that was 10th in all the offensive Four Factors and all the defensive Four Factors would have a total accumulated rank of 80.

(For reference’s sake, the lowest possible accumulated rank for any team is 8, which would mean it was ranked 1st in the NBA in all eight categories. That has never happened, obviously, and it turns out that the best teams in NBA history rank in the 50s. On the other end of the spectrum, the highest possible accumulated rank is 240, which would mean a teams was 30th in all eight categories.  No team has ever been this bad — although the Nets this year are trying — and the worst teams in NBA history have come in around 190.)

In any case, at that time, that Pacer team had an accumulated rank of 165. This Pacer team has an accumulated rank of 97.

Why does this matter? It matters because during all of the false springs (that the Blue-and-Gold usually have in November) of the past three years, this accumulated ranking always indicated the collapse to come.  Those teams had cumulative rankings between the 130′s and the 150′s. The statue had feet of clay.

At 97, the Pacers are 7th overall in a gross aggregation of arguably the most important statistical categories. In that study I did two years ago (regrettably, not updated for 2010 or 2011), there had been 67 teams from 1980 through 2009 that had posted cumulative rankings in the 90s.

Overall, those teams won 63% of their games (~52 wins in an 82-game season). Of those teams, only one had a losing season, while 42 won more than 61% of their games. There were even three champions: the ’82 Lakers, the ’89 Pistons, and (a portent, perhaps?) the ’99 Spurs.

During that time, only five Pacer teams compiled accumulated rankings in the 90s. You’ll like the list:

• 1994 Pacers – Eastern Conference Finalists
• 1995 Pacers – Eastern Conference Finalists
• 1998 Pacers – Eastern Conference Finalists
• 2000 Pacers – NBA Finalists
• 2003 Pacers – 48 wins*

(* – Isiah Thomas-coached)

Ten games is only ten games, but Indy’s performance in some ways could be more real and more meaningful than anything about the Pacers for several years. Given their room for improvement offensively, it seems realistic that the Pacers may be able to maintain at or near this level over the course of the season.

If they do, then that really is a light at the end of the tunnel.

As with almost all of my other work, the marvelous Basketball-Reference.com was indispensable in my research and analysis on this piece.

Related posts:

1. By The Numbers: October – November 2009
2. 2012 Spiderwebs: Game 2 Pacers vs. Toronto
3. Where They Are Statistically — A Look at the Pacers’ Production Through 17 Games

18-34

At this point, the Indiana Pacers would have to go 17-13 to reach my preseason projection of 35 wins.  Stranger things have happened, but they generally involve tortillas and the Virgin Mary.

.379

The combined winning percentage, as of February 10th, of the teams the Pacers have defeated.

6-20

Pacers’ record vs. winning teams this season. The losses have been by a combined 241  points, just over 12 points a game.  Only six have been decided by fewer than 10 points, and only one by fewer than five points.

7-2

Pacers’ record vs. teams currently holding worse records this season.  Which means that they’re only 5-12 against losing teams with equal or better records than their own, 11-32 when you include their record against winning teams.

.317

The Pacers’ “Win Factor,” which is the worst in the league.  This is basically the Weighted Strength of Schedule – Home/Road in Pacers’ wins.  You can find a more detailed explanation here.

101.6

The Pacers offensive output per 100 possessions represents the team’s lowest in the NBA since the inception of the three pointer.  This is down 6.3 from last year’s production.  While it’s true that scoring is down league wide, this drop is 4 1/2 times the league average.

5 1/2 (14)

At 18-34, the Pacers are only 5 1/2 games ahead of the Minnesota Timberwolves, who currently hold the second worse record in the NBA.  They’re 3 1/2 ahead of third worst Golden State, and only percentage points a head of fourth worst Washington (who appears to be pulling the chute on season).  (They’re 14 games ahead of the Nets, who isn’t going to be caught by anybody for the worst record.)

7

The Pacers are seven games behind Chicago for the final playoff spot in the East.  In order to have a realistic shot at a playoff spot, the Pacers would have to go at least 21-9, in my opinion, over the last 30 games.   Of course, playoff hopes are merely delusional thinking, but denial is second only to inertia in terms of power in this universe.

23 (and counting)

The number of games Indiana’s first round draft pick Tyler Hansbrough has missed due to injuries and/or illness.  The Pacers sorely miss Buckaroo Banzai’s intensity and physicality.  More importantly, it has basically cost both the Pacers and Buck crucial development time in his rookie year.

Zero

The number of games veteran Jeff Foster will play the rest of the season.  Foster will undergo season-ending back surgery this week.  His absence, along with Buckaroo’s, deprives the Pacers’ front of virtually all of its toughness.  The remaining players go from soft (Murphy) to softer (Hibbert) to downright frail (Solo).

22, 30

The Pacers have lost 22 games by 10 or more points this season.  This is tied for 7th most in their 33-year NBA History.  The most ever was 30, set in 1985.  That record is in serious danger.  This will be the third time in four years the Pacers have had 22 or more double-digit defeats.  It had not happened since 1989, which finished a string of five times in seven years.

17, Zero

Seventeen of the remaining 30 games are against winning teams.  With only six at home, I don’t expect the Pacers to win any of them.  In fact, with the possible exception of the home game against Charlotte, I’d be shocked if the Pacers won any of them.

19.7, 9.7, 2.5

At the start of the new calendar year, the Pacers decided to give A.J. Price a look.  In 20 games since then, Price has at least demonstrated that he belongs in the NBA, averaging 9.7 points and 2.5 assist in just a tick under 20 minute.  I’d like to see better assist numbers, but, to be fair, he has played about 30% of those minutes at the two.  His full year PER of about 13.5 is pretty solid.  I don’t really see him as a long-term starter, unless we get some really dominant players here, but you have to be thrilled with the value of 52nd pick.  (Note to Coach O’Brien – Barring a deal in the next few days or winning the lottery, this guy is probably going to be your starter next season.  Let’s dispense with the Watson/Ford nonsense, and keep Price in the rotation for the balance of this lost season.)

47,000,000,000,000

The number of breathless trade rumors you’re going to hear between now and the deadline on Thursday night.  Washington has started deconstruction by shipping Butler and Haywood to Dallas.  The Pacers are heavily mentioned, all swirling around Troy Murphy and his stretch-forwardi-ness (whatever the hell that means).  Deals to Cleveland have been discussed (seemingly) since the dawn of time, and word out of Dallas is that Troy Murphy is the fallback for the Cavs, if they can’t get Amare Stoudemire.  Unfortunately, Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver appears to be thinking with his wallet, and it’s looking more and more likely that Cleveland will be able to get Amare on the (really, incredibly) cheap.

Milwaukee and Sacramento have been reported to have interest in Murphy, but it’s difficult to tell what they’d be willing to offer.  It seems that unless Herb Simon is willing to take Sarver’s route, focusing on finances and ignoring the basketball side entirely, it will be difficult for the Pacers to actually execute a trade at the deadline.  Oh, well.  Nothing to do but wait.

The Pacers gotta do something about where they’re going.  All these years of running to stand still are taking a dangerous toll on the franchise and everyone associated with it.

(Verse in picture is from “Running to Stand Still” by U2)

Related posts:

1. By the Numbers: Recapping the Preseason
2. By The Numbers: October – November 2009
3. The Numbers Behind “Going Small”

6 – 8

Just as in the preseason, their winning percentage is pointing them towards 35 wins. However, they’ve been wildly inconsistent, and it’s next to impossible to use this as a strong indicator one way or the other.

.337

The combined winning percentage of the 6 teams the Pacers have defeated. Only Boston, at 12-4, has a winning record. The other five are a combined 20-59, or .253.

1-5

Pacers’ record vs. winning teams this season. The losses have been by a combined 73 points, almost 15 points a game.

.444

The Pacers’ record at home (4-5). They’ve played 9 of their first 14 games at home and couldn’t even go .500. Worse, they’ve been utterly dominated in three of those losses: Miami, Denver and Dallas.

100.6, 114.5

The Pacers offensive output per 100 possessions was horrendous in their losses at barely over a point per. Defensively, they were just as bad, posting a Defensive Rating that would rank 29th in the league.

5.0

After a summer emphasizing defense, the Pacers have improved their overall Defensive Rating by 5 full points, from 109.2 to 104.2.  Unfortunately…

-6.5

Their offensive output has dropped precipitously from 108.1 to 101.6 this year. Friday night’s debacle vs. Dallas marked the sixth time this season the Pacers have failed to score a point per possession. It only happened 12 times all of last year.

22 & 20

The limitations on minutes for rookie Buckaroo Banzai and returning wingman Mike Dunleavy. These, along with injuries to Troy Murphy and Danny Granger, only prolong the amount of time it will take for these players to get acclimated to each other, and for O’Brien to figure out a steady rotation.

9.0, 72.3%

Danny is averaging 9.0 attempts from beyond the arc this season. No NBA player has averaged that many since…well…ever. Only 6 players in NBA history have averaged more than 8. Worse, 72.3% of his shots are coming from 16 feet and out (including 3s). His eFG% is a pretty poor .486 on those shots. C’mon, Danny.

29th, 4th

Fewer than 28% of the Pacers’ shots are coming at the rim, ranking 29th in the league. Meanwhile, they are 4th in percentage of shots taken outside of 15 feet. Almost 53% of their attempts are coming from the perimeter.

1-7, 5-1

The Pacers are 1-7 in games where Troy Murphy played. They are 5-1 in games where he was absent. This may or may not be a huge indictment of T-Murda, but you can’t look at those numbers without considering these numbers:

.595, .298

The eight teams that the Pacers faced with Murphy are a combined 78-53. The six teams that the Pacers faced without Murphy have totaled 28 wins against 66 losses.

3rd, 24th

The Pacers allow opponents only a .473 eFG%, which is good for third in the league. Unfortunately, they, themselves, only manage a 24th best .475 eFG%.

7 of 8

Of the eight losses the Pacers have suffered this season, seven of them have been by double digits. They were competitive up until the fourth quarter in two of them (Atlanta & Cleveland), but the others have just been debacles. They only lost 15 games last season by double digits.

131,587

Reported attendance for the Pacers first ten home games. It’s been a mix of large crowds (Miami, Boston, Cleveland and Dallas), and very, very sparse crowds. Unfortunately, the crowd only left happy in the Boston game. If the product doesn’t get better, many of the games later this season will be accurately described as “intimate gatherings.”

16.7, 8.0, 4.7

Though on a minute limitation, Tyler Hansbrough has been relatively productive in his first 9 games. He’s averaging 8.0 points and 4.7 rebounds in just under 17 minutes. His aggressiveness has earned him almost 9 FTAs per 36 minutes (unheard of for a rookie), and the loving moniker of “Buckaroo Banzai” around these parts.

I realize the Pacers are operating under tight fiscal restraints, but surely they could find something better than the offensive weapons they’ve brandished this season.

Related posts:

1. By the Numbers: Recapping the Preseason
2. Talking About Pacers: July 28, 2009
3. Your 2009 Pacers Fan Jam Highlights/Lowlights

3 – 4

The Pacers record during the preseason might be the biggest foreshadowing for the season. It extrapolates to 35 wins over an 82-game season, and that sounds about right to me.

.429

This is the opponents’ field goal percentage for the preseason, which was 8th out of 30 teams. This is a point of emphasis for Coach O’Brien, whose pace of play makes the points allowed stat somewhat misleading. This is about two full percentage points below the league average.

105.2

The Pacers allowed almost 4 fewer points per 100 during the preseason. Despite this and the OppFG% figures, Jim O’Brien was still unsatisfied with the teams’ defensive performance, explaining it away as the defenses being ahead of the offenses early. It seems that there’s good reason, because:

24th

Despite the improvement over last year, the Pacers defensive rating ranked 24th in the preseason. The average points per 100 possessions during the preseason were about 103, compared to 108 for the 2009 regular season.

101.4

The Pacers offensive output per 100 possessions was horrendous. In their four losses, Indiana averaged less than 94 points per 100 and shot a paltry 41% from the floor.

40.1

That would be the number of free throws per game shot by Pacer opponents. The league average was 31, and nobody else had more than 39.

60

Points the Pacers were outscored by at the free throw line. They were only outscored by 28 points overall.

27.7 & .335

The number of three-point attempts per game in the preseason and the success rate (or lack thereof). This is almost 7 more attempts per game than last season, but almost 4 full percentage points lower.

50%

Portion of Danny Granger’s field goal attempts taken from beyond the arc. That’s too high.

7.7 vs. 8.2

Solomon Jones’ rebounds per 36 minutes as compared to his personal fouls per 36 minutes. That’s not real encouraging.

24.9

Number of minutes per night that T-Murda (Troy Murphy) needed to average 12.7 points an 9.7 rebounds. Only shot 38% from three, though. Slacker.

6.2

Fouls per 36 minutes committed by Roy Hibbert, which sounds ugly until you compare it to his 7.7 pace last year. Somewhat more encouraging is that he did it with replacement refs that were calling almost 25% more fouls per game than were whistled last season. This is important, because …

13.6, 5.4, 3.6 & 24

Roy’s points, rebounds, blocks and minutes per night in the preseason. If he can do this when it matters, well, boys and girls, we have ourselves a center.

1.4 to 1

TJ Ford’s shot-to-assist ratio, which is down about 40% from last season. He did struggle with turnovers (4 per game), but it does look like he’s at least trying to heed O’Brien’s call for him to give up the ball.

4.1 to 1

AJ Price’s shot-to-assist ratio. The rookie second rounder spent much of the preseason looking more like an undersized ’2′ than any possible future answer at the point.

4

The number of games missed by each of Jeff Foster and Luther Head due to lingering injuries.

Zero

This could mean a lot of things. It could mean the number of wins the impressive victories against Denver and Houston will net us in the regular season. It could represent the number of losses that will result from the ugly defeats to Denver and Orlando.

However, the most meaningful thing related to zero to come out of the preseason for the Pacers is this: number of games played by Mike Dunleavy and first-round draft pick Tyler Hansbrough.

It’s neck and neck as to whether the Pacers’ preseason performance will tell us more about the upcoming season than this fella could.

Related posts:

1. The Summer Losses: Rasho Nesterovic
2. 8p9s/Pacers TrueHoop Network Season Preview
3. Where Have I Seen This Before?
   Bulls 104, Pacers 95