Pacers try to stop C's streak

Usually Pacers GM sheed is only getting reaaally excited when his team goes up against the Cavaliers. But this season he might actually have a second opponent to get hyped up about.

Jmac and his band of mercenaries are the newest NLL team everyone loves to hate and secretly admires. They are also the hottest team in the league right now with a 14-game winning streak.

The Pacers were the NLL equivalent of dragon-slayers these last few seasons. The only team to repeatedly take down the Lebrons. Now they have another fairy-tale beast to slay. The Durants.

Pacers

On paper the Pacers are Griffin, Gortat plus a bunch of three-point shooting zealots. In reality they barely attempt more threes than their opposition, but make them at a league-leading 37% clip.

They do however run one of the smallest back-courts in the league. Dragic and Knight both stand only 6-3. But both are ultra-efficient shooting the ball this season, both approaching an eFG% of 55%. The same is true for their usual starting small forward Kyle Korver and their bigs of course finish at an even better clip.

Talk about efficient shooting. The Pacers lead the league in that category and sport the third best offense in general. Their defense and rebounding is also top 5. Their only achilles heel is turnovers. 13.2 giveaways per game is third worst. Kind of surprising given the fact that they have two ball-handling guys, a spot-up shooters and to finishers in the starting five.

Celtics

The Celtics extreme makeover NLL edition are a team that put all of their eggs in one basket. They went all-out to acquire Durant and his grandpa sidekick Pau Gasol. They also have promising big-man Vucevic, who looks great on his current salary.

Then they have the two captains of the NLL glitch team, Mayo and Stevenson. The two are ineffective role-players in the NBA, but are among the most efficient players in the NLL.

Stephenson especially is having an incredible season. 18/5/5 with 50% shooting and a net48 +/- of +20! How does jmac continue to unearth 2k gems. Last year Batum and Young. This year Stephenson.

Behind their two seven-footers the Celtics are the best rebounding team in the league. They sport the second best offense and fourth best defense. Similar to Pacers, the turn the ball over more than league average.


Matchups

Marcin Gortat vs Nikola Vucevic



Stats-wise these two are comparable with Gortat being a bit more involved on offense. Vuc gets almost half of his points on second chances, but that is small wonder. He clearly is only a bail-out option on offense for the Celtics. You actually have to wonder whether that is making the best use for  a player with his skillset.

Edge: Even

Blake Griffin vs. Pau Gasol



As good as Gasol has been for the Celtics, Griffin is better. Pau just hopes there wont be too many occasions where this happens. Pau needs to play off his man here and hope Griffin's jumper is turned off for the night. Otherwise there will be a lot of highlights. On the other end, Gasol will have to demand the ball down low to punish Griffin a bit himself.

Edge: Indiana

Kevin Durant vs. Tony Allen



see key matchup

Edge: Boston

Brandon Knight vs OJ Mayo



Since OJ isn't one of the biggest two-guards himself, Knight will not have to worry too much about taking physical punishment in this one. These two are shooting identical numbers from the field, but Mayo has the much higher usage rate, and Knight has a lot more assists. Which is preferable lies in the eye of the beholder, but i guess every defender would prefer a shot by Mayo of one from Durant.

Edge: Even

Goran Dragic vs Lance Stephenson




Dragic has picked up the duty of guarding Lance, who has 40 pounds on the Slovenian, and is almost as quick. Stephenson is the whole package, he even shoots 38% from three. Dragic meanwhile has not been quite as good with the Pacers as he was with the Spurs. Don't get me wrong, he is still getting it done stats-wise and living up to his pedigree, but his net48 +/- is negative.

Edge: Boston

Bench

Boston has no bench. Period. But they dont need it as  long as they are healthy. There's the rook McDaniels, and pretty much a bunch of ten-day contracts. The Pacers also have a couple of ten-dayers, but the also have established talent like Korver, Lin and Hawes.

Edge: Pacers

Prediction: This will be a good one. Maybe even to close to call. But since I have to pick, I'll go with Boston. They are 4-2 in close games, while the Pacers are only 1-4.