Pacers knock off the Rockets, but since the IST, the bloom is off the rose

Indiana has come back to earth, and only a front-office move will turn the tide. The trade deadline is Feb. 8, in case you were wondering.

For a couple of weeks there, the Pacers were America’s Sweethearts, the come-from-nowhere team that grabbed the nation’s attention with their In-Season Tournament run to the final game against the Lakers.

Now, even with Tuesday night’s impressive victory at Houston, the bloom is off the rose, the Pacers having gone 3-6 since the In-Season Tournament.

Twenty-nine games into the season, the Pacers are what the Pacers figured to be, a team one game over .500 that had its Linsanity moment in the IST, only to plummet back to earth since departing from Las Vegas.

For a couple of games there, you could excuse the Pacers’ recent decline on the extended road trip that came with the IST. By now, though, that excuse is empty. “There’s no crying in basketball,” Buddy Hield said recently. Myles Turner acknowledged the extended trip hurt the Pacers and sapped some of their energy, but he added quickly, “Nobody cares”.

Nor should they.

For all the good feelings they engendered with their IST run, the long-term truth of the matter is, they’re just an average basketball team. Their shortcomings were once again revealed by the super-sized Magic Saturday, who have twice beaten the Pacers at Gainbridge by imposing their size and will and sending a chorus line of shooters to the free throw line.

Get this: The Magic had 41 free-throw attempts Saturday night; the Pacers had 13. That’s an excessive number, but keep in mind, the Pacers are last in the league for giving up the most free-throw attempts (28.0 per game). The Houston victory Tuesday was a nice revelation, especially against a team that had been 12-2 at home, but the big picture remains the same.

“We send everybody to the free throw line,” Tyrese Haliburton said Saturday “Teams live at the free throw line against us. It’s been a recurring theme, something that’s been noticeable since the Lakers game, really. Teams are attacking us to get us to foul because they can’t run with us.

“…When you’re out of position so much and in scramble so much, it puts people in bad situations to foul. I think that’s the biggest thing.”