Pacers Report Cards: Grading every Pacers player's first-round performance
By Mueez Azfar
Myles Turner
Stats: 6 Games, 33.3 MPG, 19.2 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 2.8 APG, 0.5 SPG, 1.2 BPG, 0.5 TOV, 2.3 FPG 48.2/43.9/65.2 Splits on 60.4% TS
Through the years, Myles Turner was seen as something of a joke to non-Pacers fans. Only mentioned by the mainstream media during trade season, the general consensus around Turner was that he was better on paper than in the games, and that reputation haunted him for a while, especially when he shared the frontcourt with Domantas Sabonis. It didn't help that his playoff stats until 2024 were rather unremarkable at only 11.7 points per game and not a single series win.
Turner was clearly on a mission to prove everyone wrong in this series, and he did just that. After a shaky first game, which everyone on the Pacers suffered from beside the aforementioned Siakam, Turner brought the heat in the next three games, averaging 26.7 points through Games 2, 3, and 4, and taking his place as Indiana's second-leading scorer. Despite struggling with foul trouble at times, Turner showed exactly why Indiana chose to keep him after all these years and played the best basketball of his life when it mattered most.
Offensively, Turner looked like the scoring machine many Pacers fans envisioned in the regular season, and was quite efficient at that, shooting 55% from the field and 56% from deep in the three aforementioned games.
Even more so, Turner's impact was off the charts, as Indiana looked lost in the 5-10 minutes he was off the floor during the series and his backups doing a poor job of replacing his production, despite being solid players themselves. This is not a knack on Jalen Smith and Isaiah Jackson, but rather a compliment to Turner, as he was Indiana's third-most important player in the series.
Turner's production dipped in Game 5, along with everyone else's on the Pacers, and he didn't have the best Game 6 either, shooting 1/6 from the field and ending with five points, but his performance in the first half of the series opened the door for his teammates to handle the rest.
While Turner still had his flaws, his performance in the first round was everything Indiana could have asked for from the big man and more, as he played the best basketball of his life and fan support grew louder and louder.