MILWAUKEE -- Conventional wisdom suggests that the Indiana Pacers should have collapsed by now.
They lost their franchise player, Victor Oladipo, to a season-ending injury in late January. The star-less Pacers then sustained minor injuries to other key players, including Domantas Sabonis and Tyreke Evans. Their defense has stayed one of the league's best, thanks largely to center Myles Turner, but their roster of relatively anonymous veterans is easy for outsiders to overlook.
Yet the Pacers are keeping things interesting in the Eastern Conference, threatening to steal a top-four playoff seeding.