The Pacers are far better than their record

Especially now.

The Eastern Conference finals begin Wednesday between the Knicks and the Pacers. If anyone predicted this a month ago, I didn’t see it. This year’s East was a two-horse race all season, between the team with the most wins—Cleveland—and the defending champion Celtics. They both lost, shockingly, to two teams that play incredibly hard.

I wonder, though, if we shouldn’t be so surprised about the Pacers. I go back to last year's Eastern Conference finals between the Celtics and Pacers. Indiana absolutely had Game 1 in the bag, and then melted down late. Boston needed a Jaylen Brown left corner miracle 3 to get into overtime. The Pacers lost in four games, but except for Game 2, the Pacers had leads in the fourth quarter (in fact, into the final minute) in three of the four games, even against Boston’s elite defense. I can’t help but wonder how the world would be different if Jaylen Brown hadn’t hit that shot. I’m not sure anyone played the Celtics tougher in last year’s playoffs.

Which doesn’t matter now, except: those were reference points for the Pacers. They got a masterclass in crunch time playoff intensity from the NBA champions, and they went to work on it. All season, Indiana has just figured out a better way to attack in the clutch–mostly by keeping the ball in Tyrese’s hands, and running ball screens with Pascal Siakam.

If you play against the Pacers, you probably find Andrew Nembhard incredibly annoying. DYLAN BUELL/GETTY IMAGES

The other thing is Andrew Nembhard.