Pacers lack of wins not due to lack of effort

The Pacers lost another tough game Friday night in Boston, falling to the Celtics 101-98. The Pacers have lost five straight now after winning their season opener, while the Celtics are 2-3.
Forethoughts
This is one of those teams where the effort has not been rewarded with a good record. Sure, it's true that in high school, and even in college games, that a good effort is almost always a precursor to victory. But the cold mean world of the NBA doesn't work that way. While there have been glimpses of good things from the current group of players, the bottom line is they just don't have enough talent to win. Sure, Donald Sloan has shown he belongs in this league. And yes, Chris Copeland certainly deserves to keep playing significant minutes even after George Hill, C.J. Watson, Rodney Stuckey and David West come back. There's no question that Solomon Hill has shown that he can be at least a useful player for a good team. And maybe in the long run, all of these guys getting a lot of playing time will be helpful once the Pacers can return to some semblance of health. So, maybe these guys getting a lot of playing time can help in a couple of ways. First, they and their now injured teammates can have confidence in them when they are on the floor together. Second, maybe the injured guys will  take note of the effort they are seeing and carry that through to their game. In fact, it would be a surprise if they didn't. But for now, it's on to the next game against the visiting Wizards.
The Big Plays

Roy Hibbert was a bright spot for the Pacers Friday night
with 22 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots.

As has been the case in  all of the Pacers games so far, there have been key plays late. The two big ones here were when Donald Sloan missed a somewhat challenged layup that would have given the Pacers a one point lead with 29 seconds left. Then the Celtics' Jeff Green grabbed an offensive rebound with 6.1 seconds left after an Avery Bradley miss and the Celtics up one, forcing the Pacers to foul. Those two plays made what had been an uphill battle in the final minutes just a little too steep to climb this time.
The Ups
1)  While it's difficult to count on this group winning any games right now, what you can count on is effort. There are some teams that would look at the situation and realize they are signifiicantly down in personnel, meaning when they are significantly down on the scoreboard in the second quarter, or even in the fourth quarter, and just go through the motions. At least that is not the case with this team. But for everyone involved, a win anytime now sure would be nice.
2) Chris Copeland has certainly proved he can be a significant help to this team if given a chance. Sure, there are some times he gets caught on mismatches on defense that can hurt the team. However, once the regular crew returns, the defensive issues won't happen as often and the Pacers can still get the benefits of his offense from him. OptimusCope, as he is known on Twitter, has proven he can handle the ball good enough to get to the basket, and if he sees an open teammate under the basket he will  make that extra pass. He's not an all-star, but he's proven he's more than just a 3-point shooter.
3) Give Coach Frank Vogel some credit here for keeping a heavily undermanned team close in these early games. It''s part strategy, and it's part attitude and making them believe they can have a chance to win. And they have had their chances. However, he does still need some work on game-ending plays with Roy Hibbert left to take 3-pointer in Wednesday's  loss, and then the inbounds play getting picked  off at the end of Friday night's game.
The Downs
1) This is partly due  to the team's injury situation, but the defense has suffered a lot with mismatches in these early games. These are mismatches where the bigger players get caught on smaller players, causing all sorts of breakdowns on the defensive end. Maybe it will help a little to have A.J. Price around to at least defend the other teams' backup point guard, There were times where the Celtics went small Friday night, sometimes leaving Copeland guarding point guard Rajon  Rondo. It seems the other teams saw what others did against the Pacers in the playoffs last year. Hopefully when George Hill and Watson return that will remedy that problem at least somewhat.
Next Up
The Pacers will try to get their second win of the season against the visiting Wizards Saturday night. Washington lost at Toronto Friday night 103-84. The Wizards are 4-2 and defeated the Pacers 96-94 in overtime in Washington Wednesday night.