Tweet
Pacers Looking To Get To The Big 5-0
For the Lakers, Magics, and Phoenixes, it's a benchmark that is met with a shrug: a 50-win season.
For the Pacers, it signifies their return to NBA relevance.
Finally.
The Pacers can win 50 games this season, if they can find a way to scrape out wins against the Magic and Cavaliers in their final two games of the season.
Reaching 50 would mean the Pacers have made at least a 7-game improvement since last season's 43-39 record, a significant bump by league standards.
They can become just the 6th Pacers team to win 50, and the first since the exalted 2003-2004 team of Ron Artest, Reggie Miller and Jermaine O'Neal that won 61 games.
Coach Jim O' Brien said 50 wins separates a team from mediocrity, providing instant respect. Sort of like breaking 90 on the golf course.
"It won't be easy," explained All-Star Danny Granger. "But if we can get these last two wins, it would be huge in terms of us gaining some momentum heading into the postseason."
Basketball is such a fragile sport, truly built on the backs on one or two superstars. The Pistons of yesteryear are the only team lately to defy this blueprint, although you can argue that they have as many as four all-stars, just not a Granger from which to build around.
Having gathered enough complementary talent to put around Granger, and a coach to organize it, the Pacers are perhaps one or two moves from truly contending.
Most significantly, they are two wins from the big 5-0.
vs 
Comment