Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington discuss whether or not the Indiana Pacers are a team of destiny after another crazy comeback win. Rob says the Pacers continue to do the impossible and with all of the comeback wins, are a team of destiny, while Kelvin gives an argument about why the OKC Thunder are the team of destiny, not the Pacers.
Rob Parker:
"WIN-Diana Pacers! I like that. I'm going back to WIN-Diana, here I come. We got to call them the WIN-Diana Pacers because that's all they do. All they do is win, win, win, win. And you know that brings me to? The Indiana Pacers, you just gotta be honest with yourself. They are on a destiny ride to be NBA Champs. This is a destiny thing. I see it. I feel it. We can no longer ignore it. I know a lot of people said, oh whatever, it was a nice run by the Pacers. Last night was a perfect example. I mean, Rob G had them getting swept. You know I picked them in six. But I feel even better after the win. They can only play better.
They won't have 20 turnovers in the first half, do you know what I mean? Their clunker was in game one on the road in Oklahoma city and they won. One in $75 Million? That they won the game, you know what I mean? We gotta look at this team, and there are teams of destiny. And that doesn't mean OKC or whatever, they had a nice run. Don't compare this to 'oh well, Denver won Game 1 in the same fashion and they bounced back'. No, no, no. And the other thing is, pay attention. When the Celtics lost game one, what did everybody say? Oh they'll come back, oh just one game, they'll bounce back. They lost game two at home against the Knicks. This is where they are supposed to be, because you can't explain when a team plays like this."
Kelvin Washington:
"So I get exactly what you mean. We've all watched this postseason, it's been a very fun ride. They've had some amazing historic comebacks. They keep beating the odds...but here's where I would say I don't agree with the team of destiny in that you could argue it's the Oklahoma City Thunder instead. If you're looking at what the Oklahoma City Thunder have done over the last 10 years right? We know they got there some years ago. They get there with obviously the MVP's, if you will, KD, James Harden, Russell Westbrook. They had a chance to beat the Warriors in the 3-1 series, they end up losing that. They've kind of been going through the gauntlet. So a couple years ago, they get 40 wins. Then last year they get 57 wins and they get bounced. And then this year, they get 68, the franchise record. SGA last year runner up for MVP, this year gets the MVP. They get all the way to the finals. They have all types of records.
Wherever you want to go with the talk about the point differential, which is insane right now at 12.9 per game. They have now the record for 61 wins between the regular and postseason by double-digits, which is absolutely crazy. And you brought it up, they are 4-0 when they come off of losses and the average margin of victory is 20 points. I totally get what you mean as far as it's been fun watching this Pacers team. You could say the same thing for the Thunder. This has been coming from the KD Westbrook experiment to then the hardened part of the team to the losing in the finals. This has been a long time coming. And to me, now it looks as if this is their season of destiny."