The Indiana Pacers lost their first Summer League game this week as the Oklahoma City Thunder’s loaded roster was too much to handle with Bennedict Mathurin, Andrew Nembhard, and Isaiah Jackson all out. The final score was 98-87.
The Thunder’s rotation featured seven legitimate NBA players headlined by Chet Holmgren (25 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks) so this was a good test for the Pacers starting lineup featuring two 1st-round picks and three 2-way players in the starting lineup. Most of the second unit were guys getting their first minutes of Summer League. It was rough at times in the first half but there were positive moments throughout even with the Pacers making just 38% of their shot attempts on the night.
Before we dive into each player, let’s take a moment to recognize the broadcast performance of Michael Grady and Brendan Haywood who were both phenomenal. They talked about the actual game at hand and only went on short tangents that were both fun and relevant to the teams on the floor. It was a breath of fresh air after listening to Isiah Thomas do everything in his power to not talk about the game being played in front of him.
Player Emoji Grades:
Jarace Walker – 🧰
Jarace Walker’s versatility shined through in this one as his collection of skills in his toolbox were the attempted solution to many of the Summer Pacers problems. No Andrew Nembhard to run the offense meant the Pacers were lacking in the point guard spot in this one. Enter Point Jarace. On offense, Walker was the team’s initiator, bringing the ball up the floor not only on his own rebounds but even receiving the in-bounds pass after made baskets from OKC.
“I’ve been telling people all along that he’s a very versatile player,” Pacers Summer League coach Jannero Pargo said. “He’s really comfortable with the ball in his hands playing pick-and-roll. With those other guys out, we wanted to exploit that and take a look at it.”
While he didn’t rack up the assists, he had a nice two-man game going with Isaiah Wong, generally took good care of the ball, and had his best scoring game of Summer League. He finished with 20 points (8 for 19), 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers.
Considering Nembhard had 8 turnovers in the first game, it’s no small feat that a power forward playing mostly point guard offensively only had three turnovers in the game. One of them came on an attempted pass to Ben Sheppard in the corner but Sheppard had started to cut when Walker was expecting him to stay there on his drive.
Walker continued to struggle with his outside shot as he made just 1 of 5 threes. He drew a lot of fouls driving to the rim while utilizing his floater game but went just 3 for 7 from the foul line.
He was very reliant on his floater in this game. Normally, I would prefer Walker to use his big body to initiate and finish through contact at the rim but with Chet Holmgren often waiting to block shots near the basket, his floater became a valuable tool in those situations. He hit a few of them right over the Thunder’s slender big man.
While he was a guard on offense, he spent a lot of the game playing center on defense. He’d often start possessions guarding Chet and had good moments defending him when he’d try to attack from perimeter but the Pacers were switching most screens and Holmgren often slipped into open space with neither Pacers defender following him as he got many open looks in the paint.
Walker‘s penchant for gambling for steals resulted in a lot of Thunder buckets in this one. Pargo mentioned that as one of things they want Walker to work on in the week leading up to Vegas, wanting him to “just stay solid” on defense instead of gambling for turnovers. He has one sequence where he missed on a gamble, gave up a layup, then turnover the in-bounds pass and gave up another layup in immediate succession.
Ben Sheppard – 🥶
Like most of the team, Sheppard struggled to find his shot in this one and went just 2 for 9 for 5 points. He started off the game with some fantastic plays including stealing a post-entry pass by getting in front of Chet Holmgren and then setting up a Walker dunk in transition.
Sheppard had a patient step-through bucket against Thunder rookie Cason Wallace to get his first points of the game but went ice cold from there and didn’t make another shot until the fourth quarter. He did block a Jared Butler shot inside and has two steals in total. Overall not a good game for the first-round pick who is shooting just 33% from the floor over three games.
Isaiah Wong – 💥
Wong had his best game of Summer League as he and Walker were the only players that really were able to consistently get anything going on offense. He finished with 17 points (7 for 13), 4 assists, 2 blocks, and a steal. He hit 3 triples including one stepback that he banked in with the shot clock nearly up and another where he rose up immediately off a little scoop handoff from Walker.
He showed off his explosive leaping ability on his transition dunk in the highlight of the game for the Pacers.
While the need for Walker to play point guard speaks a lot to Wong being a much more natural shooting guard than point, he made some nice plays passing the ball as well including this behind-the-back pass to a popping Walker and had multiple drive and kicks to open 3-point shooters.
He had one layup off of an offensive rebound that he lofted ridiculously high off the glass to avoid another Holmgren block. And he somehow managed to block Chet on the other end (which highlights the odd strategy they took on defense in this game).
Oscar Tshiebwe – 👷🏿♂️🦺
Tshiebwe was a man at work on the glass as he gathered 11 rebounds in only 16 minutes. He was also 3 for 3 from the floor, a rare efficient field-goal percentage among Pacers in this one. He started the game but because the Pacers were playing more of a switching defense, his slow-footed nature on that end kept him from playing more. He was part of the Pacers third quarter run that briefly made the game closer than it was the rest of the game and was a team-high +4.
Kendall Brown – 👍
Thumbs up for Kendall Brown who struggled to get a lot of shots inside the paint to fall including early where he missed a handful of floaters all in quick succession but just generally made a lot of plays in this one and played better after the first quarter. He finished with 12 points (3 for 10), 3 blocks, and 3 steals and was one of only two Pacers with a positive plus/minus in the game. He hit 2 of his 3 looks from deep both off of drive and kicks from Wong and continues to look more comfortable shooting from deep than last year. He did hesitate to shoot one from the top of the key and then go too intent on going one on one at one point and turned the ball over. He showed off his usual transition speed on a steal where he out ran a couple Thunder players straight to the rim with the ball.
Mojave King – 🧊
What I remember most from King in this game are a lot of missed open looks from deep, not that he was alone in missing shots in this one. He went 2 for 9 overall and 1 for 6 from deep. You can see the feel for the game whenever he plays. He added 7 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal.
Robert Woodard II – 🫤
The rest of these players got their first minutes of Summer League. Woodard had some decent moments in the game but couldn’t finish most of his looks either. He went just 2 for 9 like King with just 5 points. He did contribute off the glass for 8 rebounds and added 2 assists. He set up one of Tshiebwe’s buckets on a nice pocket pass to the rolling big man.
Ethan Thompson & Eli Brooks – 👌
Thompson had some nice moments offensively and made some shots with confidence. He scored 9 points (4 of 9) in 13 minutes. He was part of the Pacers solid run through the third quarter.
Brooks knocked down 2 of his 4 triples and added 6 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists, also contributed during that third quarter.
Nate Laszewski – 👎
The former Notre Dame stretch big only played six minutes and my main impression was that he’s too slow on the defensive end to play at this level. I will say that he had a tough assignment in Chet Holmgren and did provide enough resistance on one possession that Holmgren lost the ball on a spin move and he got a block on a driving player on another possession but he was a liability on most possessions. He missed his only shot attempt on an open 3 and had one turnover and one foul.
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