<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">This was to be the season the Indiana Pacers shed their shackles and ran -- if not like the wind, at least like a gusting breeze. Two months into it, however, despite offseason personnel changes designed to fit an up-tempo style of play and a preseason full of promises, they look much like the half-court teams of recent seasons. Coach Rick Carlisle is shouting out play calls on most possessions and his players are looking over their collective shoulder for instructions. Some of the players are disappointed by the lack of pace, but they're also partly responsible for it. Fast breaks usually start with defensive stops and require disciplined shot selection when layups don't materialize. The Pacers have been deficient in both areas at times this season. The first curtails their opportunities; the second curtails Carlisle's enthusiasm for letting them run. The bottom line is that they're averaging 11.8 fast-break points per game, which ranks 14th in the NBA. Last season they averaged 8.6 fast-break points, third from the bottom. They rank 21st in overall scoring with 95 points per game. "When you play an aggressive, up-tempo style, one of the challenges is to make the transition from fast break to early offense and into half-court execution," Carlisle said. "Our best games have been when we've scored double-figure fast-break points and kept turnovers down and still executed well. In those games, we're averaging 106 or 108 points." How many have there been? "Not enough," Carlisle said. "And most of them have been on the road." The dilemma for Carlisle is that an up-tempo offense often leaves his most consistent scorer, Jermaine O'Neal, out of the mix. O'Neal leads the team with a 19.3-point scoring average and is its most effective inside threat. Carlisle wants him involved. "If we're running for jump shots, and missing, Jermaine O'Neal ain't touching the ball, and that's not good," Carlisle said. "We have to make sure we have a system for playing through our best players. And we do. We're getting better with it." The flip side is that a slower pace doesn't suit the skills of Marquis Daniels or Rawle Marshall, both of whom were acquired from Thursday's opponent, Dallas, over the summer. Daniels in particular has yet to find a niche in Carlisle's system. He is averaging 5.1 points on .405 field goal shooting, after averaging 10.2 points on .480 shooting last season for the Mavericks. The Pacers can always get more fast breaks with more defensive stops, particularly off steals or missed jump shots by the opponent. "The game plan is the same, but we're not following the game plan on defense," Stephen Jackson said. "We're blowing coverages, we're not getting stops and we're not able to run."</div> Source
Some other comparisons: Last year, they were 20th in pace factor (possessions per minute) -- 89.7 where the league average was 90.5. This year, they are 11th -- 91.7 which is also the league average. So based on that, they're somewhat faster. I also like to look at where in the shot clock field goals are attempted. 82games says that last year, they took 34% of their shots with under 10 seconds having elapsed from the shot clock. This year, it's up to 40%. Offensive rebounding is only slightly increased, so I doubt the difference is simply due to extra secound chance field goal attempts.
