Sometimes, the most prolific offense isn’t exactly that much of a watch, or doesn’t have enough ‘replay value,’ if you will. That isn’t the case this season with the Indiana Pacers. They are the top-ranked, fastest, and most fun team to watch in the league. It’s like witnessing a harmonious orchestra while they glide and pile up numbers on the scoreboard.

Here’s a quick summary of Indy’s offensive rankings

• First in points – 124.6 PPG
• First in offensive rating – 122.4 ORTG (highest in league history)
• First in assists – 31.2 APG
• First in field goal shooting – 51.2 FG%
• First in field goals per game – 47.3
• First in assist to turnover ratio – 21.1

Further, here’s how balanced the scoring is: eight players are averaging in double figures this season, with half of them shooting 50% or better (six if you want to round-off Haliburton, who’s short by .3%):

• Tyrese Haliburton – 23.6 PPG,
• Myles Turner – 17.4 PPG, 53.1 FG%
• Bennedict Mathurin – 14.7 PPG
• Buddy Hield – 12.6 PPG, 
• Bruce Brown – 11.9 PPG
• Aaron Nesmith – 11.8 PPG, 51.7 FG%
• Obi Toppin – 11.8 PPG, 58.9 FG%
• Jalen Smith – 10.1 PPG, 62.7 FG%

On Saturday, their ‘symphony’ was in incredible sync once again, comfortably easing past the Atlanta Hawks on the road, 126-108.

With the victory, the group improved to 23-15 in the East, staying put as the fourth seed in the conference and continuously re-establishing their rhythm following an abysmal 1-6 stretch after the hot In-Season Tournament run. It was their third-straight W and nine of their last 10 games, which is also the best record in the league since Christmas.

Keep in mind, they have been without their star point guard, Tyrese Haliburton, over the last two games, as he is out for at least two weeks due to a hamstring strain. It seems like that unfortunate blow just inspired them to show-off more. They just hit the clueless Hawks defense on all angles, so much so that they shot 67.1% from the floor, had eight different guys score in double digits, and got a whopping 73 points from the second unit.

Back-up point guard TJ McConnell stepped in and led the team with 14 assists.

With such offensive prowess, the Pacers remain as a very, very intriguing squad to watch while the season moves forward. The pace they are playing is no joke, and as we’ve seen, they can punish and toy with unprepared defenses like nobody’s business – that’s young legs for you. 

It will be interesting to see how far they can take this style of play. While you cannot have enough offense in today’s game, their defense will eventually have to show up too. Then again, who’s to say they can’t just ram the opposition with scoring and not have a deep playoff run at the very least? We’ve seen other teams do it before.

The Pacers have the defending champion Denver Nuggets next on their calendar. They’ll drop by Colorado this Monday (Manila time), in yet another good opportunity for the Haliburton-less group to showcase their abilities.