IC Cold Links: Pacers Lose Collison in 2nd, But Not the Game Until the Final Few Minutes

I’m not sure if bandwagon is the precise word – maybe more like dormant. Those fans went into hiding during the lottery years and picked a great time to come out of their slumber. I don’t think they were cheering for anyone else during that downtime – just not caring.

I do think there will be a good number of legit bandwagon fans in Indy supporting Chicago. I hope like hell they get drowned out.

Go Pacers!

Miami. Not even close. They don’t even have local fans, I don’t think. At least there are some legit Bulls fans and it’s an actual great sports town.

tho i would say that there might be more bandwagon fans of the Blackhawks

There was pretty much a consensus that we’d rather have had the Hawks (though we’ll be happy if they off the Magic) or 76ers in round 1. Though the Bulls just aren’t playing well right now for whatever reason, and that’s a good part of what’s going on, the Pacers are just a really good match against some of the higher-seeded teams. Very gritty, overall big team, and very physical. If you look at a big part of the Bulls offense, it’s either Rose driving or Noah/Boozer posting. Normally big guys aren’t a huge problem for Rose, because he can speed right through them, but the Pacers have a lot of bigs, and they’re not just big — they’re very athletic, too. They do a great job of collapsing and clogging the lane. And Boozer is just playing way too soft, he isn’t going to win a lot of his ground fights. The normal option to kick out is being slaughtered by abnormally bad shooting these first couple games, so that makes it even worse.

With the Pacers combination of size, grit, and athleticism (especially on defense), all it takes is a good shooting streak and they become an incredibly deadly team. The best thing you guys are doing this series is reminding people how little a regular season record means — being a fan of a team in the NFL Central Division, I’m already tired of hearing the “X team doesn’t deserve to be in the playoffs” argument. Players have to go through so much to make it to the pros. The difference between a 62 win team and a 37 win team can be remarkably narrow, sometimes that 37 win team just needs a small addition to get them over the hump to win consistently. And the gap is narrow enough that if the 37 win team goes into the post season with more heart, they can cover it easily.

for kicking that cameraman in the nuts way back when