The Indiana Pacers took care of business against a short-handed Los Angeles Clippers team last night with a 129-111 win and did so with a dominant performance on the glass as they out-rebounded the Clippers 46-32.

Even without Kawhi Leonard and Norman Powell, this Clippers team still presented a challenge. It was just a few years ago in 2022 that Clippers center Ivica Zubac embarrassed the Pacers with a 31-point, 29-rebound performance where he outrebounded the entire Pacers starting lineup by himself 29-26. Last night, Indiana held Zubac to only 6 rebounds and just one offensive board.

While it was a full team effort on the boards, Myles Turner, often maligned for his lack of rebounds, deserves a ton of credit for that effort tonight. If you look at the box score and only see 6 rebounds, you may wonder why. While Turner did a great job of consistently putting a body on Zubac and allowing other Pacers to crash like Pascal Siakam with his 12 rebounds, it was his offensive explosion in the first half that really forced the Clippers hand with how they were using Zubac and helped keep him away from the glass with the Pacers on the offense.

It was the second game in a row where the Pacers were facing a drop-coverage big but unlike the previous game Turner didn’t need much time to find his rhythm as he quickly hit two threes in the first quarter on his way to eight straight points including back-to-back plays where defenders forced Tyrese Haliburton left away from the screening Turner and towards the dropping Zubac but Turner just stayed open at the 3-point line and hit both shots, including the second one on a step-back after Dunn tried to rush back to contest the shot.

In the second quarter, Turner hit another pair of triples including another pick and pop delivery from Haliburton with him waiting at the top of the key and then a second step-back where Zubac flew by him as he pumpfaked and then no Clippers player was anxious to try and get out to contest the shot so Turner nailed his fourth of the first half.

Because of how untenable Turner and Haliburton made drop coverage in this game, the Clippers resorted to trying to have Zubac switch at times. That didn’t work well either and it also pulled Zubac away from the paint which opened up more opportunities for Pacers to grab offensive rebounds when they did miss, including a pair that led to second chance 3-pointers. Turner’s shot-making has a domino effect for a lot of things for the offense.

In the second half, Clippers head coach Ty Lue pulled Zubac very early in the third quarter in what felt like an attempt to try and get him more minutes against Thomas Bryant instead of Myles Turner with 9:12 left in the third quarter. This resulted in a fun mini-chess match where the Pacers took Turner out a little earlier than normal in the third quarter with 7:39 left, Lue then tried to sneak Zubac back in at the next dead ball but Carlisle and the coaching staff noticed and had Turner follow him back onto the floor with 6:57 left. Lue then looked back at his bench in a way that felt similar to the moment long ago when LeBron James realized Kawhi Leonard was coming back into the game.

That’s how big of an impact Turner had in this win. There were multiple occasions in the second half where Lue was actively avoiding having Zubac on the floor at the same time as Turner. He gave up on it after those substitutions for the rest of the third quarter and Tyrese Haliburton scored 11 straight points attacking against Zubac in a variety on ways including back-to-back-to-back threes: a far-too easy 3-pointer with him in drop and Ben Simmons screened out the play by Turner, a second with a friendly roll with Zubac switching, and a third from deep with Zubac dropped too far to contest.

The Pacers won Myles Turner’s minutes by 27 points and while he didn’t score in the second half and only had six rebounds for the game, he was a huge reason for the team’s success on the glass and taking advantage of Zubac’s weaknesses even as the Clippers big went 8 for 11 from the floor with 22 points with many coming against the Pacers second unit.

Haliburton had his first double double since January 10th as he finished with 29 points and 12 assists. Carlisle credited Haliburton with being aggressive.

“Aggressive from the very beginning,” Carlisle said. “That’s how he’s got to play. He’s got to be aggressive to get to the paint, get to the rim, shoot open shots when they’re there. He had a big night and we needed it.”

Haliburton also talked about the importance of him consistently getting two feet in the paint. This is the second straight game he’s led the team in field goal attempts and another step in the right direction of getting consistent aggressive outings from their star point guard after a slow start to the season.

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