Pacers start work for playoffs-even with a game left
A little fatigue? You might call it that for Roy Hibbert.
After all his first two years in the NBA the middle of April meant the end of an NBA season along with a chance to catch up on a little rest.
"Last year this time I was getting ready to go back to DC,"
said the third-year center-but that's not the case now.
Instead the sweat-drenched Hibbert is not only preparing for the season finale at Orlando but also his first professional playoff series on Saturday.
That will be against the Chicago Bulls, who like the Pacers already clinched a spot and their seed for the NBA playoffs before their season came to an end.
"I think it's better,"
said guard Darren Collison of knowing the team's opponent nearly a week before the playoffs arrive. "You're not just heading in on the fly, you know exactly what you have to do to prepare for them."
Not only that, but also prepare for the postseason run itself. Its been five years since the Pacers have been in the postseason, and only Jeff Foster remains from that 2005-2006 squad. Only James Posey has significant playoff experience (having won the championship with the Heat in 2005-2006) with a majority of the team having never been there at all.
"We're young and we're inexperienced,"
said Danny Granger-who was a rookie when the team made the playoffs last. "Honestly its like we're being thrown into the fire right now, because of our inexperience."
Could fatigue become an issue as well, considering the season will extend for a week at the minimum? Hibbert doesn't think so.
"You know what, everybody's tired at this point of the year and you have to be able to push through it,"
said Hibbert. "This is my first time in the playoffs, and I think I'll be alright."
To make sure their stay isn't four games, the Pacers will have to find a way to slow down a charmed Bulls team who has earned its first Post-Jordan era number one seed. Likely MVP point guard Derrick Rose will lead the heavily favored Bulls, who will contend for their first NBA Championship since 1998.
Hence why the team has looked past the Magic game of Wednesday at Tuesday's shootaround.
"Today it was about Chicago, we know we're gonna have to play them for an extended period of time,"
said Granger of the Bulls. "Today was all about them."
