After losing in the In-Season Tournament championship, the Indiana Pacers next opponent the Detroit Pistons had lost 19 straight games.
Only one thought was running through everyone’s mind before this one:
But the Pacers finally avoided a trap game. Heading into tonight they had followed each of their four In-Season Tournament group play games with losses including games against the Hornets and Trail Blazers.
“It had all the makings of a trap game,” Myles Turner said. I think we started off a little slow. We picked it up in the second half, just rallied around each other. We knew we were going to have to make our mark defensively more than anything.”
They handed the Pistons their 20th consecutive loss and won by a final score of 131-123. While it wasn’t the Pacers best performance and they let the Pistons hang around all game, they got the win which technically counts as their fourth straight in the regular season because the IST championship doesn’t count for the standings.
Let’s not waste any time get to the grades:
Bennedict Mathurin: A+
Mathurin was fantastic in what Rick Carlisle called “one of his best games as a Pacer.” It was an all-around performance for the second-year wing with 30 points, a career-high 8 assists, 7 rebounds, and 2 steals.
“Aggressive. I feel like he was like what LeBron did to us the last game,” Buddy Hield said of Mathurin. “He was just approaching downhill, super aggressive. Not worrying about nothing, just putting his mind to the rim and making plays.”
The playmaking was by far the best part of his night and his first two plays were assists to Isaiah Jackson. He seemed to find the best balance of attacking and distributing at the right moments that he has so far this season. First finding him in traffic inside with a right-handed bullet in the paint and then a perfect dump off pass on his drive.
“I think everybody’s going to talk about Benn’s scoring, but he made some great passes tonight,” Turner said, “some good reads. I think it was a nice balance of things. He knew when to be aggressive, he knew when to come off it. He’s definitely maturing. You can see it throughout the season.”
After those initial assists, he made his first shot on a step-back 3-pointer. In the second quarter, he scored 13. He blew through defenders in transition with three fast-break layups and had five points during a 9-0 run at the end of the half to give the Pacers a 5-point lead going into halftime.
His play of the night was another highlight reel pass where he again found Jackson in the paint. With two defenders on him, he whipped a pass around them with his left hand to the open center for an easy bucket. The entire bench got off their feet and Tyrese Haliburton came over with to congratulate his teammate and jokingly covered up one of the zeros on Mathurin’s jersey to indicate he’s throwing passes like him in a wholesome moment that had Benn laughing.
“I just felt it,” Mathurin said after the game. “It just came to my mind. It was the right play to make. Tyrese said I looked like him. I would not agree with that.”
He had few assists by quickly moving the ball around the perimeter and one nice set up for Turner on a pick and roll on a well-placed pass. Mathurin also contributed on the glass with a few timely offensive rebounds at the end of the third and start of the fourth where he either got fouled or scored. He played a team-high 37 minutes and the Pacers were +8 in those minutes.
“He keeps improving,” Haliburton said. “As long as he keeps playing within himself and doing what he does, he’s going to play well. I thought he did a great job getting downhill, putting pressure on the refs to call fouls at the rim. And I thought he was great defensively. I think that playing Detroit is a little fuel for him after the draft.”
There’s definitely felt like there’s something between Mathurin and Ivey every time they play each other. Ivey went 5th to Pistons before Mathurin went 6th to Pacers.
The only downside to his night was that he ended up standing in the corner on most possessions down the stretch. There’s clearly still a lot of room to grow in the synergy between him and the rest of the starters.
Myles Turner: A
Turner bounced back from his poor performance in the championship defeat with a strong one against the Pistons as he took advantage of switches and double teams in their efforts to slow down Tyrese Haliburton. Turner got three easy baskets at the rim for six of the first 11 Pacers points.
Turner finished with 23 points (10 of 15), 8 rebounds, and 3 blocks. All 3 rejections led to instant transition chances for the Pacers including one block on Cade Cunningham where he was able to save the ball from going out of bounds and Bennedict Mathurin took it the length of the court.
Turner had 8 rebounds himself and was a key contributor to the Pacers winning the rebound battle 43-30 and only allowing six offensive rebounds for the Pistons. While he was unable to connect on a pair of 3s, he made 10 of his 13 from inside the arc including a tough stepback to beat the shot clock.
Tyrese Haliburton: B
Normally, it takes Haliburton a week or two to get up to seven turnovers but tonight he was much looser with the ball than normal. Six of the seven turnovers were bad passes that were stolen and the last one was a double dribble where he lost control of the ball. The turnovers were the only indication that perhaps he was suffering a bit from an IST hangover as he went from being on a national stage going toe-to-toe with some of the NBA’s biggest stars to facing a rebuilding Pistons team. The Pacers as a whole struggled with taking care of the ball as their 18 turnovers allowed the Pistons to hang around most of the game.
That being said, Haliburton, even on an off night, put up 14 points (5 of 12) and 16 assists. He struggled to get his own offense going through three quarters but scored 8 points in the fourth quarter including six straight on a stepback 3-pointer and a layup with a foul that pushed the lead to 15 late in the fourth to ice the game.
His assists featured many no-look dimes as he drove to the basket including a bounce pass to Bruce Brown where he spun in a circle after dropping it off, finding open shooters, and connecting on a deep touchdown pass to Mathurin who caught it over Jaden Ivey.
He had a pair of nice blocks defensively, one where he blocked Killian Hayes in rearview pursuit in the lane and another to start the second half where he blocked a 3-point attempt by Ausar Thompson.
Quick hits:
- Aaron Nesmith (A) kept his momentum from Las Vegas with a good night on both ends. He scored 13 points on 7 shots behind hot shooting from deep and solid drives to the basket. He took a charge against Ivey that was close to identical to the charge he took on LeBron. Both were reviewed and they both went in his favor as he perfectly timed getting set right before the contact hit him square in the chest.
- Buddy Hield (B+) hit the same jump shots that weren’t falling in Las Vegas. 16 points on 9 shots.
- Bruce Brown (B+) struggled with his shot again but played solid defense against Cade Cunningham, who scored 23 points on 21 shots and didn’t get to the foul line. He also came up big on the glass with 9 rebounds.
- Isaiah Jackson (B+) continued his solid play with 10 points (5 of 6) and 5 rebounds in 17 minutes. He was a bit over anxious to make some plays defensively in his hometown as he fell for a pump fake and got caught in the air against a non-shooter in Thompson. He’s done better avoiding bad fouls like that lately.
- TJ McConnell (C) got to his spots but couldn’t quite get them to fall in this as he scored 8 points (4 of 10) and added 5 assists in his 15 minutes.
- Obi Toppin (C) only played 12 minutes in part due to Pistons playing smaller and the defensive challenge that came with that for Toppin. He has a nice dunk finish on a pick and roll with Haliburton. He had 6 points on 3 of 5 shooting.
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