No. 9 seed: Indiana Pacers
In the past few years, the Pacers have been a fixture in the NBA Playoffs. They usually are just outside of the top four, but they have had five consecutive first-round flameouts since 2016. With 52 games played and only 20 left, the Pacers will not reach 40 wins for the first time in six years. They have won 25 games this season and are a respectable 6-4 in their last 10 games.
They were quiet at the trade deadline but were a part of the massive multi-team transaction that saw James Harden leave Houston and wind up in Brooklyn earlier in the year. Indiana’s part of the deal was to send upcoming free agent Victor Oladipo to Houston for Caris LeVert and a second-round draft pick.
The Pacers are still ahead of the Toronto Raptors
It has been a tough season for former Raptors assistant Nate Bjorkgren and the Pacers as breakout player from last season T.J. Warren has been out most of the year with a foot injury and only played in four games. After acquiring Levert, he has managed to appear in 16 games as a Pacer.
At the moment, center Myles Turner is listed as day to day with an ankle injury, meaning the Pacers are trying to stay relevant with a depleted roster.
If the season ended today, they would qualify for the play-in playoff format at ninth and are five games ahead of the Raptors. It will be an arduous task for Toronto to supersede the Bulls, much less consider catching the Pacers, who have won three straight games.
So far this season, Toronto and Indiana have split a pair of back-to-back games on January 24-25th. In an interesting quirk, if things go exceedingly well down the stretch, an end-of-season matchup with the Pacers on May 16th could make the difference between going home and playing meaningful basketball.