Following their brutal In-Season Tournament finals loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Indiana Pacers got back on track on Monday night, taking down the lowly Detroit Pistons.
Indiana handed Detroit their 20th loss in a row, shattering any hopes of avoiding that dreaded mark, earning a 131-123 bounce-back victory over Cade Cunningham and company.
While they lost to the Lakers in the finals, the Pacers have now technically won four games in a row in the regular season, as the final did not count toward that total.
So, though a win was probably expected against this Pistons squad, it was still a nice victory. Let’s take a look at two studs and one dud from the game, grading their performances along the way.
Stud - Buddy Hield/Aaron Nesmith
Myles Turner should probably have this spot. He put up an impressive 23 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks, but we’re going to roll with the Pacers’ two three-point shooters.
Turner had a rough night against the Lakers, so his bounce-back was nice, but Indiana’s offense also struggled mightily, so to see these two find their footing from distance was great.
After shooting a combined 3-of-14 from deep against the Lakers, Buddy Hield and Aaron Nesmith combined to go 7-of-11 against the Pistons, helping lead the Pacers to a much-needed win.
It was nice to see the offense return to form, though the Pacers couldn’t have hand-selected a better opponent for a bounce-back game than the Pistons.
Regardless, shooters have hot and cold nights throughout the course of the season, so it was a good sign to see Hield and Nesmith turn things around so quickly.
Grade: B+
Dud - Obi Toppin
It was tough to pick a dud from this game, as everyone on the Indiana Pacers had a solid night against the Detroit Pistons, who just can’t seem to figure things out.
Obviously, there were some players who played better than others. Tyrese Haliburton didn’t score the ball very efficiently, but his 16 assists made up for that.
The reason Obi Toppin is being selected as the dud is that he was unable to live up to the expectations as a starter, only playing 12:09 minutes against Detroit.
Not every game is going to be a great one, but for a starter to only play just over 12 minutes is indicative of a subpar performance. Again, Toppin wasn’t terrible, but he was outplayed.
Aaron Nesmith ended up earning 26:34 off the pine, reassuming the starting forward role that he took up for the majority of last season, which was his first with the Pacers.
As for Toppin, he ended the game with six points and three rebounds while shooting 3-of-5 from the floor and 0-of-2 from behind the three-point line.
This has been a trend this season, as oftentimes, when Toppin isn’t playing well, he’ll get demoted to a bench-like role despite starting the game in the first five.
Grade: C
Stud - Benendict Mathurin
After being given the starting job to begin the year, Bennedict Mathurin was eventually moved to the bench for Buddy Hield, as he was going through some struggles.
But on a night when the Indiana Pacers needed a bounce-back win, Mathurin stepped up in a big way, putting up some of the best numbers of his career.
The second-year wing finished the night with 30 points, seven rebounds, eight assists, and two steals while shooting 10-of-17 from the field and 3-of-5 from behind the three-point line.
In addition, Mathurin shot 7-of-8 from the free-throw line, showing off some of the aggressiveness that had him in the Rookie of the Year race for the majority of last season.
After the game, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle had tons of praise for the youngster, calling it “one of his best games as a Pacer” and stating that his “visual awareness and ability to deliver the ball tonight was huge."
Heading into the season, many Pacers fans expected Mathurin to take a leap and make strides toward becoming the team’s second star next to Tyrese Haliburton. However, some early-season inconsistencies made some question this idea.
But on nights like this, fans should be reminded of just how talented Mathurin is. It may have been against the Pistons, but this was still an incredible step in.
Grade: A