Indiana Pacers Have Been Prepared To Go For Title Without Danny Granger

By John Raffel
Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

It would be nice for the Indiana Pacers to have a healthy Danny Granger back in their lineup. He would have been a very critical weapon to go up against the Miami Heat in the NBA East playoffs if the two teams would meet. The Pacers have some excellent players, but it’s obvious that in this league you can never have too many standout performers.

That’s why it was a setback of sorts when the Pacers announced Thursday that Granger will miss the rest of the season to undergo surgery on his left knee. The Pacers said in statement that the decision was made after all conservative treatment options could not get rid of the soreness.

Granger had a procedure done in late October for patellar tendinosis and played five games after returning Feb. 25. But the soreness continued and the Pacers decided on surgery. He will be back for training camp, the Pacers said. That doesn’t help for this season, but it was obvious that Granger would probably not be at 100 percent. A healthy Granger would have made the Pacers even more dangerous.

The news on Thursday wasn’t horribly surprising. The rest of the team basically realized they’d be playing the rest of this season without Granger. They haven’t done too badly so far. Yes, if he’s the Granger of old, the Pacers would be even more dangerous, but Granger needs to get back into shape for next season.

In the meantime, his teammates will have to go it alone. They might do better than most NBA fans would think.

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