Can you make a counterattack to the top? Take a look at the eight common qualities of Pacers and champions of all generations

The Indiana Pacers return to the Finals after 25 years and are competing for the first NBA championship trophy in team history. So, what do this Pacers have in common with the champion teams of all generations? Let’s take a look at the NBA official website to take stock of the eight major championship traits of the Pacers in the 24-25 season -

1. The top organizational core

enters the highest level of the finals, and it is crucial to be an organizational core who can continue to drive offense and create scoring opportunities for teammates. Teresa Halliburton ranked third in the league in the regular season, and increased to 9.8 per game per game, ranking first in the league in the playoffs.

This is very similar to the Nuggets and the Lakers in 2023. In NBA history, only Nikola Jokic (2023 Nuggets) and Magic Johnson (1982/1985/1986/1987 Lakers) led the team to win the championship, and averaged more than 9 assists per game in both the regular season and the playoffs.

2. Team offense is paramount

Many champion teams rely on superstars to lead the team, but many rely on team basketball and excellent transmission to win - by passing one more ball, "good opportunity" becomes "better opportunity". Driven by Halliburton, the Pacers averaged 29.2 assists per game in the regular season, and maintained an average of 28.1 times per game in the playoffs, with almost no decline.

This is exactly the same as the Warriors in 2017 and 2018 and the Lakers during the "Showtime" period. In NBA history, only six teams have assisted more than 29 times in the regular season and won the championship, including the Warriors in 17/18, the Lakers in 1980/1985/1987, and the Celtics in 1986. The Pacers have a chance to be the seventh team to achieve.

3. Although the factor of determination to win the first championship is difficult to quantify, it is one of the most obvious characteristics of the first championship team in previous years.

Although the Pacers have three ABA championships in history, they only advanced to the Finals in 2000 in the NBA league. This desire is similar to the Cavaliers in 2016, the Raptors in 2019, and the Nuggets in 2023, all of which have reached the top for the first time in the past decade.

Among them, there are now champion members of the Raptors and Nuggets who were the Raptors and Nuggets - Pascal Siakam of the 2019 Raptors and Thomas Bryant of the 2023 Nuggets. The other players in their team have not tasted the taste of the championship yet.

4. Talking about the greatness of a team with the top seeds in the east and west is also an important evaluation factor. The Pacers eliminated the Cavaliers in the second round of the playoffs and will now face the Western Conference No. 1 seed Thunder in the finals.

If the final tops, the Pacers will be among the historical elites, with similar examples including the Bulls in 1993, the Rockets in 1995, the Lakers in 2001 and 2002, and the Raptors in 2019 - the only five teams that have beaten the top seeds in two divisions on the road to championship since the current playoffs were established in 1984.

5. Non-top 3 seed teams

According to the current playoff system since 1984, 40 of the 41 championship teams are the top 3 seed teams in the regular season (including 26 top seeds, 8 No. 2 seeds, and 6 No. 3 seeds). This undoubtedly highlights the difficulty of the Pacers entering the finals as the No. 4 seed in the East.

The Rockets were only in 1995 - they were the only team to win the championship as the No. 6 seed. That year, the Rockets swept the Magic in the finals and completed the league's historic breakthrough.

6. No one in the team was selected for the All-First Team 10 teams in the league over the past 30 years, 17 championship teams have at least two players selected for the All-NBA team this season, and 12 of them have at least one player selected for the First Team or Second Team. It is worth mentioning that the only player selected for the Best Team this season is Halliburton, who was selected for the Best Team.

The only precedent for this situation was also the Rockets in 1995, when the team was led by Olajuwon, who was selected for the All-A-3 team, and eventually swept the Magic to win the championship.

7. The head coach is a champion player + champion coach

In NBA history, a total of 37 head coaches have led the team to win the championship, of which 14 have won the championship as players. Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle is one of them. He was a member of the 1986 Celtics championship lineup and led the Mavericks to win the championship as head coach in 2011.

This reminds people of Warriors coach Steve Cole (5 championships & coaching 4 championships) and 2016 Cavaliers coach Terron Lou (now Clippers coach), who led the Cavaliers to complete a historic 1-3 reversal against the Warriors in the finals during his coaching period.

8. The playoffs have performed major reversals

"It's safe to have no lead" is becoming the label of the Pacers' playoffs this season.

They became the first team to win four reversals in the playoffs in a year since the 1997-98 season. The best results in previous history were only two 17+ reversals in the Lakers in 2008 and the Mavericks in 2017. Before the finals started, the Pacers had tied the sum of the two teams' major reversals.

(NBA official website)