INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Reggie Miller doesn't give the Indiana Pacers much of a chance in their first-round playoff series against the top-seeded Chicago Bulls.
The clutch shooter who helped put the Pacers on the
map before his retirement is happy his beloved team has reached the postseason
for the first time since 2006, but even he acknowledges the odds are stacked
against them.
After all, the Bulls had the best record in the league
this season and are on a tear heading into Saturday's Game 1 in Chicago. The
young Pacers, meanwhile, are the only team in the playoffs with a losing
record.
"Hopefully, they'll be successful," said
Miller, a TNT NBA analyst. "I doubt it, but they can lick their wounds
together, and that's how a team grows."
The Pacers are aware that they are heavy underdogs,
and it has gotten under their collective skin.
"We hear people talking about Chicago's
second-round matchup, who they're going to play," Indiana center Roy
Hibbert said. "We hear that. That's in the back of our minds."
Added Indiana point guard Darren Collison:
"We hear it, and rightfully so," he said.
"We're the last seed in the playoffs. They're supposed to say that. It
don't matter."
Pacers interim coach Frank Vogel hasn't hesitated
to use Indiana's underdog status as a tool.
"This team has succeeded a lot this year by
feeling like they've been disrespected, told they're not good enough, and it
drives them."
Reaching the playoffs is an important step for the
franchise, which has been rebuilding since the brawl between Pacers players and
Detroit Pistons fans at The Palace of Auburn Hills in 2004. Numerous issues in
the following years led the team to part with its nucleus of Ron Artest, Jermaine
O'Neal, Stephen Jackson and Jamaal Tinsley.
After the overhaul, the team became extremely
young. Just one Pacers starter, Danny Granger, has been in the league for more
than three years. That's why Pacers president Larry Bird, a three-time NBA champion
with the Boston Celtics, said this playoff experience is a key part of
Indiana's rebuilding effort.
"I knew after my first playoff experience in
the early '80s that I had a lot of work to do if I wanted to win a
championship," he said. "This is a great opportunity for these young
guys to get some experience, and we'll see what happens."
The opportunity almost didn't come.
Vogel took over, and the confident 37-year-old
immediately declared that the Pacers were going to make the playoffs. He
re-established Hibbert, a skilled 7-foot-2 center, as a go-to player. He gave
Collison more freedom to create and replaced the team's constant ill-advised
3-point shots with "smashmouth basketball," a style that emphasizes
attacking the basket to take advantage of the team's athletic ability.
The Pacers responded by winning seven of their
first 10 under their new leader before the All-Star break. The mood in the
locker room changed as Vogel's confidence filtered down to his players.
"It was a pretty soft schedule, but still, a
win is a win in this league," Miller said. "What it did is it gained
confidence for coach Vogel and for the assistants."
Vogel started taking chances, eventually moving
rookie Paul George and second-year forward Tyler Hansbrough into the starting
lineup. The team finished 20-18 in the regular season under Vogel.
"How else will these young guys ever learn
unless they're thrown in the fire?" Miller said. "How else is Larry
Bird and the rest of his staff going to be able to evaluate this young talent
unless they play?"
Because of the relative youth and inexperience on
the team, Miller believes Granger will have to play at a higher level for
Indiana to make noise in the postseason. The forward averages 20.5 points and
5.4 rebounds.
"This team will go as far as Danny will take
them because no one else on that team can do what Danny can do," Miller
said. "And that's put the ball in the basket and put a lot of pressure on
opposing defenses. Really, it falls on his shoulders. I hope he accepts that.
If they are to be successful against the Bulls, Danny has to have an incredible
series. He has to put the fear of God in the Bulls."
Both Bird and Miller agree that, aside from Granger
and veteran Jeff Foster, none of the players in the team's regular rotation
know what they are getting into. Vogel has tried to account for that by using
veterans James Posey, T.J. Ford and Dahntay Jones as part of his "Red
Squad," a group whose job is to prepare the regulars for the physical
nature of postseason play.
"We've encouraged them to do lots of grabbing
and holding and pushing and fouling, and we've allowed it," Vogel said.
"We've told the rest of them guys that they're going to see this and
they're not going to be called, so fight through it, don't look at the
officials."
Bird said the Pacers have to be aggressive against
the Bulls.
"We've got to be the instigators, and not the
retaliators, and that's going to be hard to do with the young guys," he
said.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
