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Sharpshooting Stuckey Propels Pacers into Playoff Picture

If any player can appreciate a playoff push, it’s Rodney Stuckey.

As a rookie out of Eastern Washington, Stuckey got an early taste of postseason play, helping the Detroit Pistons to the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals. The next season, Detroit got back into the playoffs as the eighth seed, only to be swept by Cleveland in the first round.

Stuckey hasn’t sniffed the postseason since. The Pistons were a lottery team the next five seasons, and he wound up playing for six different head coaches in his first seven years in the NBA.

The veteran guard signed with Indiana this summer thinking he would finally be a part of a playoff contender. But a slew of injuries cast those plans into doubt, as the Pacers stumbled out of the gate.

Suddenly, Stuckey found himself in familiar territory: fielding questions from reporters about how the team was handling long losing streaks. He responded to those queries with professionalism — he wasn't any more comfortable than his teammates with losing, but he was better equipped than most to handle it.

“I’m used to this,” Stuckey would say.

But things have taken a dramatic turn for the better over the past few weeks. The Pacers are suddenly the hottest team in the NBA, winners of nine of their last 11 games dating back to the start of February.

And no player on the roster has been hotter than Rodney Stuckey.

Stuckey — not George Hill, C.J. Miles, or David West — is the team’s leading scorer since Feb. 4, averaging 15.6 points per game in that stretch. That’s despite moving out of the starting lineup after the All-Star break, a move Stuckey himself actually suggested to head coach Frank Vogel.

Stuckey has flourished in a sixth man role. He’s averaged 18.8 points in his last six games, shooting 51.2 percent from the field. He put on a show in Wednesday’s win over the Knicks, scoring 13 points in a 5:52 stretch in the second quarter.

“He looks real comfortable,” Miles said after Wednesday’s game. “I think that’s the biggest thing. He just looks real comfortable, at his own pace.”

That pace is often full throttle. The 6-foot-5 guard is a relentless attacker who loves to push the tempo, an attribute that makes him a more natural fit with Indiana’s second unit.

The starting five tends to play at a slower pace due to the bruising frontcourt duo of David West and Roy Hibbert. Those two receive a healthy number of touches on the offensive end, as do Hill and Miles.

But with the second unit, Stuckey is Option Number One. His style of play tends to compliment backup center Ian Mahinmi, the team’s most athletic big man, and power forward Luis Scola, their best post passer.

“Personally, I love to play with him,” Mahinmi said. “We get going together and we feed off energy.

“He’s always, always, always in attack mode. I like that. I’m an aggressive type of guy, so (playing together) has been good for us.”

Coming off the bench, Stuckey has a clearly defined role. When he checks into the game, there’s only one thing on his mind.

“Just being aggressive,” he said. “That’s it. That’s what they want me to do. I come off the bench, be aggressive, look to score (and) create for my teammates. I’m going to continue to do that.”

The most surprising element of Stuckey’s strong play has been his outside shooting. The veteran is not known as a 3-point shooter — in fact, his career 3-point percentage is under 30 percent. But Stuckey has been putting in a lot of work on his shot all season long. After every practice, he and rookie forward Damjan Rudez get up extra shots with associate head coach Nate McMillan.

That extra work is beginning to show real results. Stuckey has made a 3-pointer in eight straight contests and has made 14-of-25 attempts over that span, a torrid 56-percent clip. Just in Wednesday’s game, he buried a 3-pointer from the left wing and also knocked down a couple of long two’s, connecting on both of those in rhythm after dribbling to his right off a high screen.

Miles said that the team has certainly taken notice of Stuckey’s improved shooting stroke. He said that part of Stuckey’s success is a byproduct of the team’s ball movement finding the open man, but also thought that the guard has been picking and choosing his shots on opportune occasions.

“He has so much respect because of his speed and strength,” Miles said. “You see him get to the basket, (or) to the free throw line so much. He gets chances to get guys three steps off of him or guys trying to take away (his drive) and he gets in a rhythm and now he’s got the defense in his hands because he can make every shot.”

As the Pacers and Stuckey find their groove, the eighth-year veteran finally finds himself back in the midst of a playoff race. As of Thursday, Indiana is in ninth place, a half-game back of Charlotte and a game back of Miami for the final two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.

A postseason berth is well within reach. Stuckey could get used to this.