4 Biggest takeaways from Indiana Pacers impressive In-Season Tournament run

After an impressive run, going undefeated in group play, and knocking down two East powerhouses on their way to the finals, the Indiana Pacers In-Season Tournament run has unfortunately ended.

For a team that nobody expected to make this far, the Pacers certainly put the NBA world on notice. They opened some eyes with their performance in the tournament, especially Tyrese Haliburton, who had a coming-out party in the six tournament wins.

Unfortunately for Haliburton and company, a combination of poor shooting, the stifling Lakers defense, and the brilliant play of Anthony Davis stopped Indiana before they could claim the top prize. As a result, the inaugural In-Season Tournament championship belongs to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Despite not coming out on top, the In-Season Tournament ended up being nothing but a positive experience for the Indiana Pacers. For a lot of young players, this was their first big taste of high-level competition.

In addition to this, there were plenty other things to take away from Indiana's In-Season Tournament run. From the added media attention to the rise of Tyrese Haliburton to a little sneak preview of what defensive schemes the Pacers may attract in the playoffs, the In-Season Tournament was a great learning experience for this young Pacers team looking to make a splash in the league.

Let's look at four significant takeaways from Indiana's run and what they can learn from these seven games.

1. Play under bright lights

A young team with playoff aspirations needs to get used to the big stages before they can perform under brighter lights. Seven of the 13 major players on the Indiana Pacers have never made the playoffs, and an additional player, Aaron Nesmith, was merely a background player in Boston's 2021 and 2022 playoff runs, only getting garbage time minutes in big wins or losses.

Buddy Hield, in particular, has been so devoid of success in his career that he currently has the fifth most games played without a playoff appearance in NBA history, with the majority of his career before his Pacers tenure spent on bad Kings teams.

In particular, Tyrese Haliburton has never experienced the bright lights of playoff competition or even been on national TV much before the In-Season Tournament, with the quarterfinal matchup against Boston being only the second time Haliburton had a national TV game in his career.

Haliburton's contributions are a story for later, but credit where credit is due; the rest of Indiana's supporting cast made their names known during the In-Season Tournament, most notably Myles Turner.

Despite talks of him being soft and not able to handle the responsibilities of a true center, Turner proved the doubters wrong in the first six games of the tournament, scoring 20 points per game to go along with 8.5 rebounds and 2.7 blocks on 52% shooting in only 28 minutes per game.

In the tournament games, Turner was the closest thing to a second star next to Tyrese Haliburton, and his ability to space the floor, combined with his improved driving and finishing ability, opened up things plenty for Haliburton to operate and create shots for himself and others.

Despite his lackluster performance in Saturday's championship game, it was clear that Turner was still the Pacers' second-best player in the In-Season Tournament run and even their best at times when Haliburton couldn't get himself going.

In addition to Turner, Buddy Hield was also effective in the tournament, averaging 14.5 points on 52/50 splits, as well as Obi Toppin, who was third on the Pacers in scoring with 15.8 points on 65.6% from the field, and Isaiah Jackson, who was the Pacers best big man on the floor in the championship game when Turner had a bad night.

On the flip side, Indiana could have used better production from Bruce Brown, who averaged 13 points on 41% from the field and a mere 30% from downtown, and Bennedict Mathurin, who averaged 12 points on 41% from the field, although he did step it up in the finals matchup against LA, scoring 20 points and being the second best player on the floor.

Overall, while there were some hiccups along the way and a full on roadblock at the end, Indiana's others definitely gave worthwhile performances in the tournament and showed why they are also worthy of some attention alongside Haliburton.full-on

2. Tyrese Haliburton is a bonafaide star

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the tournament was the sensational play of Tyrese Haliburton in basically every game. Before the tournament, plenty of people were skeptical of Haliburton, acknowledging his impressive play up to that point but questioning if he could keep it up on the big stage.

To the surprise of some and the pleasure of Pacers fans, Haliburton seemed to be built for the bright lights from day 1, as he scored and assisted his way to a strong In-Season Tournament MVP case, even with the eventual finals loss.

While the stats do not tell the whole story, they certainly tell part of it. In six tournament games before the finals, Haliburton averaged 27.8 points, 13.7 assists, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game on 51.8% from the field and 44.6% from downtown.

What's even more impressive is that he did this while averaging only 1.8 turnovers per game, including three games where he dished out 13+ assists and had no turnovers to speak of. In fact, the three turnovers Haliburton had in the tournament finals were the first turnovers he had committed since November 30, an entire week-long span of fantastic passing and no turnovers to speak of.

The stats are one thing, but many will remember Haliburton's fantastic highlights during the tournament, especially the two signature plays in the knockout games. The first signature play for Haliburton came during the quarterfinal matchup against Boston.

With time winding down and Indiana desperately needing some points with the game tied at 105-105, Haliburton converted a miraculous four-point play while being tightly guarded by Jaylen Brown to give Indiana a four-point lead that they would not look back on

As impressive as this was, and as miraculous a win against one of the best teams in basketball was for Indiana, this was not even Haliburton's best play of the tournament. In what will most likely be the signature moment of the season, and Haliburton's career up to this point, Haliburton would once again make a clutch basket at the end of a game.

This one would come the very next game in the semifinal matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks, as Haliburton hit the dagger off a step-back to give Indiana an eight-point lead, all with his father screaming his lungs off in the stands.

This play was made even more spectacular with Tyrese's celebration afterwards, in which he looked at his wrist and stated "I know what time it is," as a way to mock Damian Lillard's signature "Dame Time" celebration, a move that even stoked a reaction from Lillard after the game.

Unfortunately, this game would be the final win Indiana got in the tournament, and Haliburton was mostly kept in check by the smothering Lakers defense in the tournament finals, where he was double-teamed and trapped all game on a night where no player on the Pacers could get hot from the field. Despite this, Haliburton still turned in a good effort, scoring 20 points and dishing out 11 assists on 8/14 from the field.

Despite the loss, Tyrese Haliburton made his name known among the NBA world, and even in the Las Vegas crowd, despite them not being so receptive to any team not named the Lakers.

Potential playoff schemes against Haliburton and the Pacers

Despite Haliburton and the Pacers having a fantastic run, their momentum was stopped by the Los Angeles Lakers, who played them almost perfectly on defense, double-teaming and trapping Tyrese Haliburton all game and putting long, athletic defenders on him, such as Cam Reddish and Jarred Vanderbilt and limiting his offensive contributions to a minimum.

This loss will definitely stand as a learning experience for this Pacers team, who, as stated before, is not exactly rich with playoff experience, having exactly one NBA champion in Bruce Brown on their team and only one other player that has gone on a deep playoff run in Aaron Nesmith.

Ever since Paul George's injury and Indiana's efforts to come back from the Victor Oladipo injuries, Indiana has been given the moniker of a "tough out," that being a team that will have a good regular season, but not be a top seed, and will, at most, give some contender a very hard time in the first round of the playoffs.

This has been Indiana's title since roughly 2016, and they are clearly looking to change that this year. One step in changing that notion will be to figure out potential defensive playoff schemes. With Indiana most likely finishing around the 5 to 7 seed range and facing a team such as the 76ers, Bucks, or even the Miami Heat in the playoffs, it is safe to assume that those teams will build their defensive gameplans on how to stop Tyrese Haliburton before anyone else.

To prove that theory right, look no further than the tournament championship game against Los Angeles. The Lakers' strategy for the night was to put as many defenders on Haliburton as needed and allow the other players to beat them if they wanted.

Unfortunately for Indiana, those other players were basically nonexistent on the night. Outside of Haliburton's contributions, the Pacers went an abysmal 27/81 from the field, shooting 33% and 24% from beyond the arc, even with Haliburton's 2/8 from downtown factored in.

Nobody outside Haliburton shot 50% or above from the field, and Indiana's offense was slowed to a crawl all game.

While the Pacers still kept it close all the way until around the halfway mark of the fourth quarter, the Lakers' balanced play on both ends stopped any hopes of a Pacers comeback right in their tracks. This was perhaps the best learning experience the Pacers could get, as Tyrese Haliburton had one of his worst games of the season, and Indiana still could have won if the supporting cast had stepped up.

Above all else, this provides the Pacers with a little glimpse into what playoff competition would look like. As was the concern with Domantas Sabonis before him, when the going gets tough and defenses square in on one player in the playoffs, there is only so much a team can do before they fall apart, and Indiana cannot afford putrid shooting nights like this come April.

Thankfully, this game against the Lakers does not count in the overall standings, and Indiana got an inconsequential learning experience from the Las Vegas trip.

Hopefully Haliburton and the Pacers can learn from this experience and use it to their advantage in the playoffs.

4. Potential supporting cast improvements

Despite the Pacers having a decent all-around supporting cast around Haliburton, they still do not have another go-to scorer or engine for their offense. Myles Turner is the closest Indiana has to a real second option, but when he shrunk in the Lakers game, and nobody else picked up the slack, Indiana's hopes of a tournament title got flushed down the drain.

This, of course, brought up more whispers that Indiana needs a second star to pair alongside Haliburton, as on nights like Saturday, too much was asked of the young star, with the supporting cast not doing their fair share to help him.

Games against talented teams such as the Lakers and the inevitable playoff struggles this team will have are key examples of why the Pacers may not go as far as fans want them to with the team they have now.

Currently, Tyrese Haliburton is the first option for the Pacers, but the team does not have a concrete second option. Depending on the game and occasion, players like Myles Turner, Bennedict Mathurin, Buddy Hield, Obi Toppin, and Bruce Brown can serve as the second option for the Pacers.

While a balanced team is good and certainly better than nothing, as the Pacers look like a playoff team so far, it is not a good formula for a deep playoff run. Most top playoff teams in the league have a certified one-two punch.

Look at the Lakers with LeBron and Anthony Davis, the Celtics with Tatum and Brown, the Heat with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, and even the Knicks with Brunson and Randle. A team with a certified first option and a combination of players as second options can only go so far in the modern league, and it's only a matter of time before Indiana catches up to the times and looks to make a move.

Tyrese Haliburton has not exactly done much to contain Pacers fans' excitement about a possible second star.

As was reported by Adrian Wojnarowski prior to the Bucks matchup, Haliburton is letting it be known around the league that he wants stars to come join him in Indiana, a far cry from the Victor Oladipo days when the former star would reportedly ask teams if he could come play with them while still being on the Pacers.

These reports, combined with fans' desires, have led to plenty of players being linked to the Pacers, most notably a couple of Raptors forwards, Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby.

Siakam and Anunoby are currently the most realistic targets for the Pacers to get, as they will be free agents soon, and with Toronto looking to rebuild around Scottie Barnes soon, Masai Ujiri may be looking to unload them sooner rather than later.

These players are not the only ones linked to Indiana, though, as Mikal Bridges, Lauri Markkannen, and even former Pacers superstar Paul George have all had their names linked with a potential Pacers trade or signing down the line.

Whether Indiana makes a trade for a star, signs one in free agency, or stays put with the team they have now is anyone's guess. For now, one thing is for sure: The In-Season Tournament was nothing but a huge plus for the Indiana Pacers, and they have certainly learned a lot that they can take into the rest of the season, going into the playoffs come April.