3 positives, 2 negatives in Pacers In-Season Tournament win vs. Cavaliers

Positive: Scoring barrage on fantastic efficiency

One way to bounce back from a 51-point loss is to shoot the ball well, and the Pacers accomplished that and then some tonight.

Following a game where they only hit five three-pointers and shot a pitiful 13.5% from beyond the arc, the Pacers recovered as well as any team could, taking 31 threes and hitting about half of them, making 15, which translates to a 48.4% clip.

The Pacers ran some great sets to get shooters like Buddy Hield and Myles Turner open, who each hit four threes on the night.

While the Cavaliers’ defense is nothing to slouch at, the Pacers made it look easy on the night, shooting 52% from the field, with six of the nine active players shooting 50% from the field or above, including a fantastic 27 points on 9/14 shooting from Myles Turner, which included 22 first-half points to send a message to the Cavaliers.

Adding on to Turner’s performance, the Pacers also benefited from a fantastic night from Bruce Brown, who put up 19 points on 8/15 shooting and more or less kept the Pacers alive during the slow stretches of the third and fourth quarters.

While he didn’t have a fantastic game efficiency-wise, Tyrese Haliburton still produced well in his return to the lineup, recording 18 points and 13 assists, including some big shots we will talk about later.

All in all, this Pacers team looked like an offensive juggernaut compared to what we saw on Wednesday against Boston, and at times, it looked like they didn’t know how to miss shots.

Of course, it can’t be a Pacers win without at least one highlight play, which Obi Toppin was happy to provide with a beautiful one-handed alley-oop slam on a pinpoint accurate Tyrese Haliburton feed.