Where the Indiana Pacers stand now and tomorrow

And what a competitive sweep means for the Boston Celtics.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Vertumnus; Giuseppe Arcimboldo; 1591

Another game between the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics. Another late Pacers lead. Another Celtics win.

As someone old enough to remember the Most Competitive Sweep Ever™ executed by the Nuggets and Lakers a year ago, I can confidently say that this sweep was even more competitive considering Tyrese Haliburton’s absence in the final two games. The Pacers held leads in the final five minutes of three of the four losses. ESPN’s win probability metric was 90% or higher for the Pacers in the fourth quarter in Games 1, 3 and 4. (On Monday, it hit 90.6% with 8:42 remaining and Indiana up nine. It then hit 89.5% just under the six-minute mark when Aaron Nesmith scored on back-to-back jumpers to make the lead eight.)

So what the hell does a competitive sweep even mean? The Lakers, of course, proud combatants in last year’s competitive conference finals sweep, got launched out of the first round by the very same team this season after bringing back basically the same crew. The team that did the sweepin’, the Nuggets, shredded in the Finals to win a title.

The lesson to me is pretty basic and obvious: if you’re winning sweeps in the conference finals, you are pretty darn good. If you’re getting swept in the conference finals, there is some substantial gap there between where you’re at and making the NBA Finals.