The Pacers got swept, again. Now what?

Photo by Madison Quisenberry/NBAE via Getty ImagesBefore the Pacers got swept from the playoffs for the second time in two seasons, their eight-week stay in Orlando began vastly different than how it concluded. For a six-game stretch, T.J. Warren’s star shined brighter inside the NBA’s campus at Walt Disney World than the nightly pyrotechnic shows that normally would have been taking place across property at the Magic Kingdom. Averaging 31 points on 57 percent shooting while doubling his per game volume of three-point attempts, the 26-year-old, typically mid-range inclined, forward emerged from the league’s shutdown functioning like an unsustainably incandescent mash-up of Paul George mixed with Kawhi Leonard, dashing around off-ball screens with the easy cadence of the former while getting to his spots with all the steely, unbothered resolve of the latter. Taking on increased usage from a still-recovering Victor Oladipo at the same time as power-and-polish big man Domantas Sabonis went down for the season with plantar fasciitis; Warren had his coming out party playing as part of a smaller attack for the Pacers at the four spot – a conundrum for a team with two starting centers.

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