The Indiana Pacers (2-2) lost by 51 points against the Boston Celtics. The final score was 155-104.
I really want that to just be the end of the article. I need Will Smith to walk up to my house with his Men In Black flashy thing to wipe my memory of this terrible game of basketball.
Tyrese Haliburton didn’t play. The Pacers made only 5 of 37 shots from deep at a frigid rate of 13.5%. It’s a percentage so low that they would have had more success if Boomer traveled with the team to Boston and attempted backwards shots from halfcourt on those 37 possessions.
Every Pacers player that saw the court in this game had a +/- in the double digit negatives. Obi Toppin was a -41! How is that possible? Even in garbage time–which was the entire fourth quarter–the Pacers were getting blown out.
Perhaps the biggest lesson from this game is how desperately the Pacers remain in need of one other star that can carry the team in a short-term situation when Haliburton is unable to play. Tonight was even worse than last year when he missed games and the Pacers went from looking like a surprise playoff team to a lottery-bound tank within two weeks of him being out.
Bennedict Mathurin is the player the Pacers are hopeful can be that guy but in year two it’s clear he’s got a long way to go. He was questionable with a right-elbow injury before this game and only played 15 minutes (8 points on 4 of 7 shooting) with the game out of hand early.
Myles Turner is the team’s second-best player at the moment. While he’s very good, he’s simply not capable of being the number one, go-to option in an offense. He went just 4 of 12 in this one with 8 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists in 22 minutes.
T.J. McConnell’s boxscore looks good with 18 points (8 of 13), 7 rebounds, 5 assists until you get to the +/- column and see -29. Hard to blame McConnell much but I lost count of how many times he somehow ended up guarding Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown inside, an impossible task for the undersized guard to handle. There were multiple instances in this game where Tatum got mismatches without anyone even setting a screen. The Pacers would just jog back on defense and for some reason Myles Turner would be the one guarding Tatum like that was the plan all along.
The Pacers did take care of the ball in this one. Yay? They only had 9 turnovers.
Bally Sports once again did not work for many local Pacers fans tonight that access the service through Bally’s app or website. Perhaps they did everyone a favor tonight but it continues to be a major problem for many teams in the league.
If you came here looking for grades:
The only true highlights were seeing the pair of rookies in Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard have some success in the fourth quarter offensively. Walker in particular showed off his skillset with passes in the short roll, floating drives, quick outlet passes, and some mid-range shot creation. He still drifts back and to his left on nearly every set jump shot as the great Caitlin Cooper pointed out in the preseason.
He finished with 8 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and a block. His quick decision making on passes remains his most impressive trait.
Without Sheppard making 2 of his 4 three-point attempts, the Pacers would have been just 3 for 33 and shot under 10% from distance. His first three came from a fantastic outlet from Jarace Walker off a rebound and the second came from McConnell who somehow found him in the corner while falling to the floor near the top of the key.
If nothing else, the Pacers should be extra motivated for a better performance on Friday in what will be their first In-Season Tournament game of the season. They play the Cleveland Cavaliers again who they beat without Donovan Mitchell and two other starters last weekend. The odds are they have to start making threes again eventually, right?
In the end, it’s just one game of 82 and only counts as one loss but it’s a reminder how much farther the Pacers need to go before they get to where they strive to be.
iPacers - Indiana Pacers News 