The Indiana Pacers beat the Washington Wizards in their first Summer League game by a final score of 91-83 behind a fantastic defensive performance in the first half and a strong closing effort.
The star of the show was Pacers rookie Jarace Walker, who dominated in every facet of the game except for shooting. He finished with 8 points (3 for 13), 13 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 blocks, and 3 steals.
He started the game by stripping his draft day trade partner Bilal Coulibaly as it led to a bucket by Isaiah Jackson in transition on the other end and he was one of many Pacers locked in on defense through the entire first half as the Wizards scored only 29 points in two quarters.
Walker struggled initially on offense as he missed his first six shots but that didn’t affect his defense in the slightest. He impressed with his perimeter defense, interior help defense, and stopped a transition play in its tracks with a clean strip to get his first basket in the second quarter.
His basketball IQ seemed higher than any one else on the floor especially on a missed free throw after a timeout where no one realized it was the second attempt—except for Walker who grabbed his own miss and dunked it with no one challenging him. His quick decision making resulted in highlight passes including this behind-the-back dime to Jackson in the paint.
Pacers summer league head coach Jannero Pargo said that Walker could do anything on the basketball floor during their week of practice and he wasn’t lying. His versatility was on full display with his jaw-dropping block in one of his first possessions as a small-ball five.
Often after one of his 11 defensive rebounds, you’d see him immediately push the ball up the floor himself and make the right play. Sometimes the right play is a bounce pass that looks like he came out of the Tyrese Haliburton tool belt.
Walker took over the game without scoring (though he did make one 3-pointer in the second half). He added a touch pass to a waiting Mathurin to his highlight reel in a moment to keep the Pacers in front late.
Everything was as advertised for Walker in his debut for the Pacers. You’d like to see more shots go in but he impacted the game in so many other ways and was at least confident in taking his shot when open. After missing his first six, he made three of his last seven from the floor. With numerous of his veteran Pacers teammates in Las Vegas to support the young guys, they came away excited to play with their new rookie.
Jarace Walker Grade: 😱🤌🤯🥶
Player Emoji Grades
Bennedict Mathurin – Grade 🪣
Mathurin started off slowly, struggling to take care of the ball with 4 turnovers in the first half. Eventually he settled in and looked much like the player we saw through his rookie season. He finished with 27 points (9 of 21), 5 rebounds, 1 block, and no additional turnovers.
I enjoyed that he wasn’t gun shy with his 3-pointer as he took 10 attempts from long distance (3 for 10) when he often would hesitate to take open looks last season but I was hoping to see more than the goose egg in the box score in the assists column. There was talk of improved playmaking for others during camp but we didn’t see that in this one.
Defensively, his effort was awesome in the first half and he even forced a turnover on ball at one point. It waned a bit late in the game as it seemed like he was starting to get fatigued but he finished off strong and it generally looked better than last season. Whether or not we see another game in Vegas for Mathurin remains to be seen.
Isaiah Jackson – Grade 😳
Jackson is about to enter his third-year in the NBA and he looked every bit the NBA-experienced center in this one: 21 points (10 of 12), 14 rebounds, 3 blocks. He was a monster on the glass, finished everything he touched near the rim, and was active on defense.
The downside to his night that drives his grade down? 8 fouls. Obviously that’s more than you are allowed to get in a normal NBA game but in Vegas you get 10. Jackson played 30 minutes but he wouldn’t have been able to do so because of foul trouble if this was in the regular season.
This pass from Jackson was nice as it is perfectly placed and thrown at the exact right time just before Mathurin comes open on his cut to the basket.
Andrew Nembhard – Grade 😎
Nembhard has no business playing in these games but he made things so much easier for this team as an organizer and calm presence on the floor in the first half especially.
In the first quarter, he looked like he could get anywhere he wanted at whatever speed he wanted. Too cool for summer school. He made this exact shot three times in a short amount of time.
He ended up with 14 points on 14 shots as he went 0 for 4 from 3. He had 8 assists but also 8 turnovers. Some of that is just that Summer League tends to lend itself to sloppy play with a short lead up but you’d still like to see that number much lower. His assist to Oscar Tshiebwe was beautiful however.
Ben Sheppard – Grade 👻🏃
Sheppard was extremely forgettable in this one and didn’t contribute much. I’ll need to watch a second time to see how his defense looked but offensively he missed all four of his shots and one of his two free throws. He was the 5th option in the starting lineup so it’ll be interesting to see how he does the rest of the week as more players start to rest. I’m trying not to judge him too harshly but it was not a great first impression for the rookie from Belmont. He finished with 1 point, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal in 28 minutes. Lots of cardio for the first-round pick in his debut.
Kendall Brown: Grade 💯
Give this man the final 2-way slot. He 100% deserves it and looks like he would be worthy of a standard NBA contract if the Pacers had the roster space. He had 5 blocks in this game in only 20 minutes. Brown was everywhere on defense. He’s always looking to run and just seems to fit exactly what the Pacers need and their love for the transition game. He finished with 9 points, 4 rebounds, and an assist as well.
Isaiah Wong – Grade 🫤
Generally Wong didn’t look like a point guard that could handle running the show in this one and had six fouls on defense. He finished with 6 points (1 of 4), 2 assists, 2 rebounds, 4 turnovers in 17 minutes. He got beat badly on the play that led to the Walker’s insane block when his man rejected a screen. His one make was a tough little mid-range shot that was nice and he did get to the foul line for six attempts.
Oscar Tshiebwe – Grade 🤔
Tshiebwe’s rebounding prowess only showed up twice on the same possession in this game as he gobbled up consecutive 3-point misses on the offensive end and then drew a foul on the putback attempt. He only played 8 minutes and added 5 points with his 2 boards.
Mojave King – Grade 🤷♂️
King got 2 minutes of run and a completely empty box score.
The Pacers next game is on Monday against Anthony Black and the Orlando Magic.
iPacers 
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