The last 48 hours were supposed to be a turning point for the Pacers franchise. Artest largely wrecked the last two years for them, sabatoging what was arguably the best team in the Eastern Conference a month into last season.
The trade for Peja was supposed to turn the page all that; although even with him they were unlikely to be better than the 3-4th best team in the East and a long-shot to upset Detroit or Miami in the playoffs.
Now comes word that Jermaine O'Neal will miss the next two months, at least, with a groin injury.
The Pacers with Jermaine but without Artest have been a .500 team working to hold on to the 7th or 8th seed in the playoffs. Adding the defensively soft and declining Peja but losing O'Neal is a big blow. If O'Neal comes back on the 1st of March he will miss 31 games and rejoin the team with 11 games, and two and a half weeks, left to the season. This doesn't provide much time to regain his conditioning (hard to ride a stationary bike with a torn groin) and learn to play with his new pick-and-roll partner.
Chicago Bull fans have to be thinking that three game gap looks a lot smaller today than it did yesterday.
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1 comment:
Mr. O'Neal, meet Mr. Garciaparra. Nomar, this is Jermaine.
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