Well, what do you say when a team knowing that water is so deep still wishes to go to it completely unarmed. That's exactly what has been happening with Indiana Pacers. Game after game, they have been handed a shellacking, at home and away. Yet, in spite of all these games, there really seems to be no improvement in their games at all. At least, looking at the way how the Pacers have played their game against the Pistons, it does not seem as if they have learnt their lessons at all.



The same mistakes keep repeating. It just is so irritating to watch the Pacers in their games. When time demands, their forward line buckles down under pressure, when in essence, there just does not seem to be no pressure at all. Their defense line gives away balls just too easily, and that in critical positions on the playing arena. These mistakes cannot happen due to the skills of the players, or the lack of it.

Experts who have watched the Pacers playing feel as if the players seem to be tired of the long ordeal. It just seems from their body language that they want to go back to their homes to spend their vacations. Very early in each of their games, the lack of energy seems too obvious to anyone who is seeing their games closely. This lack of energy is followed by a string of wrong moves. If they are playing up against a champion team, they get bombed badly. Even a team not ranked too high in the league is able to take advantage of the basic mistakes made by the Pacers.

Clearly, this means the Pacers are struggling to stay afloat. Something badly has to be done about them. And surely, the problem is not with the legs or the hands. This has to be a mental problem, which has to be overcome by working out ways by which the mind can be steadied. But at first, the Pacers need to believe that they too can compete. This is a raw basic belief, which any team participating in the league must have at all times. The moment this belief goes away from their ranks, the team performance charts tend to go south.

The problem with the Pacers is nobody knows where the injection would come for. The Pacers, for one, do not have an inspirational force like Iverson for the Pistons or James for the Cavaliers. These guys would win a game or two with their inspiring performances. Lacking that one guy with the killer spirit, it obviously remains to be seen how the Pacers come out of this rut. Indeed, they are drowning in a glass of water.