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Column, news

The Pacers might shock the world but they aren’t shocking themselves

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The Indiana Pacers are like the fictional African nation of Wakanda from Black Panther. Everyone else in the world thinks they are one thing, just a place you don’t need to worry about, live practice for a first-round contender, but now they’re shocking the basketball world with revelations of their elite technology and weapons that give them a chance against anyone as they go into the fourth game of the series with a 2-1 lead over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Indiana has been staying in obscurity all season, lurking in the shadows, appearing only once on national television.

Except the Pacers have been showing this all year. They weren’t trying to keep this a secret like Wakanda. They beat Cleveland three times this season. They swept the Golden State Warriors. It’s just no one was paying attention or perhaps not taking them seriously enough as a threat to care.

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Analysis

How will the Indiana Pacers respond to these possible adjustments by Cleveland?

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The Indiana Pacers aren’t just happy to be in the playoffs. Victor Oladipo and company have been saying for awhile that they want to make a run in the postseason and shock the world.

The Pacers thoroughly destroyed the Cavaliers in Game 1 while introducing themselves to the national audience, but everyone knows a LeBron James-led team isn’t going down easy, especially in the first round.

Cavs coach Ty Lue will likely be ready with adjustments and how Pacers coach Nate McMillan and his staff are able to respond to those will determine how successful they can be through the rest of the series.

Here are a few likely adjustments from the Cavaliers and what the options are from there for the Pacers:

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rumors

Cavaliers, Nuggets, Pacers have talked 3-way Paul George trade

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The latest rumor in the Paul George saga is that Cleveland may have found a team interested in Kevin Love in the Denver Nuggets to facilitate the 3-team deal to acquire George, according to Marc Stein and Chris Haynes of ESPN.

The Nuggets have the perfect group of young prospects and picks that Kevin Pritchard may desire to kick start the Pacers rebuild.

Their best young players Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are untouchable according to Stein, but they still have young players in Gary Harris, Malik Beasley, Emmanuel Mudiay, Juan Hernangomez, Trey Lyles and new draft pick Tyler Lydon.

Kenneth Faried, Wilson Chandler and Mudiay are known to be available currently and could help match salaries. In one version of the 3-team deal,  Faried would actually end up in Cleveland according to Stein.

The Pacers were also rumored to be interested in Danilo Gallinari before the Paul George announcement, but perhaps he could be part of a sign and trade though that seems unlikely.

The rumored deal was talked about during draft night, but they were unable to reach an agreement then. The Nuggets may not want to give up a package of assets that Pritchard feels like is enough at this time as he’s been determined to take a patient, methodical approach to try and get the best deal possible.