NBA betting odds: Indiana Pacers’ title chances after Paul George injury
By Sam Richmond
The Indiana Pacers were the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference last season and have appeared in the conference finals for two straight years. However, on the heels of the leg injury suffered by Paul George during Team USA’s Blue and White Scrimmage on Friday, the Las Vegas SuperBook isn’t a big believer in Indiana next season.
Paul George's injury results in a big NBA Title odds move: #Pacers were 20/1, now downgraded to 60/1 (via @LVSuperBook)
— RJ Bell (@RJinVegas) August 2, 2014
The Pacers entered the offseason with some of the NBA’s best title odds but with Lance Stephenson signing with the Charlotte Bobcats and George likely missing the entire upcoming season, it’s clear Indiana isn’t the same team they were at the start of the summer.
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Despite the bleak picture painted by the Las Vegas SuperBook, ESPN’s Nate Silver still projects Indiana to be a middle-of-the-pack postseason team in 2014-15, even if George is absent for the entire year.
Silver writes:
"We can consider what the Pacers might look like next season assuming that George doesn’t play but they otherwise don’t make changes to their roster. I’ll do that by running a projection based on the technique described here, which evaluates players based on their age and performance over the past three regular seasons. In contrast to the previous article, which used a metric calledstatistical-plus minus, I used ESPN’s NBA Real Plus Minus, which better accounts for a player’s defense — a key consideration whenever you’re talking about the Pacers.(…)This method projects the Pacers to a 44-38 record, which last year would have translated into a No. 5 or No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference."
The Pacers might not be title contenders anymore, but the team still should be fairly competitive, according to Silver’s math.
George averaged 21.7 points and 6.8 rebounds this past season for Indiana.