2 positives, 2 negatives from Indiana Pacers win vs. Cleveland Cavaliers

The Indiana Pacers came away with their second win of the season on Saturday night, taking down the Cleveland Cavaliers by a score of 125-113.

Following a dominant season opener where they crushed the Washington Wizards 142-120, Tyrese Haliburton and company packed their bags and headed to Cleveland to visit the Cavaliers in their first road game of the season.

This proved to be a less difficult task than usual, as the Cavaliers team they faced was without three of their star players: Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Jarrett Allen.

Despite the short-handedness of this Cavaliers team, they still gave the Indiana Pacers quite the scare. Caris LeVert, in particular, was the star of the first quarter, scoring 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting and 4-of-5 from beyond the arc as the Cavs led by as much as 15 in the first quarter.

Following this first-quarter barrage, however, Indiana tightened up their defense a bit and started hitting their shots more on offense. They won the second quarter 29-12 en route to a victory following some clutch plays.

Despite this fantastic play following the first quarter, the Pacers still had a few negative things that stood out that should be addressed immediately. Plenty of issues are still prevalent, including a few that remain from the first Wizards game on Wednesday.

Let’s take a look at two positives and two negatives from the Pacers’ win over Cleveland.

Positive: Aaron Nesmith leads balanced bench scoring attack

Just like the season opener against the Washington Wizards, the Indiana Pacers offense was led by a balanced scoring attack. However, it did not seem this way in the early stages of the game.

In fact, judging from Indiana’s early first-quarter play, it seemed as if this was going to be a blowout loss, as the Pacers only had 12 points with five minutes remaining in the first quarter. These woes were quickly quelled, as the Pacers scored 19 points in the final five minutes of the quarter, going into the second quarter only down seven.

The second quarter was where things really popped off for the Indiana Pacers, as Indiana completely embarrassed Cleveland, winning the quarter 29-12. Yes, the Pacers held the Cavaliers to 12 points in a quarter.

The Pacers continued this barrage for the rest of the game, following up a 31-point third quarter with a 34-point fourth quarter en route to a 125-113 win, a figure that seemed impossible judging from Indiana’s early first quarter output.

Similar to the Wizards game, the Pacers had multiple players in double figures. Leading the charge off the bench was Aaron Nesmith, who set a new career-high with 26 points (10/16 FG, 5/9 3PT, 1/2 FT) and led the Pacers in scoring on the night in 30 minutes of action.

For a player who came into the league off his defense, Nesmith showed some amazing scoring potential against Cleveland, hitting threes, driving to the rim under contact, and finishing savvy at the basket, torturing the Cavaliers defenders one by one in the process.

Recently, Nesmith inked a three-year $33 million contract extension with the Pacers that will keep him in blue and gold until 2027. As it seems right now, that contract may have been a severe underpay with the way Nesmith is performing, as he seems to have taken his offensive repertoire to another level while maintaining that same defensive prowess that got him to the league in the first place.

In today’s league, quality two-way players are hard to come by, especially role players, and Nesmith fits his role perfectly, as he can defend the opposing team’s best scorer while also being liable to have a fantastic scoring night himself if called upon.

Of course, it is hard to forget the reactions that initially followed the Aaron Nesmith/Malcolm Brogdon trade in the summer of 2022, with almost every fan calling it a fleece for the Celtics and outright writing off Nesmith as a throwaway in the deal.

In the 15 months since that trade, Nesmith has done everything possible to prove those doubters wrong, improving on every aspect from his Celtics days and erasing any doubt about him potentially being out of the league, which is where he was projected to be in a few years judging from his stint with the Celtics.

While Nesmith did have a fantastic night and stood above the rest, that is not to say he carried the scoring load. In addition to Nesmith’s 26 points, Myles Turner had 20 points and 12 rebounds, showing great consistency on the boards and proving that the previous year was not an outlier.

Jalen Smith and Bennedict Mathurin also contributed 13 points each, and Buddy Hield chipped in 10 of his own. Tyrese Haliburton was second in scoring on the night with 21 points. All in all, the Pacers ended up with six players in double figures and three players scoring 20+ points.

You may also notice that three of these players came off the bench, and that is because Indiana’s bench really carried the scoring load on the night. At the end of the night, the bench scored 61 of Indiana’s 125 points and also dished out 19 assists for a whopping +/- of +83. Once again, if you haven’t figured out that this team is immensely deep, here is another sign.

While these scoring performances from the bench were great, there was only one man Indiana turned to when it came time to put the game away.

Negative: Defensive approach still needs work

Of course, with every positive, there are usually some negatives, too, and tonight’s negative has seemed to be the negative of the past few years.

While the Pacers have good defenders, most notably Myles Turner and newcomer Bruce Brown, they have often struggled on the defensive end as of late, and so far into the season, it has almost cost them early on.

In the Washington Wizards game, it was Tyus Jones and Danilo Gallinari. Tonight, it was Caris LeVert and Evan Mobley. LeVert was especially a thorn in the side of Indiana’s defense, at least in the first quarter, as he scored 21 points on 9/12 from the field and 4/5 from behind the line.

In addition to getting to the rim and finishing over subpar defense, LeVert was shooting the lights out on the perimeter, taking whatever defensive strategy the Pacers had, and throwing it right back in Rick Carlisle’s face, as he even got an and-one three-pointer to fall.

Eventually, LeVert did cool down from the field, slowing to a crawl in the second quarter, and only putting up six points on 2/11 from the field in the second half, a perfect representation of the usual Caris LeVert inconsistencies that have hampered him all throughout his career.

While LeVert did cool down from the field eventually, two guys who stepped up in his place were Evan Mobley and Max Strus. Mobley especially took over the scoring load, putting up 33 points on 12/23 shooting in the game and giving Myles Turner all sorts of trouble in the process.

While Turner did have some fantastic defensive plays, including a pair of blocks, he struggled at times defending Mobley, who had a fantastic performance despite the eventual loss.

This may not be a huge concern, as the Indiana Pacers eventually tightened up their defense following the first-quarter barrage and played great D in the final stretches of the game, but it is still something to think about.

The Pacers are going for a playoff spot this year, and they are eventually going to play teams that they cannot afford to have lackadaisical defensive quarters against.

For example, if the Cavaliers played Garland, Mitchell, and Allen, Indiana could not afford that subpar defensive first quarter, as they would need to worry about two more perimeter scoring threats and one paint scoring threat, which would make Myles Turner’s job harder.

While this may not have been an awful defensive performance by any means, it still leaves Pacers fans with something to think about going into Monday’s matchup against the Bulls and especially for Wednesday’s matchup against the offensive powerhouse Boston Celtics.

Positive: Tyrese Haliburton is clutch, and he knows it

My oh my, Tyrese Haliburton has done it again,

Following a relatively slow first three quarters where he put up 10 points on 3/11 shooting, Haliburton exploded in the fourth quarter to the tune of 11 points and three straight three-pointers in the clutch, with each one putting a dagger in the hearts of Cavaliers fans.

While Haliburton is no stranger to clutch performances following his game-winners against Chicago and Miami last season, the big talking point here was how vocal he was to the crowd.

Sure, Tyrese has jawed with players before, most notably Patrick Beverley in that Bulls game, but this was the first time that I have seen him jaw-jacking with fans specifically.

Following the three-point barrage at the ending stages of the game, Haliburton turned to a Cavaliers fan sitting courtside and told him, “This is your fault. You did this!”

As a Indiana Pacers fan, it is very exciting seeing Haliburton more vocal on the court, not only to his teammates and his supporters but to his detractors. It seems as if, following the Beverley interaction, Haliburton got more confident with his play and decided to let the people know whether they wanted to or not.

This is also very exciting, as trash talk runs in the blood of the Indiana Pacers. As we know, Reggie Miller was one of the greatest trash talkers of all time, famously gesturing the “choke” signal to Spike Lee after scoring eight points in nine seconds at Madison Square Garden. Judging from the comment to the fan courtside, it seems as if the trash-talking tradition is safe in the hands of the Pacers’ newest star.

Not bad for a guy who at first wasn’t evenguaranteed to play tonight at first.

Negative: Youngsters’ minutes point of concern

This may come off as nitpicking a bit, but Rick Carlisle’s minutes distribution against Cleveland was quite puzzling. While Carlisle usually tries to play all his players if possible, that was not the case on Saturday night.

Five players on the Indiana Pacers logged DNPs tonight, with four of them being young guys: Isaiah Jackson, Jordan Nwora, and rookies Ben Sheppard and Jarace Waker.

Jackson and Walker stand out to me the most out of this bunch, as they probably have the most to gain from extended minutes. Isaiah Jackson enters the season as the third-string center behind Myles Turner and Jalen Smith and needs to get opportunities to prove himself before the team looks to potentially move him.

Jarace Walker is a different case. Coming into the league as Indiana’s lottery pick, whom they traded one spot down to acquire, the belief going into the season was that Walker would get ample minutes as the backup power forward behind Obi Toppin, with some even calling for Carlisle to start him right out the gate.

Safe to say this hasn’t happened yet, as, following a scoreless debut against Washington, where he only played six minutes, Walker did not see any floor time against Cleveland and is still yet to score his first NBA basket.

Like I said in the Wizards piece, fans should not be too worried about this initially, as Rick Carlisle is probably still looking over his rotation and deciding what works and what doesn’t. This is especially hard when it comes to rookies, as Carlisle is not known to give rookies big minutes until they prove themselves, and Walker will just have to wait for his time.

Despite the lack of minutes initially, I believe Jarace Walker will play great when given minutes, as he will bolster the defense and hustle of the second unit and be a perfect backup to Obi Toppin.