Last in. No. 8, baby; that’s all you gotta be. Just play better than half the other teams in your conference, finish in eighth place, and you’re guaranteed at least four playoff games, two of which will always come at home -- barring any freak manipulation to the customary best-of-seven, sooner-or-later-I’m-going-to-have-to-buy-a-KIA NBA playoff format.
While most everyone out West reluctantly admires the nearly undefeatable Spurs, waiting for some team, any team -- ahem, Dallas and L.A. -- to take a shot at the San Antonio vets for supremacy atop the Conference, fans in the East are taking to Twitter and Facebook, hashtagging and updating jabs at the quality-winless Heat, rambling on in thick New York accents about Melo and Amar’e, praising Derrick Rose and his MVP-caliber orchestration of the first legitimate Bulls' squad since Michael’s and arguing over which of any of these big city franchises has any shot against the unmovable Boston Celtics in the Conference Finals. But there in the East, buried beneath hype, shortcomings and the “Our city is bigger than thou thus better" mentality (reality?), exists a much quieter, less significant battle. But that’s not to say it’s without dramatics of its own.
The Indiana Pacers currently occupy the eighth and final spot in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, but one game behind them prowl the Charlotte Bobcats. The two sides have been fighting -- if that's what you want to call it -- for position for a while now, trying to hold the other off and sneak their way into the postseason with a less than impressive record. Yet now, with the unrest of two cities growing, feeling overlooked by the rest of the league, and with just 20 games left to stake their claim, that silent struggle is starting to become more audible a battle for those with any interest in the names Hibbert, Granger, Jackson and Augustin.
The Pacers have been hit or miss since axing head coach Jim O’Brien. They jumped out brilliantly following the firing, winning seven out of eight contests. But currently, they've dropped five out of six, including three straight losses on a West coast tour, which ended Saturday with a Rocket-sized beat down in Houston followed by a little locker room strife and tension. While the recent struggles don't bode well with Pacers' faithful, Indiana's woes have been welcomed by Michael Jordan's re-imagined Bobcats, who have had plenty to deal with themselves.
Losing Stephen Jackson, the team’s heart and soul and leading scorer at 19 points per game, to a hamstring injury couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time for the Charlotte Bobcats. On top of Jackson's bad left hammy, the team is trying to mend their losses after trading lead ball hawk/shot block weapon, Gerald Wallace, who rightfully feels betrayed by the organization for the decision. Without Wallace, they’re 1-4. And now, with Jackson sidelined for an undertermined amount of time, the Bobcats are scrambling to assemble makeshift rotations that include marginal talents such as Dominic McGuire, Dante Cunningham, D.J. White and Joel Pryzbilla, whose near $7.5 million contract the team was handed in exchange for Wallace.
The Pacers are 27-35 and the Bobcats are 26-36. Not the most flattering records for a pair teams fighting over a playoff spot, I know. But really, that’s the intrigue of the whole situation: one of these sub-par teams is going to play the best team in the East in the first round of the playoffs, but neither wants to take advantage of the other's plight to get there.
Whether they get lambasted once they reach the playoffs -- or pick off a game or two -- isn’t so much the point. The point is that Charlotte or Indiana has to hold on. One of these teams has to stabilize themselves, keep treading and chugging along the top of the bottom of the pack, all the while forgetting they've had to overcome compromising trades, road woes, injuries and unimpressive overall records to get there.
There's war going on at the top of the Western and Eastern Conference, driven by celebrity athletes who endorse monolith city a), b) and c) and spend more time on ABC, TNT and ESPN than with their families. But beneath that war, there’s a smaller, yes, but equally compelling fight raging on, a fight between two teams, both failing to one-up the other in the battle for no. 8.
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