The Indiana Pacers are a beat writer’s dream. The whirlwind pace of their deadly offense forces an opponent’s hand immediately; there is no hiding against Indiana. Either their challenger is ready to hustle back in transition and guard up, or they’re not. Either way, it only takes a couple of possessions to find out.
So when the Brooklyn Nets strolled into Indiana on Monday night providing less resistance than a subway turnstile, they set the tone for a blowout loss before the first quarter had ended. And that’s what it became, a 133-111 loss to the Pacers that felt much, much less competitive than that.