Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports
Indiana Pacer coach Frank Vogel drawing plenty of credit for most of the season when the Pacers were cruising through the NBA schedule and challenging the Miami Heat, at one time, for the top spot in the NBA West.
He was receiving tons of credit for putting Indiana in the position of being NBA contender.
He also took some blame when the team started fading in the final weeks of the season and fell from the No. 2 spot, with a chance to catch Miami, to the No. 3 position below the New York Knicks.
In each case, Vogel deserved either the credit or blame he was receiving.
Now the Pacers are up 2-0 in the NBA series against the Atlanta Hawks and Vogel deserves credit for many reasons.
To begin with, he didn’t start ripping his team which a lot of coaches might do in a situation like that. He didn’t start pushing the panic button which many observers did.
What Vogel did was go back to Indiana Pacer basketball and rely on the players like Paul George and Roy Hibbert to do their thing and let the Pacers take the action to the opponent. He knew he was playing at home and in the playoffs, home crowd is far more of an advantage than during the regular season.
Vogel also realizes it still could go to seven games. If so, it’s simply back to basics. There’s no sense to panic until they’re out of the playoffs. In the meantime, Vogel has his team paying solid basketball and he deserves tons of credit.
