The Indiana Pacers returned from the All Star with their offense fully in gear as they beat the Memphis Grizzlies 127-113 behind a massive 50-point second quarter that turned a slow start into a massive lead.
The win keeps the Pacers one game ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks for the 4th seed in the Eastern Conference as they look to push to have homecourt advantage in the first round down the stretch of the regular season.
Here’s three things that stood out from last night’s performance against one of the best teams in the Western Conference.
Myles Turner keeps shooting
Myles Turner was fantastic in his first game back since taking an errant Bennedict Mathurin elbow to the chin a few weeks ago but his game didn’t start out in ways that anyone would have hoped. With Zach Edey in as a drop coverage big, Turner had four wide open looks from 3 in the first quarter but missed them all.
There have been times early in his Pacers career where only one or two missed 3-pointers would have had him second guessing whether or not to continue to take those looks either due to a lack of confidence or a lack of trust from previous coaching staffs. A slow start would have him pump faking out of open 3-pointers often. In this one, Turner just kept letting them fly.
“Mentally, you miss a few shots and you kind of get down on yourself,” Turner said of his slow start to the game. “But I’ve got to give a lot of credit to literally everybody on the bench. I kind of started to get in my own head a little bit and everybody was like, ‘Yo, yo, keep shooting. You’re a 40-percent shooter for a reason. Shoot the ball, shoot the ball.’ From the coaching staff down to the end of the bench, everybody encouraged me to keep shooting. It really picked up my own spirit and I knew I needed to lock in in that second quarter. And I was able to do just that.”
Water found its level in the 2nd-quarter as Turner found his rhythm and exploded for 15 of his 17 points including three straight made 3-pointers with a pair of old-fashioned 3-point plays as well with one coming from him attacking a closeout thanks to a few of those triples finally dropping.
“He was great,” Rick Carlisle said. “… At the beginning of the game he was feeling (the time off) a little bit, gave him a rest a little quicker than normal. He got back in, got his second wind and a whole lot of great things started happening in terms of shot making. He was huge around the basket, the 7 blocks were enormous in this game and when he gets a double double, we’re very difficult to beat.”
In the second half, Turner only scored 2 points but was an absolute terror protecting the rim with three blocks in the third quarter and another four blocks to seal things in the fourth. He finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 blocks.
“I watched a lot of film on this team over the break,” Turner said. “… I was able to kind of pick up on some tendencies, whether it’s jab and faking or just committing, blocking shots is what I do. I’ve been doing it for a very long time, but whenever I have nights like this it really helps our team defensively.”
Turner added three new members to the ever-growing Myles High Club, a comprehensive list of every player he’s ever blocked in his career. With Jaylen Wells, Vince Williams Jr., and GG Jackson causing the list to reach 459 players in his 10 years with the team.
The last few games before the All Star break were a reminder for how important he is to the roster on both ends of the floor.
“He really anchored the game defensively down there, really stepped up for us,” Haliburton said. “He’s a very integral part of what we do and why our offense has been so good over these last couple years. So to get him back really helps.”
Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers don’t cede to the face guarding
There have been many games this season where Tyrese Haliburton has faded into the background of the offense, some of which involved defenders face guarding the Pacers star guard including a game against the Grizzlies and rookie wing defender Jaylen Wells earlier this season. Both the Pacers and Haliburton seemed too compliant with the defense’s wishes to fall into the trap of just letting them take away their primary engine of the offense without much resistance and instead just playing 4-on-4. This time, perhaps helped by the fact that they had time to prepare counters to these face-guarding techniques coming out of the All Star break, the Pacers looked for ways to get Haliburton involved early and often from the very first play of the game.
“As you come into a game like this where you know it’s going to be physical and you know that they’re really going to key in on the best players, you got to think about ways to get them open, and it also falls on him and Pascal,” Carlisle said. “They also have to be resourceful and find ways to get themselves involved in the game. The game at Memphis, Ty didn’t take a shot until–I don’t know if he even took one in the first quarter. That’s not our game. He’s got to be aggressive to run the team and to get good looks. Tonight I thought he did a very good job of doing both.”
It’s a much needed adjustment to the team’s approach. As good as Andrew Nembhard has been this season and as reliable as he is as a secondary creator, he’s still not Haliburton. Giving teams an option to face guard and know that’ll result in a low volume, low aggression game from the point guard was an untenable situation as the Pacers hit the stretch run and look to make another playoff run. Caitlin Cooper dove into the adjustments in ways that only she can on her patreon.
“Coach had a really good plan, we spent a lot of time the last two days during practice and my individual workouts having the coaches and interns foul me the whole time and we have to figure out how to get me the ball and do what we do offensively,” Haliburton said of adjusting to these types of coverages. “It can be tricky when you play a team like Memphis. The way they defend, they will faceguard and not let you touch the ball, and it’s easy to just fall into the trap of just letting the team play 4-on-4 but then you’re really playing into what they want. I thought we did a good job of countering that, kudos to our coaching staff of paying attention to that the past couple of days and it allowed our offense to really thrive.”
Haliburton finished with 22 points, 9 assists, and 5 rebounds in this game in what would have been considered an average performance last season but it was much better than the loss to Memphis in December where he was just 3 for 10 from the floor with 8 points and 7 assists.
“It’s been an up and down year for me offensively,” Haliburton said. “There’s been a lot of games where I might not have asserted myself enough, or overthinking, just not shooting enough, passing up good shots. I probably had a couple instances of it today. I watch a lot of film, my trainer Drew (Hanlen) is always on me to shoot the ball more, to be more aggressive because good things happen when I’m getting paint touches and really shooting the ball. I’m just trying to pay attention to it and be as good as I can … I feel like I’ve had a lot of low lows (this season) and just like not high highs, just whatever is in the middle. I haven’t had many games this year where I’ve felt like I was really good offensively.”
Andrew Nembhard’s All-Defense campaign continues
“Drew’s a guy that loves those challenges, loves trying to make it hard on the best players. He did a lot of good things,” Rick Carlisle said of Nembhard.
Welcome to Nembhell, Ja Morant. Nembhard continues to showcase how important he is to the Pacers turnaround on the defensive end as he held the Grizzlies star player to 4 of 15 from the floor on his way to 12 points and 6 assists in addition to five turnovers including this steal from Morant’s live dribble that led to a superb deceleration move at the rim that put the Pacers on the scoreboard as Morant floated past Nembhard.
“He’s been incredible all year, honestly,” Turner said. “I think he takes on these matchups, he takes it personally. It’s hard to guard the team’s best player every single night and then have the ball in his hands as much as he does offensively, too. I’ve got to give a lot of credit to him. Just in his first three years that he’s been in the league he’s taken on a multitude of roles and taken them on really well.”
Nembhard’s defensive rating of 108.7 leads the Pacers roster among rotation players, meaning the team’s defense has been at its best with him on the floor.
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