The Indiana Pacers are set to face the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night. This game will not be a rematch of any meaningful playoff series, nor will it be a meeting of rivals. However, in a similar way to how the Pacers' first preseason matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves was a test against a mirror image of their own team, the Hawks provide an interesting foil for the Pacers and what they do best
Both the Pacers and the Hawks put such a major priority on creating on the fast break. For the Atlanta Hawks, that focus comes largely from their roster built of non-shooters. This lack of half-court spacing means that the Hawks can only supplement their lackluster offense by turning full-court possessions into easy layups and more open three-point attempts.
The Pacers, however, are simply prioritizing their team's best player. Tyrese Haliburton is a maestro of the fast Break. He is Mozart, engineering and composing different transition opportunities for his teammates cutting in and out of passing lanes that only he can see. Any success in this regard is just building off of his talents.
However, the roster is not the same anymore. The Atlanta Hawks have added more shooting in the form of Aaron Wiggins and have added more slow-paced players this offseason, notably Lu Dort, who was an offensive anchor for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Pacers, for their part, have added Ivica Zubac.
While Zubac may have been the best center available from a sheer talent perspective, he no doubt slows the team down quite a bit. If the first game of the preseason was a question of whether the Pacers can deal with another team running the offense through their point guard, this game will be a question of who can run faster and who can move better in the open court.
A conference opponent built to last
While Indiana took a step back last year, the Atlanta Hawks were able to move forward and make a playoff appearance despite trading away a long-time franchise cornerstone, Trae Young.
Trae was exactly the type of player that many think Tyrese Haliburton is. Now, that is an idiotic comparison to anyone who knows basketball, but on the surface, a point guard who playmakes, enables bigs to move and to find space both as Cutters and as lob finishers, and can shoot from distance is all the same type of player to fans.
The primary difference is that while Trae was completely unwilling to give up any amount of usage to another ball carrier and move off ball, Haliburton wants nothing more than to be a part of a system in which he can give up the ball and move around.
That will be especially helpful against the Atlanta Hawks, who have a plethora of options to throw at Halliburton defensively. There are the two most recent Most Improved Players, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Dyson Daniels, who are both excellent perimeter defenders, and there is the newly added Lu Dort, along with a number of bench pieces who can hold their own.
The rest of the Hawks roster is no less impressive, with all-star Jalen Johnson being the closest comparison to Pascal Siakam in the NBA and Onyeka Okongwu being the exact type of center that many would have hoped the Pacers could have acquired before Zubac (Zubac is still the far better player, but Okongwu would have fit better).
These matchups really rarely come to play in the preseason, but any insight on who the Pacers will be this season is fascinating
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