INDIANAPOLIS—The Indiana Pacers gave George Hill a choice after acquiring him at the trade deadline. Do you want to stay or would you rather be waived to go to a contending team?
“We really wanted to respect his wishes,” Kevin Pritchard said. “… He immediately said, ‘I want to come back and be a part of this.’ … He’s got some valuable insights into the game and I think he takes a lot of pride in what he did here.”
Hill told reporters after the game that he hopes to retire with the Pacers, doesn’t want to just be a rental for the rest of this season, and said it was “almost like a dream come true” to get this opportunity to finish his career here.
“This is the place I always wanted to be. I never wanted to leave when I got traded out of here,” Hill said. “To be able to come back with a guy that you’re already familiar with in the locker room plus Jordan [Nwora] coming in. I just think it’s a great opportunity, a great situation, and it’s close to family and friends in a city that I love.”
Hill was traded in a point-guard shuffle that sent fellow Indianapolis-native Jeff Teague to the Pacers after the 2015-16 season and Hill to the Utah Jazz. There is still one Pacers player on the roster from Hill’s last season with the team: Myles Turner.
“Just his maturity. I think he’s turned into a great leader, a great vocal guy in the locker room and in the huddle,” Hill said of what’s different about Turner now. “It’s good to see when he was a baby when we were here full circle now where he’s one of the older guys in the locker room. He’s got the younger guys listening to him like he was listening to us back then. I’m very excited that he’s still here.”
On the moves the Indiana Pacers made and on the moves they didn’t make at the trade deadline:https://t.co/Rg3R09aXtq
Hill, who will wear number seven in this stint with the team, was on the Pacers roster for five seasons including the Eastern Conference Finals groups that battled with the Miami Heat. Since then he’s been on six teams including two separate stints with the Bucks and a finals appearance with the Cavaliers. He’s now looking forward to the role of veteran mentor.
"I think he's going to be really good for this locker room."
“I’ve been at the high and the low and in the middle. I’ve been around the block a couple times but I think we have a great, young core here that still has so much to learn and is so much fun to be around,” Hill said. “Looking forward to it and looking forward to getting to it with these guys in practice and teaching them all the things that I can teach them and being out there with them. It takes time. We’re going to continue to learn and get better each and every day.”
Hill, who played at Broad Ripple High School and IUPUI, is in his 15th NBA season. He’s averaged 10.5 points in his 904 career games while shooting 37.9% from 3.
First-time All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton will be competing in the NBA’s 3-point contest with teammate Buddy Hield according to Shams Charania, who reported it today on the Pat McAfee Show.
The Indiana Pacers have been active in the trade deadline by using their cap space to help facilitate deals for other teams. The Milwaukee Bucks are sending them Jordan Nwora, George Hill, and Serge Ibaka and three second-round picks. The Bucks are getting Jae Crowder from the Nets and the Nets are getting either two or three second-round picks. This is according to reports from both Woj and Shams.
On the moves the Indiana Pacers made and on the moves they didn’t make at the trade deadline:https://t.co/Rg3R09aXtq
It is unclear what the Pacers are sending out in this deal or deals. The Pacers have to send out something to make the trade legal. It could be cash considerations, it could be the top-55 protected second-round pick from the Spurs, it could be players, or it could be the draft rights to an international player that will never actually come to the league. Continue reading Indiana Pacers acquire Jordan Nwora, do business with the Bucks at the trade deadline→
The Indiana Pacers are now 12th in the Eastern Conference with the sixth-most losses in the league after they lost to the Miami Heat by a final score of 116-111.
Jimmy Butler put on a foul-drawing clinic in the third quarter and Bam Adebayo had an impressive array of mid-range shots go in all night in a 38-point effort. The Pacers primarily lost this game by getting dominated on the glass, losing 48-31 while giving up 15 offensive rebounds and being unable to keep up at the free throw line where the Heat made 36 of 39 and the Pacers made just 20 of 28.
With the trade deadline coming tomorrow, it’ll be interesting to see what, if any, moves Kevin Pritchard and company make. Carlisle said before Sunday’s game that he felt it was “very doubtful” in terms of him anticipating anything happening before the deadline. Pritchard didn’t sound like he was going to be super aggressive but more opportunistic if a good deal became available during the Myles Turner extension press conference.
Tired of waiting for the Pacers to do something at the trade deadline?
Act as Kevin Pritchard and see how your luck plays out in this choose your own adventure story: https://t.co/nHgRAB2TVp
In case you haven’t been here before, welcome to PacersrecaP where every column ends the way it began much like a Christopher Nolan film. Think of it like Tenet, confusing at first, no one knows what I’m talking about but slowly it starts to make more sense as time goes on. Or maybe I just like palindromes and couldn’t resist being clever for the sake of being clever … like a Christopher Nolan film.
In reality, this column tries to highlight the standout events, performances, and whatever else catches my eye in hopefully a fun and creative way. Let’s get to it:
Bennedict Mathurin is starting to get an oddly short leash from Rick Carlisle
Mathurin played only 13 minutes against the Heat as he missed both of his shot attempts and finished with 2 points and 2 assists. Normally, you see Mathurin enter the game about halfway through the first quarter and he’ll stay in until around halfway through the second. Give or take a few minutes either direction.
Now that Tyrese Haliburton has fully recovered and is back on the court, is it possible that his minor injury could have been one of the best things to happen to the Pacers this year?
It’s a dangerous choice to open with finding a positive in a star player’s injury, so might as well double down and bring in some fractions too. The 2022-23 Pacers season breaks up nicely into thirds: 28 games through mid-December, then 28 games until the trade deadline, and finally 26 games until the end of the regular season.
In the first third of the season the Pacers went 14-14, only 10 wins shy of their Vegas win prediction for the entire season. Excitement around Gainbridge Fieldhouse was as high as it’s been in the last five years, and some fans were even talking about upgrading the roster on the way to a playoff push in 2023.
The Pacers followed that up by going just 11-16 in the second third of the season, with one game to go before the trade deadline. Their 25-30 record puts them in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, with the seventh-best lottery odds if the season ended today.
The NBA trade deadline is approaching on Thursday. Will the Indiana Pacers make another big move like last season when they acquired Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield for Domantas Sabonis?
“If you’re asking me if I anticipate anything happening,” Rick Carlisle said before the game against Cleveland on Sunday, “I always say it’s very doubtful.”
Carlisle’s doubtful assessment lines up with how Kevin Pritchard talked about the deadline during Myles Turner’s extension press conference when he indicated that the Pacers would be opportunistic but cautious in chasing deals and said that he’s not a big deadline guy typically despite the multiple moves made in February last year.
“This is a dynamic business and the possibility of being traded is part of it but the human element is always there,” Carlisle said of his general feelings about the deadline. “There’s always going to be some sensitivity and to just ignore it and just say, ‘Hey, it’s part of the business,’ it’s not that simple. But as a coaching staff, as a support staff, other guys in the locker room, we’ve got to help our guys get through this week.” Continue reading Rick Carlisle expects a quiet trade deadline for the Indiana Pacers→
INDIANAPOLIS—The Indiana Pacers fell to 25-30 after getting blown out by the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night. They now sit a half game out of 10th and the final play-in spot and tied with the Toronto Raptors for the league’s sixth-worst record.
The good news these last three games is that Tyrese Haliburton is back. The bad news is that the Pacers are still in a tough stretch of their schedule and continue to slide down the standings as they won just one of three games in the last four nights. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing in the long run but it’s a far fall from the 23-18 record the Pacers had before Haliburton went down with an injury.
In case you haven’t been here before, welcome to PacersrecaP where every column ends the way it began much like a Christopher Nolan film. Think of it like Tenet, confusing at first, no one knows what I’m talking about but slowly it starts to make more sense as time goes on. Or maybe I just like palindromes and couldn’t resist being clever for the sake of being clever … like a Christopher Nolan film.
In reality, this column tries to highlight the standout events, performances, and whatever else catches my eye in hopefully a fun and creative way. Let’s get to it:
Myles Turner living up to his contract extension
Since the extension became official, Myles Turner has rattled off three straight double doubles with averages of 17 points, 13 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks, and 1.5 steals per game. Against the Cavaliers, he did everything he could to keep the Pacers close by scoring 27 points in only 24 minutes. The Pacers were down just two when he left the floor with foul trouble with 5:44 left in the second quarter. By halftime, the Pacers were down 16.
Myles Turner moved into third place on our franchise all-time blocks list in a double-double performance tonight.
The Indiana Pacers miss Tyrese Haliburton desperately. They’ve now lost seven straight games since his injury and have gone from being 23-18 and feeling pretty good at 6th in the conference standings to 23-25 and just a half game ahead of the 10th seed.
Your fortunes can change so quickly in the NBA.
With the trade deadline less than three weeks away, that puts the Pacers at three wins behind the Miami Heat for 6th in the conference and three wins ahead of both the Wizards and Raptors who sit outside the play-in and in the lottery. Thus, Kevin Pritchard and the front office find themselves at a decision point in this choose-your-own-adventure season that’s only going to become more critical if the losing streak continues: Continue reading With the trade deadline approaching, the Pacers must choose a path→
In another battle against a team full of large wings, the Indiana Pacers came away saying, “Who needs wings anyway?” as they collected their fourth straight win and sixth in their last seven with a 122-114 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
In case you haven’t been here before, welcome to PacersrecaP where every column ends the way it began much like a Christopher Nolan film. Think of it like Tenet, confusing at first, no one knows what I’m talking about but slowly it starts to make more sense as time goes on. Or maybe I just like palindromes and couldn’t resist being clever for the sake of being clever … like a Christopher Nolan film.
In reality, this column tries to highlight the standout events, performances, and whatever else catches my eye in hopefully a fun and creative way. Let’s get to it:
Bennedict Mathurin is a glorious antagonist
Mathurin led the Pacers in scoring with 21 points and was a team-high +21 on the night where the bench units were the decisive factor in the victory. But better than the efficient night from the floor than featured more free throw attempts (7 for 10) than shot attempts (6 for 9) was how he was able to get under the skin of multiple members of the Raptors organization. Continue reading Bennedict Mathurin, the antagonist, a win streak, and secret conversations: PacersrecaP #30→
2022 brought about a lot of change for the Indiana Pacers. That probably undersells the transformation of an overall organizational culture not just in terms of its on-court product but in trying to build its roster in ways that the team had largely avoided for over three decades.
Liz Lemon knows what I’m talking about.
Just compare how you may have been feeling after DeMar DeRozan hit a one-leg 3-pointer to beat the Pacers at the buzzer on New Year’s Eve 2021 as the team lost yet another close game in clutch time to how that one felt with Haliburton and the Pacers besting a 45-point night from George and winning in thrilling fashion. These Pacers have already won two more clutch games this season (13) than what I’ll refer to as the Injury List Era team won all of last year (11).
With all due respect to Ben Gibbard, so this is the new year, the Pacers feel very different. We’ve gone from feeling like Lieutenant Dan on NYE to feeling like Lieutenant Dan with new legs in one short trip around the Sun.
As far as the roster goes, Myles Turner is the only remaining starter from the Injury List Era. In types of trades that the Pacers have rarely done in their history, they sent out veterans primarily for draft capital. Caris LeVert was the first to be dealt which eventually netted the Pacers Andrew Nembhard as the first pick in the second round last summer and a likely first-round pick in the upcoming draft. Malcolm Brogdon was dealt in the off-season to the Boston Celtics for a first-round pick and Aaron Nesmith.
T.J. Warren and his troublesome foot that haunted him for over 2 years after his unbelievable NBA Bubble run exited to Brooklyn as a free agent. And of course, 2-time All-Star Domantas Sabonis was dealt near the trade deadline for Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield. While Sabonis is doing his hub-of-the-wheel thing to perfection surrounded by a terrific cast of shooters and a speedy point guard for the Kings, Tyrese Haliburton has become the face of the franchise and its leader in every way.
There’s no moment that tops that seismic trade for best of 2022 for the Indiana Pacers. As hard as it might be to let go of a 2-time All Star in Sabonis, Haliburton was the ideal candidate if they were going to move him and he instantly–from his first moments wearing a Pacers jersey as they blitzed the Cavaliers with 40 first-quarter points–showed how he was something they haven’t ever had: a guy both capable of leading the league in assists and with enough scoring and shooting skills to be a primary option as well. Suddenly with Haliburton, the Pacers were fast, fun, and there was hope of more to come in the future.
Where the previous iteration of the Pacers had become stale and a painful watch with little to look forward to in its future, these new-look Pacers are somehow both younger and better with far more room to grow. While not many expected that hope that was felt after the trade deadline last year to turn into wins so soon, the Pacers are 20-17 and sit at sixth seed in the Eastern Conference standings as 2023 begins. And Haliburton not only looks like an All Star but a potential All-Star starter and perhaps an All-NBA level player in his third season as he’s figuring out how to close games before our eyes in the 5-1 stretch with wins against the Celtics, Heat, Hawks, Cavaliers, and Clippers.
His latest closing masterpiece against former Pacers star Paul George and the Clippers was the exclamation point to a stunning set of 4th-quarter performances of late. Coming into the final 12 minutes with only six points, Haliburton scored 18 points including 13 of the team’s final 15 points, answering every score by George with his own including drives through contact to the basket to earn trips to the free-throw line, nifty hesitation dribble to blow by the switching big man, and a pull-up 3-pointer that followed a George turnover in transition that may have been the play of the game.
This sequence is where the game shifted for me
PG not attacking a backpedaling Myles or pulling up for a wide open transition 3. Either one makes it a two possession game with a little over 2min left
Instead, turnover and Hali comes down hunting his own shot for the lead
“In that fourth, I knew what time it was,” Haliburton said after the game. Carlisle called him a “basketball savant” that has an ability to feel what the team needs in big moments and Haliburton echoed that point, “It’s a feel thing. It’s just feeling what a team needs in that moment. Today we needed some energy. We needed a boost from me.”
Here are the Pacers 4Q scoring plays from 8:07 timeout – game end
Haliburton 2 Haliburton 3 Turner 2 Haliburton AST Nesmith 2 Turner 2+1 Haliburton FT Haliburton FT Haliburton 3 Haliburton 2 Haliburton 2 Haliburton FT Haliburton FT Haliburton FT Turner FT Turner FT Haliburton FT
The veterans that remained on the roster despite never ceasing rumors of deals for picks far off in the future: Myles Turner and Buddy Hield have been instrumental in the team’s success. You can talk all you want about Hield’s shooting and spacing that he adds to the team but perhaps his best quality given the state of the previous roster is the fact that this guy never misses games.
“We’re just trying to build a culture here with guys who want to play every night,” Haliburton said after a game in December, “who want to compete, just love the game of basketball.”
Shots fired at the Injury List Era squad
As for Turner, he’s played the best basketball of his career and is relishing being back at his comfortable center position full-time while also playing with the best playmaking guard that he’s ever had as a teammate. He’s played so well that talks of a re-negotiation and extension have begun between him and the front office that could allow the team to give Turner a hefty raise this season while signing him to a reasonable extension over future years. While there’s no guarantee that an agreement will be reached, it’s a much different story than before the year when Kevin Pritchard said matter of factly that Turner would be a free agent after the season despite those extension options being available if both sides were interested.
I asked Myles about this postgame.
"As a player, every now and then, you look for certain motivations to get you going. And tonight was one of those situations for me. I took the matchup (w/ Zubac) personally."
While the defense isn’t amazing, it’s better this year despite the roster still being short of bigger wings and playing four guards almost all the time because of the presence of Turner, who missed the second half of last season, and the additions of capable defenders in Nesmith and Nembhard in the starting lineup.
Nembhard is the best perimeter defender on the team, makes savvy, veteran-level plays without thinking while taking on assignments like guarding Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James. He’s hit a buzzer beater in Los Angeles to beat the Lakers and defeated the defending champion Warriors in their arena while doing basically everything for the Pacers offense who were without all of their other point guards. That 31-point, 13-assist performance might be the best game a Pacers rookie has ever had.
"In a game full of subtext, Andrew Nembhard provided a far more meaningful plot, both with the drama of his game-winner and the through line of his budding defense."
On his contributions at the other end of the floor, in what has been a building trend: https://t.co/UdgTv9eFAL
Nesmith, who could never manage to get consistent playing time in Boston, has found his footing with the Pacers over the last month. His detonation at the rim against Jarrett Allen and the Cavaliers seemed to further his confidence and in December he had shooting splits of 50.8/39.7/100 while averaging 11.6 points in 23.9 minutes per game. If he can consistently make his 3-pointers at an above average rate while playing his energetic, do-the-dirty-work style on the other end, the Pacers might have found something in the 2020 lottery pick.
our PA announcer Troy Pepper's reaction to Aaron Nesmith's dunk last night is amazing.🤯🔥 pic.twitter.com/SE0BrImPQx
While attacking on closeouts and driving to the basket had been dicey early in the season for Nesmith, especially with his left hand, he’s had a series of nice attacks, including that vicious dunk, to the rim lately while being under control and finishing. He started the year off slow with his shot but also had been dealing with a foot injury. You wonder if that was affecting his play on offense with how well he’s come along of late.
Oh and the Pacers had their first draft pick (besides the Jonathan Bender pick they acquired in the Antonio Davis trade) in the top-9 since they took George McCloud 7th in 1989. It’s truly incredible that a sports franchise can go through three entire decades without ever being bad enough to pick in the single digits in their next draft. With that rare opportunity, Kevin Pritchard and the front office had to nail that pick and by all accounts through this nearly half a season, they did just that in selecting Bennedict Mathurin at sixth overall.
While he’s only started two games, he’s been an absolutely electric scorer and driver off the bench for the Pacers. He already might be the team’s best player at drawing fouls ever … as a rookie. As a player with an unwavering confidence, Mathurin has gone through countless scoring outbursts that keep the Pacers in games to start the second and fourth quarters as he becomes the go-to option in bench lineups. His ability to both get to the rim and force contact and whistles often stems the tide of opposing runs and swings momentum in the opposite direction. He leads the league in bench scoring at 17.2 points per game and is a legitimate contender for sixth man of the year.
While his efficiency has dipped in the last month, you can see how much potential there is for him to grow as he gains a strong handle and a better feel for when he should look to pass to an open teammate. The fact that he’s succeeding this much already even with those clear areas of improvement for him to work on are really encouraging to his future outlook.
And that brings us to the core issue for this team: they don’t have a star that can put the team on their back and get a basket whenever one is necessary. Not one of their best players is a consistent scoring threat that can be counted on each and every night in the clutch. A basketball team without a star is a football team without a quarterback. It’s a television show without its show-runner. It’s the fourth season of Community.
No one wants to watch that gas leak season and that’s what the Pacers solved in getting Haliburton and him quickly figuring out just how good he can be. With Mathurin, they may eventually have two guys that they can count on in these crucial situations and if that’s the case, watch out in 2023 and beyond. I don’t know what the future holds for the Pacers or even whether they can keep up this level of play this season, but I’m sure excited to find out and that definitely was not the case one year ago.
The Indiana Pacers are now 4-1 after briefly falling below .500 and sit at sixth in the Eastern Conference after a highly entertaining home win against the Cleveland Cavaliers in front of the first sellout crowd of the season.
This game was perhaps the best game of the season as it was a back and forth affair with neither team ever reaching a lead of double digits and until the fourth quarter neither team led by more than six points. Both teams couldn’t miss and had impressive shot making. There were posterizations, deep threes, tempers flaring, and it came between two teams that may be developing a fun rivalry that will be fascinating to watch over the next few years.
In case you haven’t been here before, welcome to PacersrecaP where every column ends the way it began much like a Christopher Nolan film. Think of it like Tenet, confusing at first, no one knows what I’m talking about but slowly it starts to make more sense as time goes on. Or maybe I just like palindromes and couldn’t resist being clever for the sake of being clever … like a Christopher Nolan film.
Let’s get to it.
Aaron Nesmith murdered a man in front of over 17,000 people
Pacers dunk of the year. Maybe Pacers dunk of the decade to this point. I’ve watched this play a thousand times with no end in sight.
With the Pacers behind 118-119 (but unaware of that because a Buddy Hield 3-pointer had not yet been changed to a 2), Aaron Nesmith received the ball in the corner. With Evan Mobley closing out, Nesmith attacked the closeout with his left hand and took two dribbles along the baseline. Suddenly with Jarrett Allen waiting at the rim, Nesmith launched upward like he knew a secret spot on the floor that was actually a trampoline and with his head even with the rim threw it down over the arms and on the head of Allen.
Both Myles Turner and Tyrese Haliburton immediately put their hands on their heads in disbelief of what Nesmith against the Cavs best defenders with Haliburton calling it the best dunk that he’s ever seen in person.
Bennedict Mathurin’s jaw dropped in pure joy and both he and Buddy Hield were hopping with posterization-fueled hype as they waited for the Cavaliers to bring the ball up. On the bench, Goga Bitadze lost his mind and Oshae Brissett looked like he was in shock.
With renewed spirit and an energized crowd, the Pacers outscored the Cavaliers 15-7 for the last 4:26 of the game with Nesmith scoring 6 points down the stretch after the dunk including a euro step layup and a tough make over the outstretched arms of Mobley on another drive to the basket.
Nicknamed Double A by his teammates for his first name, it’s fitting for the energy he plays with and provides the team. The human AA battery sent a jolt through the fieldhouse and played tremendously all game scoring 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting continuing his stellar play throughout the month of December.
Nesmith said that his teammates were on him to dunk the ball after he turned it over on a pocket pass in the lane in the first half and my goodness did Nesmith make amends and take those words to heart.
After his worst game of the month where he missed all six of his shots, Nesmith bounced back with the second-highest scoring performance of his career. He’s averaging 11.3 points and 4.2 rebounds in just 23 minutes per game with a true-shooting percentage of 62.8%.
Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield explode from deep
The entire Pacers team shot it lights out in this game literally from the tip as Buddy Hield set a record for fastest 3-pointer in NBA history by catching the tip and immediately turning around and shooting the 3. The previous record was also held by a Pacers player: the goat, Reggie Miller.
the two fastest three-pointers to start a game in @NBA history:
Hield has been a human flamethrower throughout the month of December while shooting 52.5% from deep. He’s 11 for 13 in the last two games including 5 for 6 in this one. A big bounce back month after he made just 33% of his attempts from deep in November.
Much has been made of Hield’s tireless work ethic that gets him in trouble with his family because of how much time he spends in the gym. Oshae Brissett shared that he’s started to join Hield on his early trips to the arena on road trips. If his work ethic can continue to rub off on these young guys, that’s a win for a young team developing habits at the start of their careers.
He had one stretch in the third quarter where he hit three straight triples before he handed off the hot-shooting torch to Tyrese Haliburton, who ended the quarter by making four straight attempts from deep in the last four and a half minutes. Two of the threes came in transition with pump fake passes to Hield beside him and the final coming from 30 feet to put the Pacers ahead by 3 at the start of the fourth where Haliburton pulled up before the defender could complete the switch onto him after a good screen from Bennedict Mathurin.
All told the Pacers shot 61.3% from deep with their hot shooting backcourt duo making 11 of their 14 and every starter making at least 50% of their 3-pointers. It was an outrageous shooting display.
Bennedict Mathurin put the team on his back to start the fourth quarter
The Cavaliers scored 10 straight points to start the final quarter to reach their biggest lead of the game at 7. Lloyd Pierce called a timeout with Rick Carlisle having been ejected for arguing a missed travel late in the previous quarter and didn’t rush to make any substitutions after having played most of the starters the entire third. Instead he drew up a play for rookie Bennedict Mathurin.
Last night, @BennMathurin recorded his 14th 20-pt game off the bench this season, which tied him with Cliff Robinson for 3rd-most by a first-year player since starters were tracked in 1970-71 (Ben Gordon – 24, Jeff Ruland – 19), per @ESPNStatsInfo.
Mathurin scored a layup on the ensuing play after the timeout to stem the tide and continued attacking the basket on the next three possessions: drawing two fouls and missing a layup that was then tipped in by Brissett. His aggressiveness to the basket cut the Cleveland lead to 4 and forced a timeout, allowing enough breathing room for the starters to rest long to finish the fourth strong.
He ended up playing the entire fourth quarter and scored 12 of his 23 points in the quarter. Most impressive though was the leadership he showed in not only his actions but calling the team together for a huddle after drawing one of his fouls and encouraging the team to let go of a call and focus on the next play (which is a little funny coming from Mathurin who often has something to say on drives where he doesn’t earn a call but still). It was an encouraging game for the rookie beyond his efficient box score.
Bennedict Mathurin scored 12 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter tonight.💪
Mathurin’s numbers slumped over this last month of 2022 with shooting splits of 39.1/22.6/83.8 but he’s flashed some fun passes on drives as opportunities have come of late. You wonder if part of the struggle with his shot of late is if he is thinking more about whether he should be looking to pass the ball but developing more as a playmaker will be important. He’s still got a long way to go and has a tendency to try and make the passes fancier than they need to be but encouraging to see some of these plays happen.
Bennedict Mathurin had a terrific game against the Cavaliers: 23 points 3 rebounds 7-for-14 shooting
The Pacers got themselves one of the best scorers in the draft class. If he's able to improve defensively, you're looking at a future multiple All-Star. pic.twitter.com/WrxJon8z3g
Myles Turner, who has opened extension negotiations with the front office according to Shams, had a season-high six blocks against the Cavaliers and had a 14/12 double double. He’s been terrific during this 4-1 stretch. The one game where he struggled against the Heat and scored just 5 points, he had a fantastic fourth quarter with great defense and scored all of his points.
Tyrese Haliburton has been a fantastic closer lately after the team struggled to close out games in the prior week. He scored 7 straight points in the Hawks game to put them away late. He talked about how he and the coaching staff discussed what type of actions the team needs to get into during the closing possessions of games and it’s paying dividends so far.
Oshae Brissett, the lone big wing on the roster, continues to show his importance to the group. He was +28 against the Hawks and in December he’s made 39.5% of his 3s. His extra work with Hield paying off.
The year from hell continues for Chris Duarte, who started off the season on a major slump, finally broke through with a 30-point explosion, immediately injured his ankle in the next game, and now just a few games after returning he suffered a head injury after getting an elbow to the head against the Cavaliers and looked dazed. Hopefully, it’s not a concussion for Duarte and he can get his sophomore season on track.
I still have rotation questions when everyone is healthy on this team and wonder how long it will be until Andrew Nembhard gets the backup point guard minutes over TJ McConnell. And while Jalen Smith is likely better served as a center, letting Isaiah Jackson rot on the bench is not great.
I have to give a quick shout-out to NBA Top Shot again. I recently won my fourth pair of tickets of the season simply by owning a complete Pacers series set thanks to Top Shot’s team captain program and the Boom Baby Collectors group while being a local fan that can go to games. Looking forward to owning that Nesmith dunk as a digital collectible whenever it gets minted. If you’re someone that enjoys/enjoyed collecting cards, it’s a good time. Buy a starter pack for $9 (or wait for a new $10 Hot Pack drop) after signing up with this link and we’ll both get $15 in site credit. For $15, you can start your collection off with a handful of fun Pacers moments including Nembhard and Duarte rookie debuts.
The 2022-23 Pacers aren’t a balanced team … but they also weren’t supposed to be.
Kevin Pritchard said before the season they’re looking at this team in three or four year increments, back when saying that was a way to prepare the fanbase for how many Ls were about to be held. They were skewing younger, trade rumors were flying, and fans were already Photoshopping a certain French prospect into a Pacers jersey as a sign of hopeful things to come in the 2023 NBA Draft.
When you’re in the early stages of a rebui…excuse me, retool, it’s about talent and asset acquisition. Retain Jalen Smith and start him at the 4, that’s a win to see if he can develop even more. Trade for Aaron Nesmith as a buy-low flier along with a draft pick, absolutely. Use the 31st pick on a guy in Andrew Nembhard who would end up as the 8th player on the team that’s 6’6” and under because he’s just a good basketball player, who cares about position of need.
But here we are, about to turn the calendar to 2023, and the Pacers are sitting at 17-16 through Christmas. So what now?
Balance.
This Pacers roster has a lot of young players that are probably going to need time to learn the NBA. Shoot, only four of the top 13 players in minutes played for the Pacers are beyond their rookie contract, and only two of those guys are older than 27. That’s a great position to be in with a three or four year perspective, but that the roster is stuffed full at both ends of the positional spectrum with a gaping hole in the middle where forwards are for every team in the NBA.
Based on height and minutes played data I gathered from Basketball-Reference.com, the 2022-23 Pacers have had a player that is between 6’7” and 6’9” on the court for 6% of their total minutes played so far this year. That makes the Pacers by far the worst in the NBA and the only team below the 15% mark, with the exception of the Bucks who have been without Khris Middleton and his 11% of their minutes last year.
You can say the NBA is positionless, but it sure doesn’t look positionless when 6’5”, 190lb Nembhard is one of the better options on the team to guard 6’9”, 250lb LeBron James.
The play that started the Pacers climb back into this one down 17. Andrew Andrew Nembhard guarding LeBron James 1v1, blocks his shot and then hustles over to also grab the rebound and gets fouled. Rookie made so many huge plays last night. pic.twitter.com/L0i4iDG9PJ
Or when 6’10”, 215lb Smith has to try and stay in front of skilled forwards on the perimeter despite clearly being a natural center, with a move to the bench as the backup 5 confirming as much. Oshae Brissett is 6’7” and the only forward regularly in the rotation, but he’s an unrestricted free agent this summer that has played less and less each year he’s on the team for reasons that I still don’t understand.
Following last night's win over the Wizards, I asked Buddy Hield and Tyrese Haliburton about the contributions Oshae Brissett has been making to this current #Pacers squad.
This team is such a joy to be around, and I think this clip is a perfect example of that. pic.twitter.com/lyRtAhUMyw
Anyone who follows me on Twitter is probably tired of hearing me clamor for the Pacers to get a forward, and fans probably have some deep-seated resentment towards waiting on a forward to make the roster make sense after two years of waiting on T.J. Warren to recover from injury, but the Pacers do need forwards.
Editor’s Note: there were a lot more of these to choose from.
Putting players in their more natural position on both ends of the floor can only benefit everyone on the team, make life easier as defenses have to respect skilled size on defense, and take away some of the more obvious mismatches that opposing offenses can exploit every time down the floor.
Again, balance.
Good teams have around an above-average offense and defense, while title contenders almost always end up being top-10 in both. At the moment, the only two players locked in to starting on the next great Pacers team are Tyrese Haliburton and Benedict Mathurin. There are some guys on the roster who might be starting for that team, and some will surely be in the rotation, but the two core players that almost every decision should be molded around are questionable defenders at the moment.
There’s a great chance Haliburton and Mathurin will improve on defense to some degree, but those improvements likely won’t yield even an average defense by themselves. Even if Rick Carlisle puts together a great defensive scheme that can cover up some deficiencies, the playoffs often end up with the opposing star looking around the floor and saying “hey you, come out here” to the worst defender. It’s almost impossible to avoid that, so the rest of the team is going to need to defend.
There are credible defenders on the current roster. Myles is obviously one of the best defensive big men in the league. Nembhard shouldn’t be asked to guard LeBron, but he stepped up to that challenge and many more without looking completely outmatched. Nesmith has really come on as of late as an athletic and versatile wing defender. Chris Duarte showed he could hold his own last year, but hasn’t been fantastic after missing some time with an injury that is surely impacting him.
But a team that wants to be good can’t rely on getting by when defending stars. The Pacers are missing someone who they can trust to take the other team’s best player out of the game the way Jaden McDaniels from the Wolves did to Haliburton in November, (though Tyrese did end up dropping 26 and 15 on him two weeks later, because he’s incredible). They’re especially missing someone who can take on the big wing defensive assignment, one of the most important aspects in modern basketball when looking at contenders.
Acquiring players like that is easier said than done. 3&D players are what every contender is looking for, while two-way starters almost always end up getting overpaid because they contribute so much to winning. But the Pacers are in a situation right now that is as flexible as it gets, sitting with extra picks on top of all their own future ones, a slew of tradable contracts to get to nearly any price range and a heap of cap space. So they should make something happen right?
Still, balance.
Like I said earlier, this Pacers team wasn’t supposed to be in this position. Most win projections had the Pacers under 30 wins for the season, selling off some of their veterans as they strive for lottery balls with no chance they end up as buyers at the trade deadline. We should be careful about rooting for the team to get ahead of themselves just because they’re performing better than expected in the first year of this new direction, especially when there are young players on the team like Isaiah Jackson who simply aren’t in the rotation despite showing intriguing potential.
Pritchard has shown us the type of player that he likes to acquire: cost-controlled younger players that are coming from a situation where they may not have been optimized. Darius Bazley, Cam Reddish or Jalen McDaniels might fit and should all be relatively cheap options in a trade or in free agency this summer. Does trading or signing for a P.J. Washington, Cam Johnson or John Collins count as skipping steps? A versatile 24 to 27 year old starting-level forward should never be considered a bad move at the right price, regardless of team direction. The same train of thought goes for what to do with Turner and Buddy Hield: it’s all about getting the right pieces, at the right price, at the right time.
One more time, balance.
The present is entertaining. This is the youngest Pacers team since the 1984-85 season, which is well-known to have been the last time the Pacers had a single digit draft pick, and this is one of the most versatile and athletic rosters in a very long time.
The future is bright. Haliburton is just 22 years old on the way to his first All-Star appearance and a likely maximum rookie extension that will start after next season. Mathurin is 20 years old, with unparalleled confidence and legit NBA scoring in just his first year as a pro. There’s time to find out what works alongside the backcourt of the future.
And the possibilities are almost endless. There shouldn’t be one decision that’s going to make or break the future of this team in the next couple of months. The Pacers’ front office will make plenty of decisions going one way or another, maybe even multiple directions simultaneously, that hopefully ends up with the Blue and Gold as a true contender again. Ultimately, it will likely end up being all about…
The Indiana Pacers (15-16) are under .500 for the first time since early in the season after winning just 1 of their last 5 games. They are 4-9 over their last 13 contests and have fallen to 9th in the Eastern conference.
If you haven’t been here before, welcome to PacersrecaP where every column ends the way it began much like a Christopher Nolan film. Think of it like Tenet, confusing at first, no one knows what I’m talking about but slowly it starts to make more sense as time goes on. Or maybe I just like palindromes and couldn’t resist being clever for the sake of being clever … like a Christopher Nolan film.
Quick Summaryof the Week’s Games:
The Pacers and the Heat played in a game that felt like it was from 20 years ago with a final score of 87-82. While it was good to see the Pacers have a tremendous defensive mindset following their lack of effort on defense and the glass against the Nets backups, they couldn’t overcome a late flurry of scoring by Jimmy Butler and an incredibly off-night from their star Tyrese Haliburton, who scored just 1 point and went 0 for 9 from the floor.
The Pacers swept the season series against the Golden State Warriors, which if I’m not mistaken makes them the NBA Champions now, with a 125-119 win. The Pacers scored 47 points in the second quarter and built a 20-point halftime lead and survived the Warriors comeback attempt as Steph Curry injured his shoulder and Draymond Green got ejected after complaining about an obvious foul call, though Green may have been an addition by subtraction in the Warriors comeback attempt as he scored just 1 point and had 3 assists and 6 turnovers.
The Pacers and the Cleveland Cavaliers faced off in the battle of teams without wings. The Pacers built a double-digit lead heading into the fourth but the offense struggled in the clutch scoring just 2 points in the final five minutes and Donovan Mitchell scored 18 of his 41 points in the fourth, leading the Cavs to a 118-112 win.
The Pacers had a 6-point lead with under two minutes to go but couldn’t close out the New York Knicks who won by a final score of 109-106. Aaron Nesmith had a career high 23 points and 10 rebounds but not enough shot making from the rest of the roster as the clutch-time offense failed the team again.
Tyrese Haliburton still finding the right balance between aggression and passivity
Haliburton started off the week with the worst game of his Pacers career, scoring just 1 point and missing all nine of his shots as he was flummoxed by the defense of Bam Adebayo who repeatedly ended up guarding him after switches. The problem, however, was less than he missed all nine of his shots but that he quit looking to take his shot and only had one attempt in the fourth quarter. There were a couple of possessions where Haliburton had a chance to take an open shot but hesistated and his window quickly closed.
In a game where the Pacers scored just 82 points, they needed more looks for their leader and couldn’t afford him to pass any up. Haliburton recognized that saying after the game that he has to do a better job understanding how quickly you can turnaround an 0-for-9 game. That’s why the most encouraging Haliburton game this week was not the next game against the Warriors where he dazzled with 29 points but the Cavaliers game where he missed all 8 of his 3-pointers but stayed aggressive all night and finished with 17 points and 14 assists by making all five of his 2-point attempts and making all seven of his free throws. Continue reading PacersrecaP #28: On Haliburton’s aggression, rotation questions as the Pacers fall below .500→
That’s how badly the Brooklyn Nets beat the Indiana Pacers on the glass. The Nets grabbed 29 offensive rebounds. The Pacers had 30 rebounds total.
So many of them were embarrassing, lack of effort rebounds on missed free throw attempts or plays where multiple Pacers just watched the ball fall to the ground and bounce to their opponent. It made you question whether the Pacers knew that they were allowed to grab the ball after the opposing team misses a shot.
The Nets:
Grabbed 19 offensive rebounds on 29 missed 2s Grabbed 7 offensive rebounds on 19 missed 3s Grabbed 3 offensive rebounds on 5 missed free throws
29 ORebounds for Brooklyn. Pacers had 23 DRebounds. Story of the game. Nets attempted 15 more shots than the Pacers. https://t.co/5TKdWpvqbA
Keep in mind the Nets were playing without Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and every other Nets player than you’ve heard of besides former Pacers player Edmond Sumner, who scored 21 points and added 7 rebounds and 5 assists with a dazzling mix of speed and effort that was lacking from the Pacers roster.
Sumner had 4 offensive rebounds. Myles Turner had 3 total in 30 minutes. Jalen Smith had 3 total in 13 minutes. Isaiah Jackson had 2 total in 12 minutes.
Every Nets starter had at least 6 rebounds. Buddy Hield led the Pacers starters with 4. The only Pacers player with more than 4 rebounds was Bennedict Mathurin with 7.
After a strong start to the season with rebounding, the team was 29th in the league in rebounding percentage over the timeframe of their long road trip and they’ll continue to fall down in the standings for the entire season after they were dominated by Day’Ron Sharpe tonight.
There’s just not much else worthy of being said about this game. Unfortunately, the team wasted a fantastic shooting night from Tyrese Haliburton who scored 35 points on 12-of-15 shooting. They scored 76 points in the first half but none of it mattered because they couldn’t put in enough effort to grab rebounds against nine Nets players on mostly minimum contracts that scored 136 points.
This was one of the first games that really featured expectations for the Pacers (14-13) to win and boy did they disappoint. The lack of expectations has been part of what has made this season fun and it’s hard to take this team seriously as a potential playoff team if they can’t beat the second and third units of the Brooklyn Nets.
These kind of losses happen to everyone in a long NBA season, see the Warriors losing to the Andrew Nembhard-led Indiana Pacers last Monday but after giving up 40 points in the first quarter and 41 points in the fourth quarter you can’t blame anyone firing up the trade machine to see who might give up picks and young players for the Pacers veterans as they go back to dreaming of lottery luck.
This article was supposed to be about two games but this one was so bad that it’s hard to spend much time on the Pacers victory over the Wizards missing Bradley Beal.
What the Brooklyn Nets are doing tonight doesn't sit well with me.
Oshae Brissett was fantastic in both games scoring 16 against the Wizards and 14 against the Nets. He hit 3 triples in each game and has upped his 3-point percentage to 37% on the season. With Jalen Smith’s inconsistencies (0 for 7 last night, 5 for 10 tonight), it wouldn’t be too surprising to see Brissett eventually retake his starting spot in the lineup that he held for a good portion of last season.
Tyrese Haliburton has made 10 of his last 12 attempts from 3.
Mathurin’s slump continues. He’s now 3 for his last 28 from deep. Even when he hits one, it turns out he didn’t as he had his foot on the line on his one make from deep tonight that was correctly ruled a 2. Even with his shooting struggles, he has been efficient enough from the floor with 13 points on 9 shots and 18 points on 14 shots in these two games.
I am completely over replay reviews. They take too long, rarely affect the outcome of the game, and there’s just too many plays in a basketball game for any one moment to warrant a 5-minute review. Maybe the last two minutes but the end of games are already way slower than a game of basketball should be. On a semi-related note, I’m starting a pop punk band called Reckless Closeout. We’ll have auditions next week.
The Tyrese Haliburton / Buddy Hield press conference after the Wizards game alone made the trade a winner. If you haven’t watched this old married couple interview, you need to. Every minute is gold.
Press conference old. First, here's Tyrese Haliburton talked about Buddy Hield when Hield randomly comes in and screams.
So, it may not be the best plan to fall behind by a ton of points and try to make comebacks for nearly all of your team’s wins. Who knew?
The Wolves were up 23 early in the second quarter. The Pacers came all the way back to be up 8 in the third quarter. Then, in a back and forth fourth quarter, the Pacers fell apart in the final minute and lost by a final score of 121-115.
There were plenty of positives to take away from this one. Perhaps the most important of them all: the West coast road trip is over. Rejoice all ye EST fans and respect to ye international watchers that watch these games live no matter the timezone; I seriously have no idea how you do it.
“This team is as likable of a group of guys, and a lovable group of guys to coach as I’ve ever had.”
1. Tyrese Haliburton is back and back to his All-Star hopeful ways
Haliburton returned from his sore groin injury that caused him to miss two games and was back to immediately doing things that have never been done before. He had 26 points and 15 assists which is the first time any Pacers player has ever put up 25/15 in a game in franchise history. He also added three steals including a pair of fantastic free safety interceptions that stopped transition opportunities.
Haliburton struggled dealing with the length of Jaden McDaniels in the first game against the Wolves two weeks ago as he shot just 4 for 15 and scored only 10 points in one of the first games that teams tried to match him up with a longer wing this season. He made the necessary adjustments in the second chance against them tonight as he went 9 for 14 to break out of a little shooting slump of late. Continue reading PacersrecaP #25: Pacers fall behind early, fall apart late in loss to Timberwolves→
No, that wasn’t a dream. Andrew Nembhard really did all that against the defending NBA champions.
This entire road trip for the Indiana Pacers could have been nothing but painful blowout losses if not for a particular second-round rookie. In the Pacers two wins over their last six games, Andrew Nembhard has been the difference maker in both. First, he hit the buzzer-beating 3-pointer against the Los Angeles Lakers to finish off the 17-point fourth quarter comeback for Indiana’s 1-point win. Then, with the Pacers missing Tyrese Haliburton, Myles Turner, and others against the Golden State Warriors, Nembhard stepped up with the game of his life: 31 points, 13 assists, and 8 rebounds as he stunned everyone that stayed up late for the second straight Monday night.
Among the stunned were the professionals paid to play the game or broadcast it:
After his final 3 that saw him nearly drop Steph Curry to the ground before taking a stepback, Curry immediately turned around to look at Nembhard in complete disbelief, shaking his head.
2nd round pick ANDREW NEMBHARD went off in the win against the Warriors 🔥
Pacers TV broadcast legend Quinn Buckner was giddy and laughing at every Nembhard moment unable to contain the joy that comes from a rookie making play after play on the road down the stretch of the fourth quarter. I imagined this to be his face after each play.
You can hear Quinn’s giggles in all the second half highlights below.
Mark Boyle on the radio broadcast had a moment on that same stepback triple that can only be described as an out-of-body experience where he temporarily lost the ability to speak before post-Nembhard clarity set in and he plainly stated, “No, no, that didn’t happen … I am seeing this in real time and in person, and I’m not sure I believe what Nembhard is doing tonight.”
Nembhard scored 18 of his 31 points after halftime and did it all for the Pacers. He played all but two and a half minutes in the second half where the Pacers went from up eight points to down by one the possession he came back in after emergency backup point guard Trevelin Queen turned the ball over before coming out. After returning at 9:31, Nembhard scored or assisted on every Pacers basket the rest of the game. He moved the ball when necessary, hit huge shots at every needed moment including a stepback two against Jonathan Kuminga, a pair of deep triples, an alley oop that Isaiah Jackson into the stratosphere to retrieve and dunk it, and a running floater. 17 straight points over a 7-minute stretch was all Nembhard making my jaw drop more and more until I was on the floor struggling to see the television screen. Mathurin’s made free throws in the last couple minutes were the only points that Nembhard didn’t have a hand in after returning.
"Unlike his buzzer-beater, Nembhard wasn’t the pressure release who was left uncovered on the final play; he was handling the pressure of being a lead ball-handler during the entirety of crunch-time."
“It was amazing,” Jalen Smith, who added 15 points (6 of 8) and 9 rebounds, said after the game. “I mean for him to be a rookie and in a big-time spot like that to control the offense like that and control the team, it showed a lot. We are just grateful to have him, you know obviously we had T.J. out sick and Ty hurt … for him to step up like that is big time.”
He did all of that while also playing fantastic defense and drew a pair of charges in the fourth quarter and was part of a team effort that held Curry to a 3-of-17 shooting night with just 12 points. Nembhard was a game-high +16 while going 5 for 7 from deep in his career-best performance that surpasses anything he ever did on a college court over his four years as well.
Carlisle has praised the front office multiple times now for nailing the first pick of the second round in Nembhard and said the rookie guard may go in the top 10 of his draft class in a potential redraft in a few years.
“They just hit it out of the park with him,” Carlisle said of Kevin Pritchard and the front office’s selection of Nembhard, who now leads the team in scoring on the road trip with 15.5 points per game. “This guy has got amazing poise, he’s strong, he’s old school but new school, he’s special.”
Rick Carlisle on Andrew Nembhard
“I’ve been saying when @hoopshype does their redraft of the 2022 class, he’ll be a Top 15 pick. I’m elevating that to Top 10. He really is a special player.” pic.twitter.com/zaIyh0Imrl
Every other game during this neverending trip has seen the Pacers lose by double digits and with multiple starters and rotation players out, it felt like that was the likely scenario against the Warriors as the Pacers were playing on the second night of a back to back with three rookies during most of the first quarter in Nembhard, Bennedict Mathurin, and Kendall Brown. Instead the Pacers, who are the worst first quarter team in the league, led the Warriors 34-21 at the end of the first quarter.
Good morning to everyone but especially Andrew Nembhard, who just knows how to play and has been the bright spot of this road trip.
Nembhard followed up his career high of 16 points in his first game replacing Tyrese Haliburton at the lead guard by nearly doubling it with 31. For the season, Nembhard has shooting splits of 48.5/42.9/90.9 while averaging 9.1 points and 4.2 assists in 23.8 minutes per game.
Bennedict Mathurin hits a rookie wall? The Pacers more celebrated rookie to this point of the season has struggled throughout the road trip. He’s now gone four straight games without a made 3-pointer after only having one such game in the first 19 games of the season. On the road trip, Mathurin is shooting 35.2% from the floor overall and just 16.7% from deep. He seems to bounce back and forth between being treated like a rookie and like an All Star by the referees at the rim, a very odd feast or famine where he gets to the line for at least 8 attempts, which has happened in 3 games on this trip, or 0 attempts, which has happened on the team’s other 3 games on this trip to this point. He went 4 for 16 in his first career start against the Warriors including 0 for 6 from deep but did still score 14 points with the help of 8 free throw attempts.
This team is now 5-0 on the second night of a back to back. Huh? I don’t have anything to add to this other than confusion.
Concerning statistics from the road trip: Pacers have a -10 net rating, the 29th-best rebound percentage in the league at 46.3% and the 29th-best true-shooting percentage at 52.5% in the league during the timeframe of this trip. It has been a struggle. The team had made rebounding a surprise strength early in the season but it has fallen off a cliff and the team has gone through a cold shooting spell during this trip as teams have made adjustments for how they want to defend the Pacers fast-paced offense by putting long wing defenders on Tyrese Haliburton and cross-matching centers onto Jalen Smith and forwards onto Myles Turner.
The Pacers played two bigger wings at once! They only really have two on the roster in Oshae Brissett and Kendall Brown but they both saw a lot of playing time together against the Warriors. Brissett played fantastic with 14 points and 8 rebounds including a perfect first half at 4 for 4. It continues to baffle me how far he was buried in the depth chart to start this season. Brown in his first rotation minutes of the season was the first player off the Pacers bench and added 3 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists.
Tyrese Haliburton’s road struggles: Haliburton has had a rough road trip as well, dealing with the emotion of playing in Sacramento for the first time as a member of the road team and then probably playing a game that he should have sat out with the sore groin injury that kept him out of both sides of the back to back. Haliburton shot just 37.3% from the floor overall and 33.3% from deep during the trip’s first four games and only 40% from the free throw line on limited attempts. That being said, he still started this road trip with 35 assists in the first three games with only two turnovers even while struggling with his own shot. In the Jazz game, he had just 4 assists.
I haven’t written anything about that Jazz game really but that was a rough watch. The Jazz won 139-119 outside of Nembhard’s 13 points and 10 assists. They just couldn’t stop anyone. Walker Kessler walked all over them with 20 and 11 on 7 of 7 shooting. As a team they made 55.4% of their shots against the Pacers defense and 44.1% of their threes.
The Blazers game may have been even worse. It’s hard to pick the worst of the games from the road trip between the Clippers, Jazz, and Blazers games. The minutes were the Pacers attempted to play James Johnson at the point guard gave me painful flashbacks to Brad Wanamaker trying to run the offense at times to start last season. Trevelin Queen thankfully was adequate as an emergency point guard for the most part and quietly did some good things despite his box score not showing much in terms of counting stats. I’m still intrigued by last season’s G-League MVP.
The Pacers played a game last night. It did not go well. The Sacramento Kings played with desperation after losing three straight and the Indiana Pacers did not match that level of effort as they were dominated throughout the game and lost by a final score of 137-114.
Tyrese Haliburton made his first return to Sacramento since the trade and received a standing ovation and loud cheers during his introduction and then Buddy Hield immediately received boos as the next player introduced and continued to be booed whenever he touched the ball in the first quarter.
Big cheers for Tyrese Haliburton, boos for Buddy Hield during player intros in Sacramento: pic.twitter.com/SJKeqJDe0I
Hield had a great reaction post-game to the boos, “I don’t give a [expletive]. I go to sleep happy and make a lot of money.”
Rick Carlisle said that the blame for the embarrassing loss is on him for this one as he didn’t get the team prepared and ready for what they were going to face with the Kings team looking to end a 3-game losing streak.
React to this Kings destruction of the Pacers as much as you want. It’s silly to put too much stock into it as far as the trade goes. The Pacers (12-9) aren’t supposed to have a better record than the Kings (11-9) this year and it was always a long term move for Indiana. For the Kings, this is the first time they’ve been over .500 this far into the season in a long time as they look to end the longest playoff drought in league history. Right now, both teams are way more fun than they were before the trade and you can’t say either team regrets the deal. It’s certainly hard to see the Pacers ever regretting it.
It has not been a good start to the long road trip for the Pacers who without an impressive comeback in the fourth quarter against the Lakers would be staring at three straight blowout losses with each one worse than the last. The Pacers play the surprising Utah Jazz next so the schedule doesn’t get any easier any time soon.
1. Jalen Smith was having the game of his life before getting elbowed in the face.
Stix was about the only thing going right for the Pacers in the third quarter as the Kings put up 44 points. Smith scored 18 of his 22 points in the third quarter and did a ton of damage as the lone big on the floor with four guards. He went 8 for 10 from the field and 4 for 5 from deep on the night. Continue reading PacersrecaP #21: Kings crush Pacers in Haliburton’s first return to Sacramento→
The Indiana Pacers were down by 17 with 9:59 remaining in the fourth quarter. Many people likely decided it was no longer worth staying up late to watch and went to bed. Those weary faithful few, however, were rewarded with the best Pacers comeback victory yet that culminated with an Andrew Nembhard buzzer beating 3-pointer over LeBron James to give the Pacers a 116-115 win on the second night of their LA back-to-back.
It felt like the Pacers would keep climbing up to the peak but come up just short when a previous possession the Pacers had missed 3 straight chances at the rim with Nembhard missing a nifty reverse layup, Buddy Hield missing a tip in chance, and then Bennedict Mathurin also missing one. Each teetering on the rim more the last but each one falling off. To add insult to injury, the Pacers were called for a foul after the final miss and sent Anthony Davis to the free-throw line where he made just one of two and left the door open for the Pacers game winner.
a 17-point fourth quarter comeback.🔥
take in every moment leading up to Andrew Nembhard’s game-winning buzzer beater, and the reaction after a huge win over the Lakers.📽️ pic.twitter.com/QcolUD1nQp
With those 10 minutes left, the Pacers played hard until the buzzer sounded and the clock matched their young backcourt duo’s jersey numbers at 0:00 as Nembhard’s triple splashed through the net with the red lights on and the entire team plus Kevin Pritchard came rushing onto the court to celebrate. 8 of the Pacers 12 wins have been games that they have come back from double-digit deficits.
Kevin Pritchard storming the court in LA. Epic. Is there anything *not* to love about this team? pic.twitter.com/7B0WsfD1ny
It was the Pacers first buzzer beater game winner since Solomon Hill had a tip in winner in Lance Stephenson’s first game in Indiana as a member of the Charlotte Hornets in 2014.
1. Welcome back, Andrew Nembhard. May you never leave us again.
What a way to return from a 5-game absence. The game winning triple will be one of the top highlights of his rookie season and perhaps his likely to be long career but he was making plays throughout the game on both ends. His quirky, yet ultra fast release to even allow him to get the shot off was a feat in itself but to splash it in, nothing but net, on the road was a thing of beauty. The most impressive aspect of his game was his defense. He spent a lot of time guarding LeBron James and even while giving up size to the all-time great, Nembhard made things tough for James, who started off with a quick 10 points but finished with just 21 points on 22 shots after he seemed less mobile once he hurt his ankle in the first quarter. Caitlin Cooper did a fantastic job as always of covering the nuances of what makes Nembhard special on the defensive end.
There's not another player on the roster with the read and execution to front LeBron in the post, post peel onto the 45 drive, and closeout on the kick-out to the opposite corner.
The Indiana Pacers did not get off to a good start to their long Western adventure with their worst offensive game of the season against the Los Angeles Clippers who dominated behind a 30 point, 29 rebound game from center Ivica Zubac.
This isn’t a game that any Pacers fan is going to want to spend too much time thinking about. Just one of those nights in a long NBA season where the team is unable to make anything. The Pacers made just 38% of their shots overall and just 21% from deep. It was a sad, painful watch. A rare sight for a team that has been able to at least make games interesting when they fall behind early even when they weren’t winning many games at the start of the year.
This game was as frustrating as a Pokémon trainer’s trek through Mt. Moon and hitting Zubat encounters every three steps.
Ivica Zubat hit every member of the Pacers with supersonic and they were unable to shake off the confusion of his crossmatches and bruising play inside. They kept hurting themselves with missed open jump shots. Whenever the Pacers forced a miss of their own, Ivica Zubat used Leech Life on each of his offensive boards and putbacks as he sucked the life out of any sorry attempt that the Pacers could muster at momentum yesterday afternoon.
Usually it’s the Pacers lack of wings that doom their defense but in this one they could have used an electric type. No encounters with the rarely sighted Clefairwhi Leonard or Paul Geo(rge)dude as the pair of stars were at their usual spots in street clothes. It didn’t matter Zubat took care of the whole roster. Somehow TJ McConnell managed a few quick attacks that led to fouls on Zubat who finally fainted onto the bench with six fouls.
1) Jalen Smith has a career high and gets out of his slump a bit
The Clippers crossmatched Myles Turner and Jalen Smith because of both Smith’s struggles and Turner’s hot shooting. While they dared Smith to shoot and left him wide open, he was able to break out of his cold spell a bit. But it did the intended effect of keeping Turner out of the play far more often and Turner didn’t do himself any favors by getting into foul trouble in the first half. Smith meanwhile scored 19 of his 23 in the first half and kept the Pacers close.
Credit to Jalen Smith for being a highlight to this one as he scored a career high 23 points (previously he had scored 19 points on five separate occasions) and added 9 rebounds. He made more 3-pointers in this game (3 for 7) than he had in his previous six games combined (2 for 23). He also played very aggressively, didn’t shy away from taking those open looks, and tried to posterize Zubac when he had the opportunity and drew a foul.
We’ll probably see more and more crossmatches as team’s adjust to Turner’s great play and try to take advantage of Smith’s streaky outside shot. It will be fascinating to see how the team continues to adjust from here.
2) Tyrese Haliburton continues to rack up assists
Even in a game where the Pacers couldn’t make anything, Haliburton still managed to find 11 assists in this one. It was his second straight game with zero turnovers and he’s at 26:0 ATO in those pair of games. He, like the rest of the team, missed a ton of shots that he normally hits in this one. Floaters inside, his patient layups that he earns with nice footwork, a beautifully played 3-pointer off of him throwing an inbounds pass and then racing to the corner. So many great looks and so few results. His 15 points took 16 shots to get there and he was unable to get to the free throw line.
fifth straight game with a double-double for Tyrese Haliburton.
3) There’s just nothing else I really want to talk about with this game.
It was bad. Let’s move on. Here’s a list of guys with bad shooting nights: Buddy Hield (3 for 14), Myles Turner (3 for 9), Aaron Nesmith (1 for 7), Isaiah Jackson (1 for 5), Oshae Brissett (0 for 3). Oddly, without Zubac, the Clippers and Pacers game might have been the equivalent of that Colts and Broncos Thursday Night game a few weeks ago. Both teams were completely inept outside of the Croatian big man. Without Zubac’s 14 of 17, the rest of the Clippers roster was 28 for 77 which is good for a whopping 36.3%. They made less 3-pointers than the Pacers managed in this one at 18.8% (6 for 32). Let’s hope this game with the Lakers tonight is more entertaining. We know Bennedict Mathurin is going to be ready for his first matchup with LeBron James and we have the neverending chatter about every good and bad Myles Turner and Buddy Hield game in Lakerland finally reaching its zenith or nadir tonight with the teams facing each other.
iPacers 