Pacers promotion road sets many historical records, playoffs become a chaotic battle with blurred boundaries of strength and weakness

(The original text was published on May 13, and the author is BradBotkin of CBS Sports. The content of the article does not represent the translator's views)

Pacers eliminated the 64-win top seed Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference after five fierce battles and returned to the Eastern Conference Finals after a year. This is the second consecutive season for the Pacers to reach the division finals, and since the NBA playoffs expanded to 16 teams in 1984, the Pacers have become the first team to achieve this as a No. 4 or lower seed.

Although the Pacers ranked No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference this season, they were not optimistic that they could go so far before the playoffs started. Their path to promotion was widely questioned last year. It is generally believed that it is more due to the favorable situation: the Bucks who missed the entire match against Antetokounmpo in the first round, Lillard missed two games in the last three games, and the Knicks who were eliminated in the second round were injured by the end of the series, and they could hardly send out a complete lineup.

Previously, some people were worried that the Pacers would repeat the mistakes of the 2021 Hawks, and the team that accidentally entered the division finals has been hovering in the play-off zone for many years since then. But the Pacers proved themselves with this year's playoff journey, and now defeating the Cavaliers in the first round.

Authentic, the Bucks performed poorly this season, the Cavaliers lacked Garland in the first two games, and also lost Mobley Jr. and Hunter in the second game. But one of the key factors in controlling the series is actually their unsolvable shooting feel. CBS Sports' data research has confirmed that this has become the main theme of their playoff journey. The Pacers became the sixth team in NBA history to maintain 50% shooting percentage and 40% three-point shooting percentage in the first 10 games of the playoffs. The remaining five were the Spurs in 2014, the Nuggets in 2009, the Heat in 2005, the Trail Blazers in 1992 and the Lakers in 1985.

Pacers not only shoot accurately, but also play team basketball to the extreme. Currently, 68.9% of Pacers' goals come from assists, setting a record high assist rate in the first 10 games of the playoffs since the Warriors (probably the best team in history) in 2018. These horror data continue to appear in the second round of G5: the Pacers had 26 assists in 41 goals, and shot 50% from the field (15 of 35 three-pointers and 43% from three-pointers). Halliburton, who continued to be among the league's top stars, scored only 2 points in the first quarter, but in the end, scored 31 points. As most fans remember, he had previously hit the winning goal against the Bucks' G5 and the Cavs' G2.

For Halliburton, this is the third time in his career to hit the winning goal in the last two seconds of the playoffs, second only to James' all-time record of 6 times. The young man who has played in the playoffs only twice has become the first person besides James.

But victory is by no means the result of Halliburton alone. The Pacers team always resolutely attack every misalignment opportunity exposed by the Cavaliers, and all players contributed. In fact...

Pacers became the first team in NBA history to lead the scoring list in each of the games with different players leading the scoring list in at least five games. In the series G5 between

and the Cavaliers, Halliburton made 6 three-pointers in the last three quarters (6 of 9 shots), leading the team to smooth out the gap of up to 19 points in the early second quarter. This is the norm for the Pacers to end the playoffs this year. When they played against the Bucks in the first round, they completed a 20-point reversal at the end of the series.

Since the introduction of detailed technical statistics in the NBA in 1996, there have been only five cases where the team completed at least 19 points in the end of the series, and the Pacers each had one place in two consecutive rounds of the series.

Pacers can always break out at critical moments: in the last five minutes of the second round of series G5, the difference between the two sides is only 1 point (complied with the "critical moment" standard defined by the NBA, that is, the difference between the last five minutes is within five points).

Pacers have become the second team to maintain 5 wins and 0 losses in the first 10 "critical moments" games of the playoffs since the introduction of detailed technical statistics in 1996.

From a crazy reversal to a critical moment, the Pacers perfectly interpret the current situation of the NBA. The playoffs have evolved from the most predictable model in history to the stage of chaos where the boundaries between strength and weakness are blurred. The second seed and defending champion Celtics have been eliminated, and when the Knicks, who advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, defeated the No. 6 seed Pistons in the first round, they relied on the referee to make a profit and scored a 21-0 attack wave before they could pass the game.

The Western battlefield is also chaotic: the sixth-seeded Timberwolves eliminated the third-seeded Lakers, the seventh-seeded Warriors overturned the second-seeded Rockets, and the top-seeded Thunder and the fourth-seeded Nuggets played in seven games and passed the Nuggets. If someone claims to predict the playoff trend, you might as well think about the magical reality of the Mavericks winning the No. 1 pick with just 1.8% chance of winning the No. 1 pick at this year's lottery.

This is the crazy new era, embrace it. The Pacers in hot form will play against the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, completely subverting the expected Cavaliers vs. Celtic script, which is the purest aesthetic of basketball chaos.

Original text: BradBotkin

Compiled by: Li Taibai