{"id":1743,"date":"2007-10-30T06:23:10","date_gmt":"2007-10-30T11:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/indiana-pacers\/"},"modified":"2007-10-30T06:23:10","modified_gmt":"2007-10-30T11:23:10","slug":"indiana-pacers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/indiana-pacers","title":{"rendered":"Indiana Pacers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Predicted Record<\/strong>
\n40-42 (Tom), 38-44 (Gil)<\/p>\n

Last Year’s Record<\/strong>
\n35-47<\/p>\n

Gil’s Commentary<\/strong>
\nHoly crap, is this team in trouble. Any squad that bases its chances for success in Mike Dunleavy, Jr., is doomed. Ask Golden State.<\/p>\n

The Pacers have deep, deep problems, and I used to chalk it up to fallout from the Artest brawl in Detroit, but there comes a point in life at which you just have to blame Larry Bird for everything. Seriously, trading Stephen Jackson (with Al Harrington as bait) was necessary, but taking back Dunleavy and Troy Murphy? Was Jeff Foster getting lonely on oversized-white-guy bowling nights?<\/p>\n

They’ve needed to dump Jamaal Tinsley for years, but keep bringing him back. Presumably, they’re going to need to package him with a better player, so maybe he’ll get sent out with Jermaine O’Neal, who’s been griping about being underappreciated and being surrounded by white players. I made that last part up.<\/p>\n

It’s sad that this team is so mismatched, because I like Jim O’Brien’s coaching. This is a guy who got Paul Pierce, Antoine Walker, and a bunch of scrubs to the eastern finals. Neither of his last two teams (the Celts and the Sixers) have won as many game since he got fired from them.<\/p>\n

Rejoinder From Tom<\/strong>
\nIn my family’s personal sports history, one of the top ten moments involves me phoning my younger brother’s answering machine after the first big Pacers 1990s playoff series wins and heatedly proclaim as only an excited sports fan can that thousands of Hoosier schoolchildren were at that very moment in their driveways dominating the ball in the first five minutes of the pick-up game so they could become Rik Smits, the Dunking Dutchman. I still get shit about this. Anyway, my brother says if I phone him to leave any message of any kind about Stanko Barac, he’s changing his number.<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Comics Connection<\/strong>
\nGarfield creator Jim Davis hails from nearby Fairmount.<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Pharma Connection<\/strong>
\nIndianapolis-based Eli Lilly is facing like 375 billion lawsuits over its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa, which turned out to raise diabetes rates in its patients. Fortunately, Lilly also sells several insulin products.<\/p>\n

Bonus Gratuitous Pharma Connection<\/strong>
\nI used to live down the street from Eli Lilly as a kid. He had a small room filled top to bottom with cases of bottled coca-cola, which is the closest thing I’d ever seen to Willie Wonka’s factory. Looking back, it seems to me like the company’s long been pro-diabetes. –Tom<\/em><\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/strong>
\nThere’ll be a midseason shakeup, but the team will be surprisingly competitive after that. Larry Bird will laugh about how he gutted his team and still managed to finish the season with a better record than Isiah Thomas’ Knicks. –GR<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Predicted Record 40-42 (Tom), 38-44 (Gil) Last Year’s Record 35-47 Gil’s Commentary Holy crap, is this team in trouble. Any squad that bases its chances for success in Mike Dunleavy, Jr., is doomed. Ask Golden State. The Pacers have deep, deep problems, and I used to chalk it up to fallout from the Artest brawl … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Indiana Pacers”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1713,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"nba0708index.php","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1743","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P4C7K-s7","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1181,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-2006-2007","url_meta":{"origin":1743,"position":0},"title":"NBA Preview 2006-2007","author":"Gil","date":"November 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm the Juggernaut, bitch! ATLANTIC Boston Celtics by Tom Spurgeon New Jersey Nets by Gil Roth New York Knicks by Gil Roth Philadelphia 76ers by Adam Taxin Toronto Raptors by Sam Richezza CENTRAL Chicago Bulls by Tom Spurgeon Cleveland Cavaliers by Tom Spurgeon Detroit Pistons by Tom Spurgeon Indiana Pacers\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-2006-2007#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1713,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview","url_meta":{"origin":1743,"position":1},"title":"NBA 2007-08 Preview","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's time for the race (well, marathon) to see who will keep the Spurs from repeating THIS time! Which is to say, \"The new NBA season is upon us!\" Sure, the league's been pummeled lately, what with the referee-gambling scandal, the Knicks' ugly sexual harassment suit, and the uncompetitive finals.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2781,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2008-09-preview","url_meta":{"origin":1743,"position":2},"title":"NBA 2008-09 Preview","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The new NBA season is upon us! Sadly, the previous season was so underwhelming that your official VM NBA correspondents have decided to go with one-liners for our previews! (Plus, we jettisoned all the other part-timers, so this year's team-by-team preview comes to you courtesy of Tom Spurgeon and me,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2008-09-preview#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=141654061X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1733,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/golden-state-warriors","url_meta":{"origin":1743,"position":3},"title":"Golden State Warriors","author":"Gil","date":"October 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 45-37 (Tom), 34-48 (Gil) Last Year's Record 42-40 Tom's Commentary The way the playoff surprise teams usually work is to give their fans a better regular season than the previous one, followed by a playoff run that fails to match the previous season's magic on any level, including\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/golden-state-warriors#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1729,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/seattle-supersonics","url_meta":{"origin":1743,"position":4},"title":"Seattle Supersonics","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 19-63 (Tom), 24-58 (Gil) Last Year's Record 31-51 Tom's Commentary The Sonics head into 2007-2008 pinning their hopes on a talented rookie, and not the \"take us to the next level\" kind of hope but the \"we need you to win more than seven games all year\" hope.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1734,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/los-angeles-clippers","url_meta":{"origin":1743,"position":5},"title":"Los Angeles Clippers","author":"Gil","date":"October 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 42-40 (Tom), 27-55 (Gil) Last Year's Record 40-42 Tom's Commentary I'm going to guess they're better this year, as Chris Kaman took a year off to stuff dollar bills from his massive contract extension into his suit like a Red Skelton sketch and look at himself in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1743\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}