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

The Indiana Pacers have made history…kind of.

Following an embarrassing 51-point loss to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday, the Pacers looked to bounce back in the first game of the first-ever NBA In-Season Tournament.

This was not just any game but a rematch from the second game of the season against the Cleveland Cavaliers, this time sporting a healthy starting lineup with Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, and Jarrett Allen returning from injury.

To many Cavaliers fans, the previous Pacers win was a fluke, as it took some late-game heroics from Tyrese Haliburton to secure a win in the closing stages of the game. As such, the Pacers were determined to prove the doubters wrong tonight, and they did a great job of doing so.

Before we get to the game, we have to discuss the glaring elephant in the room. This was the first game Indiana played in their new City jerseys, which are also the first black jerseys in team history.

While the jerseys do take some getting used to, the same cannot be said for the brand new In-Season Tournament court the Pacers played on, as many fans were complaining about the overuse of bright colors such as yellow and blue, making the Pacers’ new court look more like a custom video game court than anything else.

The court would also prove to be a slipping hazard, not only for the Pacers but for a lot of other players around the league. Of the Pacers, Tyrese Haliburton and Andrew Nembhard both slipped on the court and lost possession of the ball, introducing a new problem with the already not-so-great courts.

Tacky and slippery courts aside, the Pacers jumped out to a 17-point lead at the half, and despite Cleveland taking the lead a few times in the second half, some late-game heroics by Haliburton and Myles Turner ended up putting the game on ice for Indiana, as they took home the 121-117 win, officially putting them in the history books as the team with the first-ever NBA In-Season Tournament win.

This was easily the most exciting Pacers game so far into the season, as Indiana played with the energy of a team that lost by 51 points the game prior and turned that into some beautiful basketball as a result.

Let’s take a look at some of the keys to victory and some things the Pacers should look to improve on going forward.

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.

Negative: Inability to hit free throws

This has been a sneaky problem so far into the season, and it was only a matter of time until it almost affected the outcome of a game.

So far this year, the Pacers are ranked 16th in the league in free throw percentage, at a 76.7% clip. While this isn’t an overly awful mark, certainly not as bad as the 67.4% of the 30th-ranked Denver Nuggets, it is still a point of concern, especially when you end up with two guys on the team that missed three free throws.

Of course, this isn’t a team-wide problem, as, for the most part, the Pacers players can hit free throws. Case in point: Tyrese Haliburton shooting 8/9 or Myles Turner shooting 5/6.

However, for two players specifically (Aaron Nesmith and Bennedict Mathurin), this was quite the problem on the night.

While Nesmith had a good game otherwise, putting up 13 points on 5/8 shooting and hitting some big shots down the stretch, his free throws were not a strong suit, as he only hit 1/4 and missed out on some extra momentum for the Pacers because of it.

Mathurin, on the other hand, is a completely different story, as he did not have a good game scoring-wise, only recording five points on 2/7 shooting and shooting 0/3 from the line on top of that.

While this doesn’t seem like a huge problem on paper, during the game, it did stick out, as a lot of the missed free throws came in the third quarter while Cleveland was making their run to come back, and some extra points from the charity stripe from Indiana could have helped in limit their run and even prevent them from taking the lead altogether at times.

While I do not think free-throw shooting will be a major problem going forward for this Pacers team, I do think missed free throws are something the Pacers want to limit. They’re free for a reason, after all.

Positive: Improved Defense

Finally, a game where defense wasn’t the most glaring issue. Games like these are hard to come by, considering the fact that the Pacers had the worst defense in the NBA coming into this game.

Tonight was a bit of a relief, as the Pacers not only held the Cavaliers to 8/28 shooting from three (28.6%) but also had some highlight-worthy defensive plays, such as a thunderous Jalen Smith chasedown block on Isaac Okoro.

While this defense was more or less nonexistent in the third quarter, it remained in the fourth, as while the Pacers only recorded two steals and two blocks in the fourth, they were easily the most important steals and blocks of the game.

Haliburton and Nesmith’s steals helped stop any huge Cavaliers scoring runs and ultimately swayed the game back into the Pacers’ favor. As for the blocks, we will talk about that in short order, but just know that they were extremely impactful as well.

All in all, Indiana’s defense was much more disciplined and sturdy than the previous game, as they looked like a team that didn’t want 155 points dropped on their heads again.

If the Pacers keep the upcoming teams to three-point shooting like this, they should have no problem taking home the NBA Cup and cruising to a playoff appearance.

Negatives: Allowed massive third-quarter comeback

The Indiana Pacers played well for 75% of the game tonight. Yes, 75%. While Indiana had a killer first half and ended the game strong in the fourth, there was one quarter that was pretty hard to watch as a Pacers fan, and that was the dreaded third quarter.

The third-quarter Pacers have been a phenomenon for years now, stretching back to the Victory Oladipo era, where Indiana would start to show fatigue and tire out by the third quarter, often either keeping their starters in for too long, or not subbing them in sooner.

While these third-quarter issues haven’t as relevant in recent years, with the Pacers having enough offensive firepower to stretch through an entire game, they do creep up every now and then, and tonight was one of those nights.

Despite going into the half with a 17-point lead, I have stated before that no lead is safe with the Indiana Pacers, as the team has a tendency to take their foot off the gas and coast after getting a big lead, and that is precisely what they did in the third quarter, slacking off on defense.

They also weren’t able to find the bottom of the net on offense. Indiana shot 36% from the field and a disgusting 25% from three in the third quarter, while the Cavaliers capitalized off their shortcomings, shooting 68.4% from the field and 50% from three en route to outscoring the Pacers 34-18 in the quarter, even taking the lead at times after being down 17 to start the quarter.

If this was the first time the Pacers have done this, it would not be too much of a problem, but as this is a recurring problem with them, stretching back years, it does seem like it should be taken care of now, especially with a whole new team and head coach. Perhaps Rick Carlisle needs to tell the team to keep their foot on the gas until the end.

Positive: Late-game heroics lead to Pacers win

While the Cavaliers played hard and almost stole the game from the Pacers, in the end, it wasn’t enough. This is due to two players in particular, arguably the two most beloved Pacers on the team, Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner.

The Cavaliers kept the game close until the end, only trailing by one as the game reached inside 30 seconds. That is until Tyrese Haliburton did what he does best and extended the Pacers’ lead to three with a beautiful stepback jumper off an iso.

While it was a bit jarring to see the shot called as a two instead of a three, the Pacers chugged along with momentum on their side, being up by three and only needing to defend for 16.5 seconds to secure the win.

Enter Myles Turner. At the end of a fantastic individual performance, Turner met a cutting Evan Mobley at the rim and denied his dunk attempt, crushing the hearts of the Cavaliers and giving them even less time to set up a shot to tie the game.

While this is certainly not the first clutch block Turner has had, it might be the most emphatic, as Mobley looked like nobody could stop him from going to the rim until he met Turner there.

With this Turner rejection and Caris LeVert’s subsequent missed three, the Pacers eeked out a win that was closer than they would have liked, but a win nonetheless.

They also got some more national attention, as in addition to the egregious court, Haliburton’s shot and Turner’s block were posted on media outlets as the Pacers were given some extra noise around the league after being the first team to win an In-Season Tournament game.

While Turner’s block was fantastic in making sure nobody on Cleveland scored, this game came down to Tyrese Haliburton, who stepped up in the clutch to snatch the game away from Cleveland in the final moments by basically doing it all.

And to think, Haliburton was looking at his worst performance in a Pacers uniform before this closing stretch.