Like the Heat, Pacers play their best as a unit
INDIANAPOLIS When Erik Spoelstra looks at the Indiana Pacers, he sees an opponent similar to his Miami Heat. Both teams, he said, are testaments to a holistic approach in a star-driven league.
“This is happening around the league,” Spoelstra said in advance of today’s game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. “There is the top tier of the league and the level that they’re playing at. But there’s a lot of other teams in our bucket, what Indiana has done, Portland we saw, and some other teams, the strength of the team is in the unity and playing together as a team, bringing something better out of each other.
“And that’s what you’re seeing right now with Indiana. You can tell that they’re playing for each other, competing at a high level. Like I said, so is our group, and it shapes up as a very competitive game.”
No, this is not Russell Westbrook flanked by Paul George and Carmelo Anthony with the Oklahoma City Thunder, the opponent that handed the Heat a 105-99 loss Friday at the start of this two-game trip. This is a team with a sole All-Star in Victor Oladipo, similar to the Heat with Goran Dragic, and plenty of quality ensemble pieces.
And also a team three games ahead of the No. 7 seed Heat in the scramble for playoff seeding over these final two weeks of the regular season.
“Hey,” said Spoelstra, who was not at Saturday’s practice, with the team reporting him back at the hotel under the weather, “this is absolutely what you want, as professionals and playing this sport, you want your games to have this kind of impact. We’re playing well, too.”
The Heat lead the fourgame season series 2-1, with this the Heat’s final game of the season, with nine remaining, against an opponent in direct competition for playoff seeding.
Heat guard Dwyane Wade said if the Pacers, at 42-31, are a surprise story, it’s only because of initial expectations after trading George in the offseason to the Thunder for Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.
“I think from a preseason standpoint, everyone was surprised by the way they came out playing,” he said. “But when guys get opportunities in this league, anything can happen. If you look at the makeup of their team, you can tell why they’re good. They play to their strengths.”
Having spent time training with Oladipo, who like Wade played collegiately for Tom Crean — Wade at Marquette, Oladipo at Indiana — Wade said the Pacers have presented Oladipo with the opportunity not afforded with the Orlando Magic or Thunder.
“It’s obviously been a great surprise to 98 percent of the world that Victor Oladipo can play,” said Wade, now back from the hamstring issue that had him out of five games prior to Oklahoma City. “But Victor Oladipo can play. He just didn’t have the opportunity that he has in Indiana to be the guy. He’s definitely done it all year.”
Wade also cited longtime Heat nemesis Lance Stephenson for Indiana’s revival.
“So it’s a good team,” he said. “In their building, it’s going to be a playoff atmosphere and it’s going to come down to who makes the most 50-50 plays.”
Like the Pacers in the wake of the George trade, the Heat had to adjust their approach in the offseason after the failed pursuit of Gordon Hayward in free agency.
The upshot has been something similar to what the Pacers have produced through the contributions of Myles Turner, Darrin Collison, Bojan Bogdanovic, Cory Joseph and even Thaddeus Young and Al Jefferson — success by system, support and synergy.
“We thought that was going to be a big strength, was the depth of our roster,” Spoelstra said. “There’s so many ways now to build teams. I don’t know if you can say that there is one way. Obviously, Pat [Riley] and Micky [Arison] have done this for a long time and they’ve built teams in a lot of different ways. And when the landscape changed for us, we pivoted and went this way. But we think our depth is certainly one of our biggest strengths.”