If you told any Indiana Pacers fan last year that their team would be playing the Boston Celtics in the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals, they would probably chuckle and wistfully wish that would be true.
However, that is definitely the case as the Pacers prepare to face the Celtics for the first game of their seven-game series. While they are certainly the underdogs, many are rooting for the team to make a considerable impact and maybe even stun the Celtics into making their first Finals appearance since 2000.
There are plenty of predictions on how the series would go. Some think the C’s would make quick work of the upstart Pacers, while people like Kendrick Perkins think Indiana has enough going about them to go the distance and push for a Game 7.
While the idea of the Pacers making a strong case for themselves this postseason is a sight to behold, there’s one thing about this year’s postseason efforts that would captivate even the most casual Indiana fan.
Indiana Pacers look to end postseason curse that stunted them every 10 years
ClutchPoints’ Rexwell Villas made an interesting observation about Indiana’s postseason performances that have shown itself in every fifth year of the past three decades they have played in.
He noted that the Pacers had a strong postseason run in 1994 where they took down the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks before losing to the New York Knicks in that year’s Eastern Conference Finals. Ten years later, Rick Carlisle’s first run with the team saw them take down the C’s and the Miami Heat before falling short to the Detroit Pistons.
The trend continued in 2014 when the Paul George-led Pacers crushed the Hawks and Washington Wizards only to fall flat to LeBron James and the Heatles. The fact that their playoff runs were stopped by a superior team in the Conference Finals is too frequent to be brushed off as a coincidence.
Do the Indiana Pacers have a chance at winning against the Celtics?
With such a postseason trend, it’s easy to see why Pacers fans are nervous about their team’s chances. However, they have a solid shot at breaking the curse this time around.
While the Celtics are the best regular-season team in the NBA, they’re long known to choke when it matters most. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Jaylen Brown buckle again under the bright lights.
Meanwhile, the Pacers have a solid core of players they can rely on. Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, and Myles Turner have developed into a solid trio that can keep up with the best teams in the NBA.
If the Pacers successfully stun the Celtics into submission, this will easily become one of their best years as a franchise.
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