Well playoff time is finally here and the Indiana Pacers (56-26) are going to begin their playoff redemption run with a first round matchup against the Atlanta Hawks (38-44).

The Pacers come into the playoffs with a slight identity crisis, as in, they forgot who they are. Indiana bumbled and stumbled down the stretch of the regular season losing 12 of 22 contests and yet still was able to snatch the No.1 seed overall in the Eastern Conference. A lot of critics and NBA analysts point at the mid-season trade that Indiana made as a possible reason for the skid.

The Pacers traded forward, Danny Granger, to the Philadelphia 76ers for guard, Evan Turner, and forward, Lavoy Allen. Evan Turner was brought in to help bolster the scoring of the Pacers who, as a team, average 96.7 ppg. However, since Turner has arrived in Indy the scoring has not spiked and Turner has not been the scoring threat that the Pacers front office anticipated. Turner has averaged 7.1 points on 41% shooting since his arrival and has basically been a non-factor. 

The Pacers need to find themselves again and now is the time. Indiana coach Frank Vogel needs to make sure his team gets back to playing Pacers brand basketball, which was stiffling defense, punishing rebounding, and rugged inside scoring from David West (14.0 ppg) coupled with the all around scoring ability of Paul George (21.7 ppg). If they can get back to that they are going to be the force that everyone expects for them to be.

Roy Hibbert also needs to be sure to be the anchor of the Pacers defense the was that he was earlier in the season. Hibbert seems to have lost his way coming down the stretch of the season and really needs to get back on track. 

Meanwhile, the Atlanta Hawks have been playing with playoff type urgency the last few weeks. ATL had to hold off the New York Knicks to capture the eighth and final playoff spot in the East and every game down the stretch had importance for them. To close out the season, the Hawks beat three playoff bound opponents in the Nets, Heat, and also the Pacers. ATL punched their ticket to the playoffs with a win over the defending champion Heat 98-85 on April 12th, and won 6 of 9 games down the stretch to close out the season. 

ATL is led by All-Star forward, Paul Millsap, who averages 17.9 points and 8.5 rebounds, and point guard, Jeff Teague, who drops 16.5 ppg on 43.8% shooting from the field. The Hawks are a team of survivors that were able to get to this point in the season in spite of the injury bug affecting them. They have been without big man Al Horford all season but have managed to keep themselves afloat. New head coach, Mike Budenholzer, has done a great job of installing his system after coming to the ATL from being an assistant with Gregg Popovich in San Antonio. 

The Hawks and Pacers split their regular season series so no one is going to be scared of each other going into this. The Hawks have a slight chance of upsetting the Pacers in this series for the simple fact that Indiana has offensive lapses. If ATL can be consistent on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor against Indy it could get interesting. 

According to Vegas, Indiana is 2-1 to win the Eastern Conference and Atlanta is 250-1 to represent the East in the Finals. 

This is not going to be as easy a series for the Pacers as people would think and this should be an entertaining series.