In today’s TrueHoop Bullets, Henry Abbott discusses John Hollinger’s latest playoff odds, which give the Pacers a 0.5% chance of reaching the postseason.
Sounds high. His thoughts:
It’s weeks before the All-Star game, and John Hollinger’s playoff odds are already saying that nine teams — nearly a third of the League — are essentially out of the running for the playoffs. The Wizards are given about a 5% chance of making it. Trailing that miserable standard are the Sixers, Pistons, Clippers, Pacers, Warriors, Nets and Timberwolves. For the sanity of the people who support those teams, I’d love to see them have some potential for something positive on the horizon, for instance some of the various proposals for a playoff play-in tournament at the end of the season, or some way they could play themselves into a better draft pick. Two-thirds of a season is too long to go without hope.
It sure is, Hank. It sure is.
I’m one of the few people who don’t really thing the lottery system is that bad. How about you? Should they revamp it to fix the “huge problem” of “tanking” that Bill Simmons has made such a popular sentiment among NBA fans? How about a playoff for the 8th seed?
A “Pacers Game Minus Pacers” would probably be pretty sweet. Someone CGI that.
Related Topics:
Garfield Minus Garfield,
John Hollinger,
Jon Arbuckle,
Lottery System,
Pacers Game Minus Pacers
Fortunately for yall, most people don’t write 2,500-word write ups about a poorly played game. (And, yeah, that won’t be the norm around these parts neither. It wasn’t my intention when I started it, but that was essentially half opening game recap/half season preview part deux.)
And given the number of non-AP recaps proliferating around the internet, Pacer fans can probably spend all day reading different people’s takes on the opener. The internet keeps it thorough like that.
I can’t say I’ve read them all yet, but it’s hard to believe that anyone can sum up Indy’s painful offense last night better than Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don’t Lie did.
(it’s like the Hawks had five Deion Sanders’ out there, at times), and it was only the sweet shooting of Earl Watson (you read that right) that kept the Pacers in contention.
The sweet shooting of Earl Watson. I like that. Let’s try that again.
The delicate stylings of Napalm Death.
The cogent musings of Gary Busey.
The rapier wit of Jay Leno.
The definitely not stabbing anyone of O.J. Simpson.
Don’t complain about O.J. Simpson jokes. I learned from the rapier wit of Jay Leno.
When it comes to Pacer/Hawks recaps, I think Dwyer just earned himself a chicken dinner. Here’s the best of the rest for your reading pleasure.
- Cornrows: “Possession of the ball is nine tenths of the loss.”
- Mike Wells: “The Pacers’ supposed new defense was nowhere to be found in the Atlanta metropolitan area”
- Pacers Digest / UncleBuck: “One thing the Hawks aren’t very good at is half court offense, but they seemingly had no problem scoring against the Pacers defense”
- AP: “The game finally turned when Atlanta started cutting off the driving lanes and Johnson got in Granger’s face. Indiana’s star was held to four points in the final period”
- Sekou Smith (ATL): “Horford had a masterful opening night, finishing with 24 points, a game-high 16 rebounds and two blocks as all five Hawks starters scored in double figures.”
- Hoopinion: “Through a little more than three quarters, Jim O’Brien got a lot out of Dahntay Jones and Earl Watson. Then he asked them for more and learned they’d given all they had.”
- Peachtree Hoops (ATL): “Jeff Teague enjoys the game out there. After that steal and dunk, the kid was uncontrollably smiling.”
- Human Highlight Blog: “Granger was in the game he must have been wearing his Cloak of Invisibility, because he found himself wide open a bit too much for someone of his considerable talents.”
Repeat after me: It’s only one game. It’s only one game. It’s only one game.
Related Topics:
Al Horford,
Dahntay Jones,
Danny Granger,
Deion Sanders,
Earl Watson,
Game #1,
Gary Busey,
Hoopinion,
Jay Leno,
Jeff Teague,
Jim O'Brien,
Joe Johnson,
John Hollinger,
Kelly Dwyer,
OJ Simpson,
Sekou Smith
