The Indiana Pacers set themselves up for success by never turning the ball over.
Turnovers can kill a team. Hemorrhaging possessions is a good way to lose a basketball game, especially when you have a slightly below average offense like the Indiana Pacers do.
But the Pacers win games, and their recent emphasis on not turning the ball over has been a huge part of that.
Since the calendar flipped to 2019, the Pacers covet the basketball. The covet it like a dog covets a bone or a person covets their wallet. It’s their ball, and they aren’t letting it get away.
Since January 1, the Indiana Pacers are only turning the ball over 12.2 times per game, the second lowest in the NBA behind only the Denver Nuggets. These aren’t perfectly correlated, but 8 of the lowest 10 turnover teams in that timeframe are currently slated to be playoff teams. Just sayin’.
The nature of the turnovers is encouraging too. Of the teams 256 turnovers in that span, 111 (43.5 percent) have been dead ball turnovers, meaning that they don’t create an easy transition opportunity for an opponent. Limiting live-ball turnovers is crucial, and the Pacers have done that superbly.
What actually inspired me to dig up this turnover information was this Tweet:
Darren Collison & Cory Joseph over Pacers' 5-game winning streak: 61 assists, 7 turnovers.https://t.co/mvyxsEBN0m
— John Schuhmann (@johnschuhmann) February 10, 2019
Those impressive figures from DC and CoJo during that span no doubt helped the Pacers win 6 in a row. Now, if you expand the timeframe from the winning streak to the full year of 2019, what results do you see?
Cory Joseph leads the team with a slick 5.2 assist:turnover ratio. Collison leads the team in assists with 135 in the new year so far, but his ratio sits at 4.1. In his short time here, the newly signed Wesley Matthews has fit right in with 5 assists and 1 turnover.
The other guards are solid too. Victor Oladipo and Aaron Holiday both have A:T ratios over 2. Tyreke Evans is at 1.72. All 5 of those guys being average (in Evans’ case) or better caretakers helps the Indiana Pacers substantially.
Out of all Pacers with over 100 minutes in this lovely-so-far 2019, only Kyle O’Quinn has a negative assist to turnover ratio, and he’s 1 assist away from evening his out (12 assists, 13 turnovers so far). This team has made a point of taking care of the ball this year, and it is showing.
On the season, the Pacers are 8-4 when they turn it over fewer than 10 times. In 2019, that figure is 5-1. It’s no coincidence that in the initial four-game stretch after Victor Oladipo’s injury, the Pacers lost all 4 times and averaged 14 turnovers per game. Taking care of the ball pushes the team to success.
As long as the Indiana Pacers continue to take care of the basketball, they shouldn’t even completely crater. Maximizing your possessions, both in quality and quantity, is a recipe for winning, and the Pacers have done that in 2019.