2 Negatives, 1 positive from Indiana Pacers blowout loss to Orlando Magic

Following a resounding In-Season Tournament win against the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday, the Indiana Pacers had an uncharacteristic five days of rest before their next game - a home matchup against the Orlando Magic.

With this extended time off, many expected the Pacers to either come out of the gates strong and well-rested or be extremely rusty after taking all that time off. This matchup against Orlando also had an extra layer onto it, given that the Pacers were the number-one ranked offense and the Magic were the number-one defense coming into the game.

Given this information, many were expecting an exciting matchup that would come down to the wire and showcase the strengths and weaknesses of both teams.

Unfortunately, the sold-out Indiana crowd witnessed less of an equally balanced contest and more of a 48-minute clobbering. The Pacers allowed the Magic to jump out to an 11-0 start and trailed by 19 at halftime, conceding a staggering 42 first-quarter points, double Indiana's 21.


The Magic dominated the entire game, extending their lead to 34 by halftime. Despite the Pacers cutting it to as little as 11 in the fourth quarter, the Magic won the game 128-116 without breaking a sweat. At the end of the evening, the Magic walked away with a 12-point win that everyone knew was far more dominant than what the stat sheet suggested.

An entire book could be written about what the Pacers could have done better, but I have narrowed it down to two things and miraculously even found one positive in the bunch. Without further ado, here's what went wrong for Indiana in what, in my opinion, was their worst loss of the season so far.

Negative: Indiana's offense shut down by Magic defense

Remember when I said the main battle of this game was Indiana's offense vs Orlando's defense? If it wasn't abundantly clear who won, the answer is Orlando's defense.

The Pacers tried every trick in the bag, but nothing was good enough to overcome the Magic's suffocating contests and fantastic defensive IQ. Every Pacer in the starting lineup, with the exception of Bruce Brown, had a bad game, and the second-leading scorer Bennedict Mathurin only had 14 points on 4/12 shooting.

Tyrese Haliburton had his worst game of the season and possibly of his career, as he went 0/7 in the first half and only had three assists to go along with a staggering four turnovers, only the fifth time in his Pacers career that he had more turnovers than assists.

While Haliburton did turn it around from a scoring standpoint in the second half, going 4/7 and finishing the night with 12 points, there was no denying that this was the worst game he had this season. That's not to say he was the only one, as seven of the 13 players that got playing time shot 40% or under from the field, with three shooting under 30%.

Mathurin continued his renewed slump, shooting 4/12 en route to 14 points, Myles Turner failed to capitalize off his stellar fourth quarter against Philadelphia, shooting 3/10 with 10 points, and Buddy Hield continued his cold streak, shooting 1/4 and only scoring three points.

As you can probably predict, the team struggled as a whole, too, shooting only 26% from three-point range and 44% from the field overall. This number predictably goes down when you isolate the first half, as the Pacers shot an abysmal 35% from the field in a half where Bruce Brown, TJ McConnell, and Jalen Smith were the only players to shoot above 50% from the field.

This offensive performance was so bad in fact, that Indiana dropped from having the league's best offense to the third-best after only one game, with a further drop-off also possible if not for garbage time.

Overall, this game pointed out Indiana's flaws to a T and made it clear what the Pacers need to work on. While the Pacers may be looking good right now with the season still young and the players riding off hot streaks, they don't have much to fall back on when those streaks turn cold and their offense stagnates.

Of course, their defense isn't good, nor is their rebounding, and they're not exactly the tallest team around, so at this point, the Pacers are relying on an unsustainably efficient offense to keep them competitive. Sunday's game showed what could happen if that offense betrays them, and it's definitely something they need to look into before the playoffs come around and it's too late to make any moves.

Positive: Good production from youngsters in garbage time

You know what they say: Every cloud has a silver lining. That was true tonight, as despite not tying or taking the lead at any point, the Pacers still saw good production from the end of their bench, most notably from Jordan Nwora.

Despite the majority of the team not shooting well, Nwora played fantastic in the 23 minutes of garbage time he got, leading all Pacers with 19 points on 8/11 shooting and 2/5 from beyond the arc.

While he hasn't gotten much time this season, only playing in three games prior to tonight and logging 36 minutes, all garbage time, Nwora is still a very talented scorer, which he showcased the prior season, averaging 13 points in the 24 games he played with the Pacers after the deadline.

In fact, Nwora was one of five Pacers to have a positive plus/minus on the night, with his +18 being the second-highest of the game, behind Ben Sheppard's +25. Every Pacer on the night to have a positive plus/minus came off the bench, with the second unit putting up a decent fight to try and claw back into the game. In fact, the Pacers even outscored the Magic in the second half 72-60 and scored 38 points in the fourth quarter to the Magic's 21.

The rookies also got some playing time, which was uncharacteristic of Rick Carlisle. Unfortunately, that playing time came a bit too late, as the Pacers were already down 53-25 when Walker checked in during the second quarter, and his minutes were still very inconsistent despite the game already being out of reach and the Pacers having no reason to sit him.

Walker only played 14 minutes on the night despite deserving more and displayed some great traits that could help the Pacers going forward if given more playing time.

Despite only playing garbage time, Walker showed some fantastic flashes of the player he could be if put in the rotation and certainly made his case to Rick Carlisle as to why he should get non-garbage time minutes going forward. Who knows if Carlisle will take not and put Walker in the rotation come Tuesday, but Walker did more than his fair share to put his name in the running.

Negative: Pacers play worst defense of season

Stagnating on offense against the league's best defense is one thing. Not being able to guard one of the league's worst offenses is quite another.

On Sunday, the Pacers showed exactly how unremarkable their defense really is when they let the sixth-worst offense in the league score 128 points on them and only have two turnovers at the end of the first half.

The first half was an expressway to the rim for the most part, as Paolo Banchero scored 16 points, Jalen Suggs scored 16, Franz Wagner, Mo Wagner, and Gary Harris added nine, and Cole Anthony chipped in seven as well.

Banchero, in particular, had a game to remember, as he scored 24 points on the night, shooting 9/14, and even talked trash to his 2022 draft classmate Bennedict Mathurin, calling him out for his lack of defense, which was more than noticeable on the night.

It wasn't just Mathurin who couldn't guard the Magic. Nobody could. Orlando shot 59% from the field and 44% from beyond the arc in the first half en route to a 78-44 lead. The second half was not as kind to the Magic, as they shot 36% from the field and 27% from three, but at that point, the damage had already been done, and the Pacers' comeback was too little, too late.

Overall, this game was very surprising to fans all around the league, as nobody had expected the Pacers and Magic to be atop the league in offense and defense, respectively, coming into Sunday, but what everyone got was not what they anticipated or asked for.

The Magic had the league's #1 offense begging for mercy for the first half, and by the second half, the Pacers had already dug themselves into too deep of a hole and couldn't mount a comeback against the worst 2nd-half team in the league.

This game will go down as a learning experience for Indiana as they roll into Tuesday's In-Season Tournament matchup in Atlanta, a game that Tyrese Haliburton will look to bounce back in after an abysmal performance on Sunday.

Of course, with the Kings/Pacers trade continuously being revisited, some people feel some type of way about Haliburton, and he will be looking to prove them wrong come Tuesday.