The Indiana Pacers collapsed in the second half against the Miami Heat and lost by a final score of 142-132.
Tyrese Haliburton set a new career high for the second consecutive year in Miami with 44 points but the Pacers made just 4 of 27 3-point attempts in the second half and couldn’t avoid putting Heat players at the free-throw line as they attempted 45 shots from the charity stripe.
“I just wanna win. So, it’s frustrating right now,” Haliburton said after the loss. “I think we’re just in a frustrating place in the season right now. But we gotta figure it out. We gotta come together. This is the time where you know, you can split or you can come together and figure it out, and I think we’ll do the latter. I believe in this group.”
It’s been a tough stretch for the Pacers, who sit at 9-8 on the season with a handful of losses they feel like they should have won. With the way the season has started, it feels a little clearer why Pacers front office and coaching staff seemed to be trying to temper expectations despite the players being vocal about their desires to take a step and make the playoffs.
While Haliburton is making a clear statement that he’s a superstar and ready to win at a high level, the Pacers don’t have the pieces surrounding him quite yet to make that happen. It seems like the organization knew that. When your star player puts up numbers over a full month that haven’t been touched by anyone other than Michael Jordan and LeBron James, you know you have an incredibly special talent and probably feel like you should have a better record than 7-7 during that timespan.
For the second straight game, they showed they can’t overcome a poor shooting night with their porous defense. While Haliburton scored 44 points, the Pacers couldn’t take advantage of the Heat paying extra attention to him often enough as open 3-pointer after open 3-pointer clanked off the rim.
The Pacers were able to keep their lead at a decent size through most of the third quarter but every time they would start to gain some momentum Jimmy Butler would force his way to the foul line. He remains one of the more frustrating players to watch when his only goal on many possessions is to draw a foul. He ended the game with 20 free throws as Aaron Nesmith, Andrew Nembhard, and Buddy Hield all fouled out.
In the fourth quarter, Heat rookie Jamie Jaquez made a fool of the Pacers defense and took over. The Pacers scored just 2 points over a 5-minute stretch where the Heat extended their lead to 16 and that was it for any chance of a win.
Pacers Grades:
Tyrese Haliburton: A
Haliburton continues to be amazing. The level of difficulty on some of his stepbacks that he hits is impressive and it’s insane that he’s hitting 44.7% on his 3s this season with how deep and how contested many of them are.
He went cold from outside a bit in the second half like the entire team but he also continued to attack the basket and stay aggressive. To see him put up 28 shots in a game was a good thing to see.
Haliburton made some good plays on the defensive end as he added three steals and a block. The block came as he contested a Duncan Robinson 3-pointer multiple times, looked like he may have gotten himself out of the play but then blocked it when Robinson thought he was in the clear. He put in good effort to fight when stuck on a mismatch in the post multiple times, allowing enough resistance for a teammate to arrive to help.
Obi Toppin: A-
Toppin started off the game with 8 of the Pacers first 10 points. He continues to lead the league in 2-point percentage at 76.7% as he was effective in driving to the basket and making himself available with timely cuts. He went 7 for 8 on twos in this game.
He had the best 3-point percentage of anyone on the roster in this game as he made 3 of 7 attempts.
Like almost everyone that went up against Butler, he had some tough fouls called against him. Despite his defensive limitations it felt like an okay performance for him on that end. You’d still like to see him contribute more on the glass as he added only two rebounds. He was the only Pacers player with a positive +/- at +6.
Buddy Hield: D
The Pacers desperately need Hield to make shots. He went 2 for 11 from deep in this game and he missed six consecutive attempts from deep during the Pacers offensive lull.
The Haliburton and Hield duo has been one of the most successful pairings for the Pacers this season and Hield won the game for Indiana against the Hawks when they started to trap the Pacers superstar. In this one though, Hield was ice cold.
Carlisle had already pulled both Bruce Brown and Bennedict Mathurin for falling asleep on defense as they were beat badly on backdoor cuts by Jamie Jaquez so he was limited on options but Hield’s needed mentality as a shooter makes for a painful watch when he doesn’t have it going. Mathurin and Brown would eventually come back in but for Nembhard and Nesmith after they fouled out.
Most of his attempts were shots that he needed to take. Nesmith was frustrated on one attempt as Hield faked a pass to him to launch a 3 but the defender was cutting off the swing pass which would have made it a difficult one. If Hield can level out somewhere between on fire and frozen solid with his shooting, it may help the Pacers be a little more consistent as well.
Myles Turner: C-
Turner played very well against Bam Adebayo in the first half before the Heat center left the game due to a sore hip. A sequence of blocking a Bam drive and then gathering an offensive rebound with a hook shot putback stands out from early in the game. Turner had 13 points and 9 rebounds. His grade primarily suffers as he went just 5 for 14 overall and 0 for 5 from 3. He completed perhaps the first alley oop of his career as the passer when he found Toppin for one, a few possessions later he tried another but the pass was too high. Fortunately, Kyle Lowry was called for a foul as he undercut Toppin as he jumped for the pass.
Bruce Brown: C
The good: Brown did great when defending Butler and was the only Pacers player able to avoid fouling him when doing it. He forced multiple misses and had just one foul for the game.
The bad: Brown got absolutely cooked by Jaquez during the pivotal stretch of the game, getting beat off the dribble and then badly losing track of his man and getting beat on a cut to the rim which got him pulled from the game.
Brown’s one of the Pacers best options as a secondary playmaker when Haliburton gets trapped but the defensive miscues forced him out of the game as the Pacers floundered with a flurry of misses. Brown finished with 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists.
Bennedict Mathurin: C
Mathurin had some great moments of aggression in this game with drives to the basket. He finished 5 for 7 with 14 points. The defense remains a struggle. Immediately after Brown was pulled for getting beat backdoor, Mathurin did the same as Jaquez cut behind him on the baseline. Both players took curious positions with their bodies that made the cuts very easy for the Heat rookie to make. Late in the game when the Pacers were trapping everything to try and force turnovers, Mathurin was often far too late to rotate to the open player at the rim.
Aaron Nesmith: C+
If Nesmith could figure out how to tone down the fouls while still playing with his high level of energy, he could be much more impactful. One of his fouls he looked like a pinball bouncing off of multiple Heat players before being whistled on a Butler layup attempt.
All four of his baskets in this game came off of offensive rebounds, two directly from his own boards, another that was tipped to hI’m by Toppin for an and-1, and another where he got a pass from Turner on the baseline and drove in for the finish. He had 9 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals.
Andrew Nembhard: C+
Nembhard played well despite being quiet offensively with just 2 points (1 for 4). He added five assists and two steals. The fouls bring his grade down. He didn’t quite stay solid enough on a few possessions against Butler as his arms didn’t stay straight up on one and he got his arm caught reaching on another that fouled him out in the fourth. He was close to drawing a charge to the point where the Pacers called for a review but his feet weren’t quite set. His foul trouble proved crucial as Haliburton wasn’t able to rest much in the second half and he seemed gassed by the end of the game.
He had some great defensive moments in the first half including a complete stonewalling of a Martin drive and multiple textbook verticality contests at the rim.
Isaiah Jackson: C
I-Jax played just six minutes in the first half as he was dealing with a respiratory illness. He had a nice moment where he earned a stop on Adebayo and then gathered the rebound. He had 3 fouls, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 assist, didn’t score in his limited time.
Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard: INC
Carlisle trolling by putting the rookies with for the final eight seconds of the game.
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