Yes, it was that bad for the Pacers

The Pacers lost to the visiting Washington Wizards 102-79 Tuesday night in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Pacers still lead the series 3-2 with Game 6 scheduled for 8 p.m. Thursday night in Washington.
Forethoughts

Tuesday's game was tough to watch for anyone affiliated with the Pacers.

When watching the game last night, it was hard to believe the Pacers were even a playoff team, let alone a team that had won a first-round series and won three of the previous four games against the Wizards. It was that bad. The Wizards were better in every facet of the game . . . by a lot. It was kind of like that Kevin Durant movie "Thunderstruck" where a young non-athletic boy and Kevin Durant accidentally get their basketball skills transferred to each other . . . only this time it happened collectively as a group. The Pacers will likely go on and win this series, though I say with some trepidation now. But the long-term message that it sends to the Heat, and not that they need any type of confidence boost, is that there is no reason to have any fear about playing in Indiana. The Pacers talked often about their goal of gaining the No. 1 seed in the East this year just so they could have home advantage in the playoffs and specifically against the Heat. But when you see efforts, or a collective lack of effort, like there was Tuesday night, it doesn't matter which court a team plays on, it's not going to beat anybody. Pacers fans can only hope their team rediscovers their game sometime before Thursday night.
Big Plays

It all started going to downhill in the second quarter and bled over deep into the third. The Pacers were down 36-35 at the 3:47 mark of the second. Then in the next 13:01, the Wizards outscored the Pacers 30 to 12, leading 66-47 at the 2:46 mark of the third.

The Ups

1) Luckily, this counts just a one loss in the NBA playoff system and large margins of victory or defeat mean nothing going into the next game.

The Downs

1) There are a lot of different ways to go here, but we'll start with defense, or the lack of it. The Wizards shot 50 percent from the field, but they also had 18 offensive rebounds while killing the Pacers on the boards 62-23. Those are video-game type of numbers, you know when you can stack one team with good players so you can roll over a much weaker opponent. The defense and rebounding go hand-in-hand here, and the lack of both of those was a primary reason why this game wasn't close.

2) I get that Wizards center Marcin Gortat didn't play in the fourth quarter of Game 4, so maybe the Pacers just forget he was on the opposing team. At least it appeared that way as Gortat had his way with the Pacers, going what I call vintage Bill Walton on them, hitting 13 of 15 shots from the floor for 31 points and grabbing 16 rebounds alone, just seven less than the Pacers had as a team. And it didn't matter if Pacers center Roy Hibbert, power forward David West or reserve center Ian Mahinmi were on Gortat. They could do nothing to slow him down.

3) True, when Pacers coach Frank Vogel gave the team Monday off, it didn't seem like a bad idea at the time. No one was really first-guessing that move. But in this world of second-guessing, I'm sure Vogel and his players wish they would have had some kind of light practice. I mean, it couldn't hurt that much could it?

Next Up

The Pacers will now be faced with the task of trying to win one of the next two games. The fact that they have won four straight road playoff games, including their last two in Washington, offers some hope. And the fact that they are such a Jekyll and Hyde team, means there is at least some reason to believe that they can bounce back and play well again in Washington. Again though, the Wizards will come out loose and have a nothing-to-lose attitude. If the Pacers just let them do as they wish, offering only a little resistance, then you can rest assured there will be a Game 7. But if there's one thing we can learn from this series, you can never be sure of anything.