Nate McMillan On His Pacers: “We Got To Be Better”

The Indiana Pacers rose to the third place of the Eastern Conference without to much hype. They are one of the hottest teams in the league at the moment, and are smashing their opponents from various weapons each night. It could be Victor Oladipo, or Domantas Sabonis, or Bojan Bogdanovic, etc. The Pacers have a solution for everything.

Their latest victims were the Detroit Pistons, who got smashed with a 37 points difference, 125-88.

The guy who jumped out last night was Darren Collison. That is one more proof for our claim. He finished the contest with 19 points, not missing a single shot, 7 of 7 from the field, and 3 of 3 from the free throw line.

On the other side, the biggest star and their All-Star player, Victor Oladipo had ended the night with just 7 points.

Nate McMillan was impressed by the #Pacers' ball movement (33 assists) in their win over the #Pistons: "When we have that type of movement — passing to guys when they're open — normally you shoot a high percentage." pic.twitter.com/OsXmL3ZWp1

— Bally Sports Indiana (@BallySportsIN) December 29, 2018

Indiana had 8 players with 10 or more points, and we have to add that only 15 points from the total of 125 were after three-pointers.

Domantas Sabonis posted another double-double with 19 points and 12, and the 22-year old is seriously threatening to outgo fathers shiny career.

Still, according to Nate McMillan, Pacers’ head coach, there is still enough room for improvement.

“Who we are now, is not who were gonna be at the end of the season. We are going to be better, and we need to be better.”

McMillan mentioned that his team made many improvements and that when looking at the beginning of the season and what they had in mind back then, many things started to appear now.

“All of those things we talked about at the beginning of the season it’s starting to come together. So you are still establishing who you are. It’s not (precise) number 20 games, 40 games, you want to continue to improve, to get better”

He was talking about all this and thinking about the end of the season and the playoffs. McMillan believes that his team has a lot of potentials, and that the Pacers need to be better when it counts the most.

“Who we are today, won’t get it in March and April. We got to be better,” said McMillan at the press conference after the game with the Pistons.

After wandering around at the beginning of the campaign, Pacers slowly got into the rhythm, and at the moment they have 8 wins and 2 losses in the previous 10 contests. With 24 wins and 12 losses, they are just one and a half game behind the first place in the Eastern Conference.

After playing with the Atlanta Hawks, the Pacers are springing a tour through the East on the New Year’s day, and have five consecutive road games, starting with the Bulls in Chicago, then going to Toronto, Cleveland, Boston and finally at the end, concluding this adventurous period against the old rivals, the New York Knicks.

If they manage to post some good results and maintain the current pace, Pacers could become a legitimate contender for one of the first three places in the Eastern Conference. Now, this is something we haven’t seen some five years. in the 2013-2014 season, the franchise clinched the first seed in East after 82 games, but lost in the Conference Finals against the Heat led by James, Wade and Bosh, 4-2.

Ever since, the Pacers are nowhere near that level of play. That is why many changes were made in the roster, and the whole reconstruction had to be done.

The core of the team, Oladipo, Sabonis, Turner is still young, and it is surrounded with experienced players who know how to get along in this league like Young, Bogdanovic, Collison, Evans.

👀 Victor Oladipo leaves it for the Myles Turner jumper! #Pacers pic.twitter.com/FCUDUCHYlw

— NBA (@NBA) December 29, 2018

What is the same as with Paul George’s generation, is that they play like a team. Every player knows when to step up or to back down, in order for his team to profit from it.

So in the next few weeks, we are going to see whether are the Pacers capable of doing something big or not. The upcoming mini-tour will show are they here, or they need more time to develop.