3 Major takeaways from Pacers win vs. Wizards on Opening Night

The Indiana Pacers 2023-24 season has officially begun, and what a way to kick off the new season indeed!

After two straight years of losing their season openers, the Indiana Pacers came out guns blazing against the Washington Wizards to kick off the season, finishing the night with a 120-143 blowout win over Jordan Poole and company.

This win comes after a pretty promising preseason where the Pacers went 2-2 and won their final two games with impressive performances from Obi Toppin and others.

While the Wizards were expected to finish near the bottom of the league by many, they actually gave the Pacers a good scare at first, leading after one quarter 39-34. However, the second quarter was when Indiana took over and never looked back.

The Pacers continued their scoring onslaught in the second half, outscoring Washington 37-28 in the third quarter and 33-24 in the fourth quarter en route to a 23-point clobbering in front of the Gainsbridge faithful.

The crowd was awesome throughout the night, cheering the Pacers on every step of the way and getting a much-welcome boost from former Pacers All-Star center Roy Hibbert himself.

Hibbert led a crowd of 16,004 strong as they cheered the Pacers on to a rousing opening night victory against the Wizards. Many things stood out during this victory, almost all positive, but some are things to be wary of going forward, as Indiana gave a taste of what you can expect from them going forward.

Three things, in particular, stood out as the Pacers tried new things, scored a lot of points, and made some interesting lineup choices on the part of Rick Carlisle en route to a rousing opening night victory.

So, without further ado, let’s get the three takeaways from the Pacers’ season opener against Washington.

1. Balanced scoring output makes history

I know what you’re thinking: That’s a lot of points.

While certain players have had nights where it seems like they could not miss from the field, tonight was just that night for almost every player on the roster, as the Indiana Pacers had eight players score in double-figures, with the highest being Bruce Brown, who put up 24 points on 6-foot-8 from deep in his Pacers debut.

These fantastic individual performances led to history being made, as Indiana’s 143 points are the most points scored in a season opener in Pacers franchise history, as well as the fifth-most points in a game by the Pacers. and the second-most at home.

In addition to this team record, 143 points is also the most points scored on a season opener game since the year 1990, giving Indiana the highest opening night score in 33 years.

With these new records, there had to have been some fantastic individual performances, and indeed there were. Most notably, the aforementioned Bruce Brown, who impressed mightily in his debut, scoring 24 points on a career-high six three-pointers made, all the while catching fans’ attention with his bizarre pregame outfit.

In addition to Brown’s cowboy shenanigans, the Pacers also saw 20 points from Tyrese Haliburton in limited minutes, as he put on a show for the home crowd in his first Pacers game in 215 days.

Buddy Hield also had a great night, scoring 18 points and shaking any memories of a rather unimpressive preseason, minus the final game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Obi Toppin, another Pacers offseason acquisition, also made his mark, dropping 11 points on the night and giving Pacers fans a little taste of what they can see as the season goes on, as his first points in a Pacers uniform came from a spectacular alley-oop layup that resulted in an And-1 finish.

Tonight’s performance was really an indicator of how good this Pacers team can be when they are on their A-game, and the eight double-figure performances also show how deep this team is and how many players are capable of scoring a bunch of points at any given time.

2. Playmaking masterclass by multiple players

When you have a lot of scoring, you usually have a lot of assists to go with those points, and that is exactly what the Indiana Pacers displayed against the Washington Wizards.

Overall, the team finished with 38 total assists, 10 more than their opponents, and four Pacers players dished out more than five assists.

Bennedict Mathurin was one of these four, dishing out five assists and only turning the ball over twice, a pretty impressive performance given the leaps and bounds he has taken playmaking over the offseason. B

uddy Hield also racked up five assists, showing his improved playmaking after playing some point guard in the preseason due to Indiana’s top 2 point guards sitting out due to various reasons.

However, the main facilitators for the night are two names Pacers fans will be sure to love hearing again: Tyrese Haliburton and Andrew Nembhard.

Nembhard, in particular, impressed immensely. While it is pretty typical for Haliburton to dish out double-digit assists, it is less common for his backup to also do it, and on the same night as well.

However, Nembhard was not letting a bench role get in the way of having a fantastic night, as he put up 12 points and dished out 10 assists in just 21 minutes, showing why Pacers fans love him so much and potentially building an early season sixth man of the year case.

However, as usual, the focus would be on Haliburton, as despite playing only 26 minutes, he dazzled the home fans with more of what they had come to expect: Deep threes, fancy finishes, and, as usual, a passing masterclass. He finished the game with 10 assists and looked like an All-Star doing so.

Since the All-Star Game will be in Indianapolis in 2024, and the league will be returning to the traditional East vs. West format going forward, one can imagine how excited Pacers fans will be to hear their point guard’s name called for the midseason classic, perhaps even as a starter. If tonight is anything to go by, Haliburton is well on his way to a second All-Star campaign.

3. Interesting rotation choices raise eyebrows

While a balanced offensive attack and garbage time due to a significant lead late in the game meant that almost the entire team got to play, except Daniel Theis, Rick Carlisle’s minute distribution for Opening Night looked a bit odd, to say the least.

The biggest concern was a stark lack of Jarace Walker minutes. Coming to the Indiana Pacers as the eighth pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, Walker enters the season with decent expectations, as he is expected to be the full-time backup power forward, backing up Obi Toppin and looking to get a decent amount of minutes in his rookie season.

However, if Opening Night was anything to go by, this seems to have changed, as Walker only played around five minutes of garbage time when the game was all said and done, failing even to get a single point but showing some impressive defensive potential all the while.

While this is no reason to hit the panic button, as the case probably is that Rick Carlisle is testing out different lineups and rotations at the start of the season and is definitely looking to give Walker a more concrete role on the team, the rookies not playing at all until there were less than six minutes left in the game is a bit peculiar to look at.

Instead of Walker being subbed in early to alleviate Obi Toppin’s duties, Aaron Nesmith played some backup power forward minutes, and Walker didn’t see the floor. As a matter of fact, Isaiah Jackson and Ben Sheppard saw the floor before Walker, which was truly bizarre, as Jackson is the third-string center behind Myles Turner and Jalen Smith, and Ben Sheppard was the Pacers 26th overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.

This could be a bad sign going forward or just Rick Carlisle testing out certain rotations, but it does further one point, in particular: The Pacers are a stacked basketball team if they only play the eighth overall pick five garbage time minutes at the end of the game.

This is not something fans should be worried about, as it is pretty clear that the rotation will be a bit odd to start the season, as Carlisle looks to see what works with this Pacers team and what doesn’t.

Whatever it was today worked, as the Indiana Pacers played very well and gave Pacers fans more than their money’s worth to kick off the season. And one other thing is for sure: The Pacers are a good bit better than they were to start off the last season.