J-Speaks: A Major Loss for the Pacers

While the Indiana Pacers have won 11 for their last 15 games, they have gone just 3-7 against teams in the NBA that have a .600 record or better. That includes losing their first two matchups with the No. 2 Seeded Toronto Raptors, who they have not beaten in their last five meetings and have lost 11 straight to the Raptors in Toronto, including both meetings this season. While they beat the Raptors in their third title this time in their building, all the Indiana faithful in attendance could think about was the injury to the player that turned them from a nice story last season into a serious playoff threat this season. 

In the Pacers (32-15) 110-106 win versus the Raptors (36-14) on Wednesday night, they lost All-Star starting guard Victor Oladipo, who suffered a serious knee injury after he crumpled to the floor while defending an outlet pass to Raptors’ forward Pascal Siakam at the 4:05 mark of the second quarter. 

An MRI on Thursday confirmed the worse as the Pacers announced that Oladipo suffered a ruptured quad tendon in his right knee and will have season-ending surgery. 

Pacers’ head coach Nate McMillan said during the postgame that he was unsure when Oladipo will have surgery to repair that ruptured quadricep in his right knee or whether he would be ready for the start of the 2019-20 season. 

“That kid has a beautiful spirit about him and he is probably one or if not the most positive guy on this team,” McMillan said of Oladipo after the win. “He has always been one that tries to lift his team and lift us. We got to lift him now, and we got to support him now in this time.”

The No. 2 overall pick in 2013 out of Indiana University by the Orlando Magic, who was acquired two off-seasons ago from the Oklahoma City Thunder along with reserve big man Domantas Sabonis for All-Star Paul George was carried off the court on a stretcher after he could not get up on his own. 

The seriousness of the injury was evident by how quickly the Pacers training staff ran onto the court and draped a towel over the leg of Oladipo and that players from both teams surrounded him while he was down on the hardwood. 

“When you start having him waiving for the trainers and there’s no movement-players, you know, players try to come over and help you up, and he doesn’t want to help you up, you know it’s probably serious,” NBA analyst Steve Smith and former NBA player said of the severity of Oladipo’s injury at first glance. 

No replays were shown on the video screens in Bankers Life Fieldhouse which stretch from free-throw line to free-throw line and the 18,165 fans in attendance began chanting Oladipo’s name as he was being wheeled off the court and gave him a standing ovation. The former Hoosier waived back in response as he wiped a tear from his face. 

Following the Pacers 32^nd win this season, Oladipo’s teammates as well as players from around the league expressed their feelings of disappointment and hopes for a speedy recovery for Oladipo. 

“We wish him a speedy recovery and we wish him well, and we’re going to continue to fight for him each and every day, and we’re going to wear his heart in our body each and every day,” forward Thaddeus Young, who had 23 points and 15 rebounds said after the game to FOX Sports Indiana’s Jeremiah Johnson. 

“It’s tough, you know, watching out best player go down, but know just because he’s our best player but because he’s one of the best people to be around. I mean just his personality, how positive he is and you just hate to see that happen to him,” Pacers lead guard Darren Collison, who had 17 points and eight assists on the evening told reporters after the game. 

Over Twitter, George and four-time Kia MVP LeBron James chimed in their thoughts of support for Oladipo. 

George, who sustained a very serious knee injury while training with Team USA in 2014 tweeted @Yg_Trece to Oladipo, “Prayers up VO,” which was followed by four prayer emojis. 

George added when he met with the press on Thursday, “I feel for him. I feel for the fans. I feel for the city, the state for them to have to go through that again with my injury and now Vic’s. It’s tough. It’s tough for the franchise. I think he’ll come out on top through it all.”

James @KingJames tweeted with one prayer emoji and 14 exclamation point emojis @VicOladipo. 

Oladipo even got a shout out from two of former teams via twitter. The Magic @OrlandoMagic tweeted, “Our thoughts & wishes to@VicOladipo//#NBAFamily,” and the Thunder @okcthunder tweeted, “Wishing @VicOladipo the very best.”

McMillan said after the game that reserve guard Tyreke Evans will take Oladipo’s spot in the starting lineup and that First-Round pick Aaron Holiday will receive more playing time off the bench. It was also reported by NBA.com that Edmond Sumner will be brought up from the G-League. 

Then there is the possibility of the Pacers now being major buyers before the Feb. 7 trade deadline, perhaps trying to acquire point guard Mike Conley from the Memphis Grizzlies. 

On Thursday Coach McMillan said that the Pacers in terms of making a deal to bring in someone like Conley said he and the Pacers’ front office will “talk about that.” 

The Pacers coming into their tilt versus the Raptors were sitting third in the East. They as mentioned turned their surprising 2016-17 season where they pushed the then four-time defending East champion Cleveland Cavaliers led by James to game seven of the opening round of the playoffs before falling. 

A major reason for was the play of the 2018 Kia Most Improved Player who turned them from a lottery into one of the biggest surprises in the NBA a season ago.

We have to remember, Oladipo was a guy that was basically a bust both with the Magic and the Thunder at the beginning of his career. 

Most guys when that happens go into a shell and are basically tossed out the league. When Oladipo got to Indiana, he got his chance and he took full advantage of it becoming an All-Star for the first time a season ago and was well on his way to make it back to the unofficial NBA mid-season classic next month again as a reserve before this heartbreaking setback or as NBATV analyst and color analyst for the Los Angeles Clippers of FOX Sports Prime Ticket Ryan Hollins put it, “This is one of the real unfortunate moments and parts of sports.”

In this recent stretch where they have no won 12 of their last 16 games, they were making a pretty good case of the East now being a four-team race with them, the current No. 1 Seeded Milwaukee Bucks (34-12), the aforementioned No. 2 Seeded Raptors and the No. 4 Seeded Philadelphia 76ers (32-17), who were just one game behind them in the East. 

While the Pacers have shown they hold the fort when Oladipo missed 11 games earlier in the season with a sore right knee, going 7-4 after going 0-7 last season with him on the shelf due injury it will be a tall task to go the rest of this season with the 18.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.7 steals in 31.9 minutes no longer in the lineup. Not to mention that he led the team in scoring 17 times this season-which led the Pacers. 

To bring this point home even further, Oladipo was basically before he came to the Pacers was just a decent defender who was athletic but could not shoot the ball with any kind of consistency. He worked hard to become a shooter and he not only became that but he became an unbelievable skilled player who can now score, rebound, and make plays for others as well as defend. 

For each NBA teams from the top on down from the front office, to the coaching staff, to the players on the hardwood spend large portions of their lives laying the ground work for an NBA title run. A process that involves a lot of times years of careful, constructive planning from trades and signings of players and coaches. So often though a monkey wrench can get thrown into those plans that can ruin everything or delay that rise to that crowning moment. 

That wrench for the 2018-19 Indiana Pacers was the season-ending quad rupture tendon of Victory Oladipo’s right knee. The same injury that ended the career of Hall of Famer and NBA on TNT studio analyst Charles Barkley’s career 19 years ago. The same injury that failed now Charlotte Hornets’ reserve guard Tony Parker during the 2017 NBA playoffs while he was with the Spurs, who was able to work his way back after seven months, although it took him almost a year to full recover his athleticism. 

After last season’s near triumphant upset in the postseason against LeBron James and the then four-time defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers, the Pacers this season were supposed to be working on taking that next step to winning a playoff series and perhaps giving either the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks or Philadelphia 76ers a run for their money. 

The question now is do the Pacers have enough to even make the playoffs this spring? 

When this season concludes heading into this off-season, at least 10 of the players on the roster are set to become free agents this summer. 

So, all those laid plans of being a playoff perennial in the East and being in the conversation to winning a title all were put into question with the season-ending injury to Victor Oladipo, who is an even better person as he is a basketball player. 

Even without their best player and team leader for the remainder of this season, the Pacers still they can have a special season and still be a threat in the East. As Young put it earlier they plan on playing the kind of heart and spirit that Oladipo gave night in and night out from practice to game time. 

 “We’ve got to come together and player inspired basketball,” Myles Turner, who also had a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds said after the win. “We can’t let this get us stuck in the mud. It’s emotional, but we have to overcome it and play.” 

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of www.nba.com/games/20190123/TORIND#/preview;  www.nba.com/games/20190123/TORIND#/recap; 1/24/19 5 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Casey Stern, Steve Smith, and Ryan Hollins; 1/24/19 3 p.m. edition of “NBA: The Jump” on ESPN with Rachel Nichols, Stan Van Gundy, Jackie MacMullan, Zach Lowe and Tracy McGrady; 1/24/19 www.nba.com story, “Oladipo To Have Season-Ending Surgery on Right Knee,” from NBA Twitter and Media reports, “The Associated Press;” www.espn.com/nb/player/stats/_/id/2527963/victor-oladipo; and www.espn.com/nba/standings.