The NBA Scrimmages enable the Indiana Pacers to get closer to where they want to be

The Indiana Pacers are returning to their first competitions since the beginning of March this week. They will play three scrimmage games against the Portland Trail Blazers, Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs as they prepare for the regular season to resume in August.

These games are Indiana’s first opportunity to play live against an opponent in four months. It’s an incredibly long free time. During the typical NBA calendar, the entire off-season is around four months, and once the teams return, they have training camp and pre-season games to slow down to game speed.

If the NBA restarts this week, it won’t. After an extremely long break, the boys only had a few weeks to prepare for the matchup. And many of them are not quite in game form yet. “We are not close [to game shape]”Nate McMillan said on July 13th about the Pacers players.” They’re nowhere near where we need to be when we start playing games. “

This applies to more teams than just Indiana. To fix the problem, the NBA has shortened the length of the first scrimmage for each team. It will only be 40 minutes long instead of the typical 48, a change that tries to help players who are not in their best physical shape. “I think it’s just trying to make players safe first,” said Orlando Magic head coach Steve Clifford.

These games will be different than normal because they are in the bubble environment. And according to McMillan’s own statements, his players may not be ready for typical minutes. These two facts together increase the likelihood that the Pacers and all teams will use extended rotation in their first games in the NBA bubble. It will help ensure player health.

How different the rotation will be for the fifth seed of the Eastern Conference is unclear, but McMillan mentioned that he will rate different groups in these games. “We will work on some things and really give our boys the opportunity to see them against an opponent,” said the coach. “I will play many combinations during the scrimmages, but I will also look at the rotation and prepare for our eight regular season games.”

There are many questions answered by McMillan’s rotation. Who will stand up for the injured Domantas Sabonis, who is dealing with plantar fasciitis in his foot? Will Victor Oladipo, who has not officially decided whether to play, or Myles Turner, who has a slight calf injury, fit? What minutes does Malcolm Brogdon get after testing positive for COVID-19? All of these considerations become clear as soon as the scrimmages begin.

When there are many unknowns, preparing for the games becomes more important. Sure, winnings and losses in the scrimmage games don’t matter. However, re-capturing form and chemistry is important for teams, even if the games don’t count. “We want to use that [scrimmage] Games for to get our chemistry back, ”said Pacers striker JaKarr Sampson. “Get our river back, get our rhythm back, get our boast back. We will use the games for this. “

Regaining “bragging” and chemistry can be difficult without everyone ready to get started. But even if the team can’t immediately be on exactly the same page, they can still do reps and do more sets. McMillan views the warm-up contests as an extension of training and partly as a game, making it the ideal place to iron out games and general game flow complications. “We’re going to work on some things and really give our boys the chance to see them against an opponent,” said McMillan.

The last part of this sentence felt like a disposable line on the surface right now. In reality, the fact that these scrimmages are directed against other teams rather than a practice environment is helpful for evaluating both teams and players. The center of Indiana, Myles Turner, thought that too. “We have beaten each other here in this training camp in the past few weeks,” said Turner that he only played 5 against 5 against his teammates. “I’m really looking forward to going out there and using these games as a yardstick in front of reality. We are all looking forward to seeing where we are as a team and individually. “

Sampson also assumes that he will use the scrimmages to rate the team and how well it will perform after a long break. In practice, the boys can get used to each other again. But games, even those that don’t matter, are more useful to get used to playing with your teammates (again). “I feel [chemistry-wise] as if we’re going in the right direction. Above all, how our practices went, ”said Sampson. “But practice is practice and games are games. It’s different in the game. I have the feeling that we will continue to gel. “

McMillan agreed. “The scrimmage games are designed to see where you are and which areas you need to improve,” he said. “Chemistry [is something] We need to work on these three scrimmage games to prepare for the eight regular season games. “

Another thing that Sampson mentioned as one of the greatest things he can gain from the trio of battles is conditioning. “Fly up and down on the pitch to get back up to speed as quickly as possible. That’s the biggest part of our way of thinking, ”said the energetic striker.

The Pacers coaching team and the entire league recognize the need to bring players to a higher level of fitness. That’s why they shortened the first game and have these problems in the first place. But Indiana makes it easy in the practices that lead to her first fight; McMillan said they are closer to a shootaround than an exercise. This will help his team “feel fresh” when they compete with their first opponent since March 10th.

This gap of 135 days makes these Intersquad fights so important for the Pacers and all teams. Although blue and gold have some injuries and have not yet decided on a grid for these games, they will still be helpful in assessing where the team is, improving the team’s fitness level, and the team’s already strong chemistry improve. Even if the Indiana Pacers lose all three problems, the games are worth it because of these advantages.