The Indiana Pacers beat the Dallas Mavericks in overtime while Myles Turner started off the season with 30 points, 16 rebounds, and 4 blocks.
The Good: The Indiana Pacers offense was everything one realistically imagined it could be. They posted an offensive rating of 112.1, well above their 104.6 average from a season ago. The ball kept moving as Indiana racked up 30 assists. For comparison, last season they only had 30+ assists in two games. Indiana was efficient while running at a fast pace, which is exactly what Larry Bird wants from Indiana this season.
A small sample size for sure, but that results the Pacers were looking for.
The Bad: The defense allowed 115 points in regulation, but for what it is worth, they had a 103.5 defensive rating. That’s higher than last season, but at least in this game the offense carried the weight.
It will take 10 to 20 games before we get enough data for both the eye test and analytics to make a fair judgment.
When they drafted Myles Turner with the 11th pick and you gave Harry Barnes the max. pic.twitter.com/3ktO2r08Bn
— 8 Points, 9 Seconds (@8pts9secs) October 27, 2016
MVP: Myles Turner decided he wanted to be the face of the franchise and went off for 30 points, 16 rebounds, and 4 blocks. That’s only been done 176 times since blocks were recorded as a stat starting in 1983. One hundred and seventy times may sound like a lot, but that’s over 30 seasons worth of regular season and playoff games.
Myles is the youngest one on that list and for what it is worth, the list includes multiple entries from Tim Duncan, Patrick Ewing, Dwight Howard, Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, and David Robinson.
LVP: Glenn Robinson III and Joe Young played a total of 13 minutes and recorded one turnover. I don’t care cause everything else was great.
X-Factor: As the Miller Time Podcast pointed out, Paul George scored 25 points while grabbing 8 rebounds to go with 6 assists, and he’s an afterthought in this game. He did his efficiently too, with a 50% FG%, 80% 3P%, and 88% from the free throw line.
Next: The 7 Biggest Questions for the Indiana Pacers
The Pacers playthe Brooklyn Nets on Friday at the Barclays Center at 7:30 p.m.