Lance's body language is atrocious. He never credits or high fives teammates when they get him a bucket off a perfect pass. He never celebrates when guys make big shots.

That's before we even get to the on-court stuff.

George Hill and Paul George were horrendous ball stoppers during much of Indiana's "shit" streak, but have been much better in this series. Lance is just stopping the ball every time he gets it.

Roy Hibbert is a different scenario altogether. He is obviously alternating appearances with his twin brother or someone wearing a Roy Hibbert suit every other game.

It ain't Frank Vogel's. This team went down after Danny Granger and Orlando Johnson left. For whatever reason(s), there is no real pinpoint cause.

I can pinpoint a few causes:

Paul George came on really strong and scouting caught up to him.

This team is really bad at moving the ball.

This team is really bad at guarding mobile bigs, and Roy Hibbert is really bad at exploiting mismatches on the offensive end so teams can go small all game long and not get punished.

This team is really bad at setting screens. That makes it really hard to score when the bulk of your offence comes from improvised perimeter play.

Lance Stephenson and Paul George have handled the ball way too much this year, and it has marginalised George Hill, who is a big part of what they do.

David West is shooting way too many jumpers and not bullying guys down low, especially when he has a mismatch.

Paul George had a bunch of off-the-court drama this year.

Evan Turner brings absolutely nothing to the table that Lance Stephenson doesn't already bring as a ball-handling 2/3. Opposing coaches don't have to alter their gameplan because a dead eye shooter is coming in who can spread the floor, or any other kind of different look.

Outside shooting is not a strong point with this roster. Very hard to win in the modern NBA when you can't spread the floor.

Frank Vogel has never emphasised offence. George and Stephenson's hot streaks carried them through the first half of the year and then when they cooled off they had few reliable sets to fall back on.

Frank Vogel played his starters way too much during the regular season. Not only did that make all of them pretty fatigued, but it meant Vogel didn't have many other battle-tested lineups he could turn to in the playoffs - where such change-ups are key to getting the upper hand. He had to experiment on the fly against Atlanta and they nearly lost the series to a sub-500 team because of it.

I don't read too much into Granger leaving: he didn't look like he was going to get any better. It's more to do with WHO they moved him for.

Hard to disagree with too much of that. Definitely seemed like the starters were overplayed during the season, I assume just to lock in top seed?

I remember someone commenting that they preferred Paul George when his focus was his defence first rather than trying to be the man. e.g., more like Kawhi Leonard who seems to take pride in his role and score when the opportunities are there. The hype might've got to him.

I put a lot of stock in what Haralabos Voulgaris says on Twitter and he's very critical of Turner and Scola, Turner especially. I would've thought they could've done better with the Granger trade, but then it doesn't seem like Granger has been back to his previous best with the Clippers (averaging 2.8 PPG in the postseason). Barnes is handy, but Granger was a 26 PPG player in 2008/09. Did the injury hit him *that* hard that he can barely challenge a role player for minutes?

I think it did.

Larry Bird from all accounts loved everything about Danny Granger pre-injury, so for him to pull the trigger on that trade he MUST have known his career as a key contributor on a contender was over.

Voulgaris is on the money in that Scola has been horrible as well. He has never been any good on the defensive end, but this year he seems to be another step slower, and his fluid offensive game isn't nearly as effective as it was in the past. There was a time when he was like a poor-man's Kevin McHale: you could give him the ball and he would go worm, spin, pivot and contort his way into a bucket, but he just hasn't been able to do that this year.

Maybe he's not getting the ball where he likes (i have noticed there's been a lot more 18 footers hurled than in the past where he has primarily worked from the low block).

Forgetting the poor form of several guys, I just don't think have enough two-way players for a relatively young coach in Vogel to make this work.

Other than 4 guys (1-4 in the starting lineup), every other rotation player on the roster is giving something massive up when he is on the floor.

With Hibbert it's footspeed and offense.

With Scola it's footspeed and defense (anyone with even half a face up game just kills him, especially when he gets caught on a switch and has to guard a smaller guy.)

With Evan Turner it's defense, outside shooting and basketball IQ.

With Copeland it's defense.

With Mahinmi it's offense.

CJ Watson doesn't really have any gaping holes in his game but he just goes missing for ages. Funny how that can happen to a point guard when you tell him that he's not going to be handling the ball while he's on the floor. See also: Hill, George.

I thought they were ready to contend and drank the Indiana cool-aid hard earlier this year, but that Granger trade for me was a panic move. I questioned it then and it's obviously played out like this. Granger was never going to do much for this team but at least he was familiar with the guys and could knock down the corner three. They needed to trade for a Matt Barnes type if anything. Turner was a risk and it backfired.

I can't remember a contender melting down like this for such a sustained period in my (albeit short) lifetime as an NBA fan.

But who knows? Maybe they come out in a couple of days and blow Washington away and then beat Miami in 7 and all this talk seems like ancient history. Stranger things have happened. Maybe Turner has some as yet unknown matchup-related purpose that will come to light in the next round should the Pacers get there.

On the plus side, they have played terribly (even in the games they have won it has been really bad basketball), and are a win away from the conference finals...