It is the spooky season Twoahh-ians(?) and with that comes the start of NBA basketball once again.  More importantly, it means the return of Indiana Pacers basketball. Last season was a true delight, the Pacers were fun again as they ran their way through the league finishing the year with a 47-35 win/loss record while making the first ever midseason tournament finals and the Eastern Conference finals.  Sure, they got swept in the ECF but they presented the Celtics their greatest challenge of the 2024 playoffs.  Those aren’t just my words but also the opinion of resident Celtics coaching freak Joe Mazzulla, "That Indiana series was by far the toughest series, and we swept them, but it should have went [to] game seven.”

(He's just standing there... menacingly)

One would think given the relative success of the team last year and high praises from the newly minted champion coach would arouse more respect from the league observers.  Alas, they are downplaying the team’s success.  “The Knicks were hurt.”  “Giannis would have cooked you all.” “They got swept by Boston.” “Ty isn’t a superstar.” Yada yada yada and so on.  Never mind the fact the Pacers won the season series against both the Bucks and Knicks last year, visibly getting under the skin of the former. Nonetheless, this is nothing new to Pacers’ fans or the players, we all remember the words of Roy Hibbert.  Even when we have a historic offense and get as far as a team can get without making the finals, they still ignore us.  That’s okay though because the team will do what it always does, win. 

Which brings us to the core point of this post, a friendly competition among fellow Pacers fans.  Open to any person who wants to participate for bragging rights and, a prize at the end of the season.  Guess the team’s record for both the season and in individual games by recording them on the google sheet that will be linked below.  Show off your prowess and defeat everyone else.

Rules:

Maximum Points Possible: 92

1 point will be awarded for every correct game prediction

10 points will be awarded for a correct season W/L record.

7 points for missing by one game

4 for missing by 2 games

2 for missing by 3 games

1 for missing by 4 games.

0 for missing by 5+ games

(Correct game predictions won’t matter in this part, just get the right win%)

 Ties will be resolved game predictions. If tie is still unresolved then we will address it at that time.

How to setup your predictions:

Spreadsheet Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EoZXBkA-1ZDsNW_CRauyPjMVWruCj2b8QTFDI-ajeGQ/edit?usp=sharing

The spreadsheet will remain open to edits until October 20th, 2024 at 7 PM EST.  After that it will revert to being viewer only.  It will be updated after every game, please be aware there could be delays at certain points.