Pacers in action tonight, Miami Heat, the opponent, they're going to get familiar with one another because it's the first of two over the weekend against that foe.

Joining us now in the Express Pro Tire on Auto Guest Line, you will hear and see him on the call with the Fandual Pacers Television Network.

Chris DeNeri joins us.

Chris, I'll begin with this.

The Pacers, to me at this point, listen, you can see the flashes,

right, of the fact that this team has the capability to carry on what they were able to get

so much excitement about a year ago, but the consistency has still kind of been the issue,

even sometimes within a game, right? Because they'll have a great quarter like they had in

Charlotte and then back that up with a bad quarter that lets the game get away from them. What would be the key issue you think that is prohibiting them from being able to get the consistent footing that we're looking for?

I would say, Jake, probably rebounding from the standpoint, to your point, you look back at the game

of the other night in Orlando, they got off to a great start, had a 12-point first half lead,

but in the end they were out rebounded by 10, and that really prohibits them from getting out in

transition. They're a much better team in transition and early in the

shot clock. If you've got to go deep into the shot clock, especially against a team like Orlando,

which is one of the better defensive teams in the league, and they play very physical,

then that's an issue that the Pacers have had. So, you know, we've seen them when they run and

get in transition against really good teams against Dallas,

against New York, against Boston.

Three high-level teams, they scored 130 points or more.

But it's been the other games where they've struggled offensively.

And they've already scored below 100 points three times.

It only happened one time last year.

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