The Pacers’ record sucks this year. So I took out my stethoscope and my little headband thingy with the light on it and tried to do some diagnosing. They aren’t one of the worst teams as far as pure talent goes. So why is their record so bad? I did a deep dive on everyone’s favorite basketball statistic site and I think I may have actually found some answers. Here are my top 5 most interesting stats through the Pacers’ first 8 games:
Honorable Mention: Fan Attendance — Gainbridge Fieldhouse is 30th out of 30 when it comes to average fan attendance so far this season. This doesn’t necessarily explain the losing, but it just makes me a sad boy. I’m not sure why this is the case, but nevertheless, it is the case.
5. Shooting Percentages — The Pacers are 6th in the league in true shooting percentage and 5th in effective field percentage. This shows that as far as raw percentages go, the Pacers are shooting the basketball really well this year. This seems like an objectively good thing, so it doesn’t seem we have found a problem yet.
4. Layups/Dunks — These were two stats that, when compared against each other, blew my mind. The Pacers are dead last in total dunks made this year, but yet they are the number one team when it comes to total lay-ups made. That means they are making a lot of shots at the rim, but none of them can quite get that hand to touch the rim while doing so. If you took a good look up and down our team, this should surprise no one. But still, these stats don’t really explain the losing record so let’s move on.
3. Margin of Victory — The Pacers are 20th in the league in margin of victory with a -2.00. But that is not the interesting part. The interesting part is that 6 teams in that bottom third of the league have as many or more wins than the Pacers. That means that the Pacers, while losing frequently, are not losing by wide margins compared to the bottom ten teams in this statistic. This explains a little of how they are losing. They are letting the other team score more points than them. It is very difficult to win when you do that, ya understand. But we still don’t have answers to WHY we are losing.
2. Turnovers — Oh boy. Here we go. The Pacers are 3rd in the league in turnovers per game and 4th in the league in turnover percentage. You do not need to have read a Bill Simmons book to understand that that is bad. That is very, very bad. You know what makes that statistic worse? When you combine it with the margin of victory stat. Because the Pacers are clearly losing a lot of close games as we professionally diagnosed earlier. You know what absolutely kills a team in a close game? Turnovers. Turnovers kill a team in a close game.
So there it is, we are starting to dig into the roots of our problems. But that statistic is not what I blame all the losses on. Because there is a glaring statistic that I found to thoroughly explain why the Indiana Pacers have lost so many games to start the season:
1. Strength of Schedule — Alright so hand up, I didn’t even know that the NBA or the basketball community at large kept this as a stat for the league. But they do, or somebody does, not the point. The point is that the Pacers are at the top of the league in this category, by a LOT. To explain how much is a lot I will give you some context. Boston, Orlando, Detroit, and Brooklyn are in spots five, four, three, and two respectively. Those four teams are separated by 1.07 points in strength of schedule (whatever the hell that means, but not the point). The difference between the Nets, the 2nd place team, and the Pacers? 1.52 POINTS. Indiana has a strength of schedule of 5.21 (again, whatever the hell that means) and Brooklyn has a strength of schedule of 3.69 (damn girl fine) (had to). That is an insane statistic when you compare it to the Lakers or the Warriors, who have a -4.76 and -5.84.
Again, I did not make that statistic, and I do not know how they calculate it. But however they calculated it, it is clear that losses are not the Pacers fault this year and no one should be mean to them because they had a tough start to the season. Thank you.
