The 2018-19 regular season Indiana Pacers were, in many ways, utterly ordinary. They posted a season-long net rating of just +2.9, and they did so in very 2015-16 “We’re One Superstar” Celtics fashion in the wake of Victor Oladipo’s season-ending quad injury. They were profoundly normal.
There were, however, a few distinctive qualities to these Pacers. Their 107.1 defensive rating, which ranked fourth in the NBA, was elite, but it wasn’t just their successful outcomes that made them unique on defense. It was how they got there: by being defiantly and atypically stubborn.