The Indiana Pacers completed preseason with another home victory in their final tuneup of the season. This time beating the Cleveland Cavaliers by a final score of 109-104.
If there was any doubt remaining with a few of the starting spots for the Pacers, there isn’t now. The starting unit of Tyrese Haliburton, Bennedict Mathurin, Bruce Brown, Obi Toppin, and Myles Turner played with cohesion that was missing from the second unit as the starting five all came in at once with 9:13 remaining in the second quarter and went brought down 11 to up 3 in six minutes. It was a 20-6 run for the blue and gold and each player in the starting group had their moments.
Toppin was a highlight machine from the opening tip as he threw down a lob from Brown on a designed play on the game’s first play.
Not long after that in the first quarter, he threw down a between-the-legs dunk as he beat the defense down the floor on a nice bounce pass from Mathurin.
He may average over 10 points per game just on plays where he outruns the defense to the other end of the court. After practice on Thursday, he talked about how he does need to make sure he is waiting until he is sure that the Pacers have the ball and that he’s also contributing on the glass. He did that in this game as he added 9 rebounds and his 17 points featured plenty of plays being made in the half court as well as he hit a corner triple, drove inside for a nice layup with contact, and a perfectly timed cut finished with a reverse dunk that he made look too easy.
Haliburton was his usual stellar self on offense–outside of missing all five of his 3-point attempts—as he collected 14 points (5 for 11) and 9 assists, but he made his most impressive plays on the defensive end. With the anticipation of a lion waiting to pounce on unsuspecting prey, he gobbled up 4 steals and a block where he just completely smothered Max Strus on a 3-point attempt. He’s been open about needing to change how he plays on that end of the floor if he wants to be a winning player and you can see the effort to be more effective on defense is there.
Mathurin continues to shine in areas where he struggled the prior season. He made passes on multiple possessions in a row that you simply would not have seen him consider as a rookie—a growing trend throughout preseason. He whipped a pass to an open Brown in the corner for 3 and he found Haliburton open in the corner for another three as he was just starting his drive inside. Like many Pacers in this one, he did struggle with turnovers as he piled up six and he may have even looked to pass one too many times on a drive or two but there are still meaningful steps in the right direction with Mathurin’s playmaking. His 3-point shot continues to be taken with confidence and without hesitation, something that was missing after the first month or so in his rookie year. On defense, he dealt with Donovan Mitchell on some possessions about as well as one could expect, earning some praise on the broadcast from Quinn Buckner. He finished with 9 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds, and a steal.
Turner and Brown both finished with a team-high +20. Turner, who added 8 points and 9 rebounds, had some entertaining back and forth battles with Evan Mobley. While Mobley tallied up a nicer box score by the end, Turner made plenty of plays including one nifty drive to the basket complete with a lefty finish. Brown hit 3 of his 6 attempts from deep as he found his stroke that had been missing early in the preseason and will easily be the Pacers best perimeter defender this season. Two of Brown’s triples even came from the left corner where he went months in a row without hitting one from that location with the Nuggets.
The bench lineup struggled in the first half as they were integrating Andrew Nembhard back in the lineup. Nembhard was clearly rusty in his return to action after he had missed time with kidney stones, opening up his time with a pair of his shots getting blocked on the same possession. But he started to find his rhythm in the fourth quarter as the lead guard and finished with 11 points, he admitted he’s still working his way to game shape at the moment.
Buddy Hield was electric and finished with 20 points. He made his first six 3-pointers including multiple with his patented ghost screen and one that resulted in a 4-point play where he shook the hand of a woman sitting courtside afterward. At one point, he did his best Myles Turner impersonation with a block on one end and a trailing 3 on the other.
Aaron Nesmith had his quietest game of the preseason as he took just a single shot and didn’t score in 13 minutes. He’s still getting the backup four minutes to start the season it appears. Jalen Smith looks like the backup center but he has his worst performance of the preseason in this one as the team was outscored by 20 points in his minutes. He got a tough technical foul called on him for hanging on the rim that was then comically matched by a Mobley tech as the entire Pacers bench called for it on a similar play. Both first-round picks did not see the floor until the fourth quarter in this one. Ben Sheppard tried to murder Pacers legend Tristan Thompson on a fast break dunk attempt. Jarace Walker hit an open mid-range jumper. Both rookies may find playing time hard to come by as the season begins with so much depth on the roster as it stands.
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