1 positive, 2 negatives from Indiana Pacers blowout loss to Boston Celtics

Yeah, things got ugly pretty quickly on Wednesday night. Following their first loss to the season, a close 105-112 affair against the Chicago Bulls, the Indiana Pacers looked to recover with a potential shock win against the Eastern Conference-leading Boston Celtics.

Hopes were relatively high going into the game, as the Pacers have been known to play the Celtics closer than usual in their last few matchups ever since the Tyrese Haliburton trade, with four out of the last five Pacers/Celtics matchups either ending in a Pacers win or close loss.

Tonight did not result in either.

Things were pointed in a bad direction before the game even started. For starters, this was the first game of the season Indiana entered without a clean injury sheet. Tyrese Haliburton and Jalen Smith were both out due to injury, Tyrese’s injury being a right ankle sprain and Smith’s being a left knee sprain.

Nevertheless, the Pacers moved on, with fans expecting Andrew Nembhard to fill in Haliburton’s shoes as best he could, hoping for the Pacers not to get embarrassed out there at the least.

Whatever happened out there in those 48 minutes sure wasn’t good, as the night ended with the Celtics beating the Pacers by a whopping 51 points, the second-worst loss in franchise history and the worst loss since 1977 (46 years)

While the Pacers weren’t expected to beat the Celtics without their point guard and clear-cut best player, a 51-point clobbering was not expected and was met with relative shock from around the league.

Not exactly because of how poorly the Pacers were playing, but because of how well the Celtics were playing. As Brian Scalabrine even put it during the Celtics broadcast, the Pacers were fighting; they were just getting thoroughly outplayed by Boston.

Looking at the game tonight, there were quite a few things that need to be talked about, as is the case when a team loses by over 50 points. So, without further ado, let’s talk about them.

There is a positive in all this, and we’ll start with that.

Positive: Jarace Walker shows promise in limited minutes

It finally happened, folks. After three games and two DNPs, Jarace Walker has finally scored his first points in an Indiana Pacers uniform.

This was just one of Walker’s four buckets in the game, showcasing his versatility and NBA readiness in his first extended period of playing time in his NBA career.

Rick Carlisle’s usage of the youngster has been puzzling so far, to say the least. Following six garbage time minutes in the season opener against Washington, where he logged zero points and didn’t do much of note, both Walker and fellow rookie Ben Sheppard did not see any action in the following two games against Cleveland and Chicago.

It was an odd choice considering the team probably needed Walker’s defensive ability and hustle, especially in the closing stages of the Chicago game, where it seemed like every Pacer just gave up on defense and stopped trying.

In only 12 minutes on the floor, all in the fourth quarter, Walker put up a decent statline of eight points (4/6 FG, 0-1 3PT), two rebounds, three assists, and one block, pretty good numbers for a guy who was logging DNPs beforehand.

Walker looked pretty good getting these buckets, too, as he displayed some of the offensive talent that led to Indiana trading for him on draft night.

His play created questions among Pacers fans, myself included. If he is this good in this limited amount of time, why is Rick Carlisle so hesitant to play him? Walker is clearly NBA-ready with his skills and body and would provide an instant spark to this team.

That is part of the reason why Indiana even traded for him instead of keeping more of a project like Bilal Coulibaly. Walker has the tools to compete right away, but it seems like Rick Carlisle is unaware of that, or he is aware but still keeps him on the bench.

Wing and perimeter defense has been a major concern with the Pacers so far into the season, an issue that was also seen tonight, as the Pacers allowed 30 points from Jayson Tatum and 18 from Derrick White en route to the Celtics shooting a scorching hot 20/35 from deep, a 57.1% clip.

Despite this, it took Rick Carlisle until the fourth quarter, with Indiana already down 38 points, to give Walker some playing time, a decision which baffled Pacers fans, as it seemed that Carlisle was willingly keeping Walker on the bench despite it not being the right call in any way, shape, or form.

While Carlisle certainly has a reputation for not playing rookies enough minutes unless they are can’t-miss prospects, I cannot understand trading down for a draft pick only to barely play that draft pick at all and keep him out of the rotation unless drastic measures are needed.

After all, Walker only played the fourth quarter tonight and most likely would have logged a third straight DNP had Jalen Smith been active to take the backup center minutes.

While it is still early in the season, Carlisle needs to realize what he has on his hands with Jarace Walker and start playing him more minutes. It is almost unheard of for a 20-year-old to be drafted with the eighth pick, go to a young team, and barely get minutes.

Walker has tons of talent that is often being wasted on the bench when Indiana could definitely use him out there helping on defense next to Myles Turner or helping create scoring opportunities next to Tyrese Haliburton and Bennedict Mathurin.

Speaking of rookies, Ben Sheppard also played the entire 4th quarter (and a bit more) and got his first points of his NBA career, in front of his family no less, one of the high points of an otherwise pitiful night of Pacers basketball.

Negative: Shooting woes linger and shot creation is scarce

It’s hard to win a basketball game when you shoot 13% from anywhere on the court, much less the three-point line, and especially when you combine that with 58% shooting from the free-throw line.

To sum it up, the Indiana Pacers shot like the rim was moving tonight. They shot like they had blindfolds on and were just guessing where the basket was. Besides Ben Sheppard, who shot 2/4 from three in garbage time, no Pacer made more than one three and shot over 25%, with Andrew Nembhard being the worst offender, shooting 6/17 from the field and a disgusting 1/7 from behind the arc.

Many of these attempts were good looks as well. The Indiana Pacers just missed them. Whether it be a lack of confidence in their shooting ability, discouragement from the Chicago loss, or a third reason, the Pacers could not find the bottom of the net from three or from the free-throw line for the most part.

This brings up another lingering issue that the Pacers would ultimately have to face sooner or later, that being the complete lack of shot creation on the team save for a few players.

Tyrese Haliburton is by far the best shot-creator on this Pacers team. That much is certain. So far, Haliburton is the only Pacer to whom you can give the ball and tell him to go get a bucket on the defense.

While Bennedict Mathurin is getting there, he is a bit too inconsistent to have that role just yet, and despite the improvements Myles Turner has made, he will more or less be seen as a spot-up shooter and penetrator for the most part. The shot-creating duties on this Pacers team belong to Tyrese Haliburton, and he usually delivers.

The problem with relying on one guy for your shot-creating duties is when that player sits out, and you have to rely on the others. That problem was on full display tonight, as while the Pacers shot a decent 45% from the field, they just did not fare well creating shots on their own.

This was not helped by Mathurin only taking seven shots and not getting as many touches as people would have liked to see.

In fact, despite being the team’s second option most of the time, Mathurin only took the seventh-most shots on the team, a baffling decision when you realize guys like Jordan Nwora took more shots than him, and even more baffling when you look at the stat sheet a bit closer and notice that Mathurin only played 15 minutes, third-least on the team.

While we are only four games into the season, and it is way too early to panic, this does raise some early red flags about the Indiana Pacers and needs to be something Rick Carlisle should tweak going forward. If this is the last game where Jordan Nwora is getting more minutes and shots than Bennedict Mathurin, consider it a positive.

Speaking of over-reliance on Haliburton…

Negative: The Pacers are lost without Tyrese Haliburton

This should go without saying, but Tyrese Haliburton is the undisputed heart and soul of this Indiana Pacers team and probably the majority of the rest of its organs, too.

I discussed this last season when I compared 10 games with Haliburton to 10 games after his injury, but it has to be stated again: Tyrese Haliburton is the Indiana Pacers, plain and simple.

Prior to this game, the Indiana Pacers had close games with the Celtics four out of the last five times they played. Tyrese Haliburton was a big part of those matchups, usually being the engine that carried the Pacers to victory or brought them close to it.

Without Haliburton, the Pacers are a shell of what they can be, and while Andrew Nembhard and TJ McConnell aren’t bad players, they cannot do what Haliburton does out there on a nightly basis, with all due respect.

This is why I believe Haliburton has a strong case for the best point guard in the East. He may very well be the most valuable one to his team and, more often than not, shows up in the big moments when things get rough. If this loss to Indiana has taught anything, it’s that this Pacers team goes as far as Tyrese Haliburton can take them, and that may be a problem going forward.

While there is no problem with relying on your star player when things get rough, it does become concerning when that player is the only one you can rely on with nobody else stepping up.

While TJ McConnell did his best Haliburton impersonation tonight, leading the team with 18 points on 8/13 shooting while dishing out five assists and pulling down seven rebounds, it was not enough, as the Celtics mopped the floor with the Pacers regardless.

With a devastating loss like this, it is hard to tell whether things would be different with just one player back in the lineup, but with a guy like Tyrese Haliburton, who brings so much to the team, you just never know.