The Indiana Pacers certainly believe in streaks as of late. Just not too many of the good kind.
They have lost three games in a row twice now before putting together three consecutive wins for the first time all year. Now, the former Eastern Conference finalists have dropped a season-high fourth game in a row.
The good news is this is the first time in the Pacers' last 12 games that they held an opponent below 100 points. Unfortunately, they also were held below that mark in a losing effort, too.
On Wednesday night, Indiana failed to beat the Brooklyn Nets in their first of four regular season matchups. Head Coach Rick Carlisle saw his team lose once more, 99-90.
Let's take a look at the winners and losers of the Pacers' latest struggle to find another victory.
Losers: A pair of newer starters, Bennedict Mathurin and Quenton Jackson
While you hate to start out on a bad note in a postgame feature, this tale is all too fitting. The Indiana Pacers are really hurting without Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith in their starting five. Ben Sheppard also sat this game out as well.
While Bennedict Mathurin has been a lightning rod on offense at times, Wednesday night was not the case. The same could be said for Quenton Jackson.
Mathurin played 32 minutes and only came up with eight points. He made just three of his 12 field goal attempts while committing a team-high four turnovers.
His shooting woes from behind the arc continue to waver. After nailing at least 50% of his attempts from behind the arc in three games in a row, Mathurin has not made one since. He has gone zero-for-three in consecutive contests.
Injuries have plagued this roster dearly. Thus, why Jackson started the game instead of the first three Pacers' players in this segment. The 26-year-old guard played just eight minutes and did not record a point for Indiana.
This is his second game in a row where he was on the court for less than ten minutes and had little impact on the success of the Indiana Pacers. That's why it makes it easier to point out this pair of disappointing showings.
Winner: Tyrese Haliburton
The Pacers' All-Star point guard managed to produce a team-high 17 points and record eight assists in the process. He was the only starter for Indiana with a positive plus/minus (+2).
Though Haliburton struggled to find his shot (5-13 from the field and just 1-7 behind the arc), he did manage to make six of his seven attempts from the charity stripe.
In his last five games, the former Sacramento King has taken seven free throws a game three times during that stretch. He has only missed two of those combined 21 attempts.
Haliburton is still in the Top 10 for most assists with 8.5 per game. Though, this is noticeably down from his mark of 10.9 which ranked first overall in the league.
The face of the Pacers' franchise collected two steals and two blocks against the Nets, too. His performance wasn't enough to incite better from his teammates to extend Brooklyn's losing streak to as many as Indiana's is at now.
Winners: Some familiar faces from the Pacers' bench (and a new one)
TJ McConnell and Obi Toppin showed up to play more than a pair of the starters did. Indiana's backup to Haliburton logged 14 points, two boards, and two dimes in his 28 minutes of play.
The veteran point guard also went six-for-nine from the floor and made both attempts from the free-throw line. Wednesday night was McConnell's ninth time in his last 12 games to score in double figures. He entered the evening against the Nets with the 16th-best field goal percentage in the NBA (55.6%).
One of the main returning free agents from this summer also scored in double figures against Brooklyn for the Pacers. Toppin tallied 13 points in 24 minutes. He led the team in plus/minus with a +6, which was even higher than Haliburton's.
Toppin also added five rebounds and two assists. The 6-foot, 9-inch power forward delivered defensively as he was responsible for a pair of steals and swatted away one of the Nets' shot attempts.
Not only was this Johnny Furphy's first time scoring in double digits this year, but it was also his NBA career-high, 12 points. The second-round rookie did so by firing eight shots from the three-point arc and made half of them.
Furphy hauled in seven rebounds including two offensive boards. His one block canceled out his only turnover in the game. Pacers fans got to hand it to the trio of McConnell, Toppin, and Furphy on Wednesday night.
Loser: Indiana's offense in the first half
It's great that the Pacers managed to point up 35 points in the third quarter. It's not great when that matches the total they scored in the first and second quarters combined.
That put Indiana down 51-35 at halftime against Brooklyn. A 16-point first-half deficit is heavy for just about any team. Especially one that is now 9-14 and losers of seven in their last 10 games.
For a team that shoots about 48.5% from the floor and averages over 114 points a game, it's no wonder why the Pacers failed to reach the century mark in points on Wednesday. They haven't had that happen since November 13 in Orlando.
Scoring 20 points in the fourth quarter also didn't help Indiana's efforts as they looked for their tenth win of the NBA season. It still is better than the 17 or 18 points they did in the first two quarters of play.
Tsk, tsk to the Pacers' first-half offense against the Nets!