INDIANAPOLIS — In the first three quarters of their game Tuesday night against the worst team in the Eastern Conference, the Pacers never had a lead greater than one point and they trailed by as many as 16. They never held a lead greater than three points until the final 91 seconds of the game, and even against a team with far more organizational incentive to lose than to win, they couldn’t feel confident in victory until the game’s final minute.
This game marked the most extreme example of the Pacers’ recent trend of letting lottery teams hang around and make games more interesting than they had to be before finally pulling away. Less than two weeks after hanging an NBA franchise record 162 points and a franchise record 27 3-pointers on the Wizards in a 53-point blowout in Washington D.C. they escaped with a 104-98 win over the Wizards at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Tuesday night, They needed a 3-pointer from center Myles Turner and two free throws each from guards Tyrese Haliburton and Andrew Nembhard in the final minute to finish off what was arguably their worst performance in a win this season. Their 104 points were a season-low for a win and they shot a season-worst 37.9% from the floor.
Still, they did in fact escape. Despite their tendency to play down to lottery-bound opponents, they haven’t lost to a team that has been eliminated from postseason play since their Feb. 4 defeat at the hands of a Portland team that seems to be on the ascent. As they did in games against Charlotte, Utah, Brooklyn and Philadelphia in the the past month, they managed to hold on and avoid defeat, embarrassment and the feeling that they’d given away a game that they needed.
“The great part about games like these is you just have to figure out a way to win,” Haliburton said. “As we go into the playoffs here soon, that’s all it’s about is winning. That’s all this game was about, winning. Figuring out what you can do to win games. Obviously we’re in a time right now where we’re competing for home court and every game matters. I think I’m proud of our resilience, just finding out a way to win.”
The Pacers have now won more this season than last season with Tuesday’s win marking victory No. 48 after last year’s team won 47 games before reaching the Eastern Conference finals. They have matched the 2017-18 and 2018-19 teams for the highest win total since the Pacers last cleared 50 wins when they finished 56-26 in 2013-14.
Last year’s group earned the No. 6 seed, finally sewing it up and avoiding the play-in round with a win on the season’s last day. This year, the Pacers have already assured themselves with three games to play that they will finish no worse than fifth. They nearly clinched the No. 4 seed and home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs on Tuesday night, needing a Timberwolves win over the Bucks to get it done. Minnesota led by 20 points heading into the fourth quarter and by as many as 24 early in the period but were outscored 40-13 in the fourth to lose 110-103 and the Bucks hope for the No. 4 seed stayed alive. The Pacers’ magic number to clinch the No. 4 seed is 1, meaning they only need one more win or one more Bucks loss to get it done.
These mark incremental steps for the Pacers in their rebuild from a 25-57 record and a roster flip in 2021-22, but notable ones all the same. The acquisition of Haliburton at the trade deadline in 2022 led the Pacers’ front office to quickly rethink their rebuilding plans and after a 35-47 season in 2022-23 got the ball rolling they’ve combined to win 95 games over their past two seasons with a second straight playoff run coming.
“We feel like we’ve really built something special here in the last two years,” Haliburton said. “Obviously, when I got here, the majority of this team was not here outside of T.J. (McConnell) and Myles (Turner.) It’s cool to see what we’ve built and what we’ll continue to build moving forward.”
The Pacers’ performance on Tuesday night did not provide the greatest vision of what has been built, and in truth, they might have suffered a defeat if they weren’t playing a team so deeply invested in the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes. The Wizards are long since eliminated from postseason contention and at 17-62 their record is just one game better than that of the Utah Jazz, who have the worst record in the NBA. Lottery odds are flat for the teams with the worst three records in the league the Wizards are in no danger of improving beyond that, but keeping wins down would also help them if they don’t win or place or show in the lottery because it limits the extent to which they can fall backward. They entered Tuesday’s game with no organizational incentive to win and more to lose.
The Wizards made several fourth quarter decisions that appeared to show an understanding of the assignment. Center Alex Sarr, last year’s No. 2 overall pick and a Rookie of the Year candidate, scored 20 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, dished out six assists and blocked three shots, posting a +16 plus-minus figure in 32 minutes on the floor. He started the game, but subbed out with 6:17 to go in the fourth and the Wizards leading 84-81 and did not return. Guard Jordan Poole, the team’s leading scorer heading into the game with 20.5 points per game, scored 19 points in 19 minutes and was +14 in 5:39 in the third quarter but didn’t play at all in the fourth.
Still, the players who were on the floor made life as difficult on the Pacers as they could, seemingly motivated by the previous blowout. And since the Pacers had lost the magic shooting touch they had in D.C. that made for a legitimate challenge. The Wizards won the first quarter 35-21, building a 16-point lead in the first, and they held leads of at least 14 points in each of the first three quarters.
“They were the more forceful team,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “You’ve gotta give them credit, they’ve been a difficult team to play all year. The last game at Washington where we made every shot, that’s an outlier. … You can’t make excuses. You come off a big win in Denver and you beat these guys by 100 points two weeks ago and it just feels like we’re just gonna show up and it’s just never like that. They played with some real venom in the first quarter and the first half and in large part because of the last time we played them. You have to give them their props.”
The Pacers struggled to shoot the ball all game both inside and outside. They were 16 of 46 from the field in the first half (34.8%) including 1 of 14 from 3-point range and 11 of 24 on field goal attempts in the paint. The second half was better even though the Pacers ultimately scored fewer paint points with 14 after they scored 22 in the first half because paint touches led to better looks from beyond the arc and led to free throws. The Pacers were 14 of 18 at the line and 8 of 21 from beyond the arc in the second half.
“We were just trying to get downhill,” said Haliburton, who scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half. “When you’re not shooting well from outside, if you can see the ball go in a little bit, get some layups and dunks, stuff like that it opens everything up for everything else. That was definitely a point of emphasis at halftime to keep getting downhill get to the paint a little bit more.”
And ultimately that approach combined with solid enough defense in the final three quarters was enough to win. All-Star forward Pascal Siakam scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in his return after missing Sunday’s game with right elbow bursitis. Center Myles Turner had 14 points and 11 rebounds and perhaps most notably five blocked shots, helping hold the Wizards to 41.8% shooting.
The Pacers’ largest lead was their final one, but it was still a lead so they reached one milestone and took another step closer to another one.
“This is the NBA,” Siakam said. “What says that we’re supposed to win by a certain number? We have to get the wins. Some of those games we lost, but even if we won by half a point, I’m taking that. This is the NBA. Everybody who is dressing out there is playing for something. We can say that they’re a lottery team or whatever, but it’s still the NBA. They have players out there. You have to come in and win the game, which we did tonight.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers win ugly, but take another step toward first-round home-court
INDIANAPOLIS — In the first three quarters of their game Tuesday night against the worst team in the Eastern Conference, the Pacers never had a lead greater than one point and they trailed by as many as 16. They never held a lead greater than three points until the final 91 seconds of the game, and even against a team with far more organizational incentive to lose than to win, they couldn’t feel confident in victory until the game’s final minute.
This game marked the most extreme example of the Pacers’ recent trend of letting lottery teams hang around and make games more interesting than they had to be before finally pulling away. Less than two weeks after hanging an NBA franchise record 162 points and a franchise record 27 3-pointers on the Wizards in a 53-point blowout in Washington D.C. they escaped with a 104-98 win over the Wizards at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Tuesday night, They needed a 3-pointer from center Myles Turner and two free throws each from guards Tyrese Haliburton and Andrew Nembhard in the final minute to finish off what was arguably their worst performance in a win this season. Their 104 points were a season-low for a win and they shot a season-worst 37.9% from the floor.
Still, they did in fact escape. Despite their tendency to play down to lottery-bound opponents, they haven’t lost to a team that has been eliminated from postseason play since their Feb. 4 defeat at the hands of a Portland team that seems to be on the ascent. As they did in games against Charlotte, Utah, Brooklyn and Philadelphia in the the past month, they managed to hold on and avoid defeat, embarrassment and the feeling that they’d given away a game that they needed.
“The great part about games like these is you just have to figure out a way to win,” Haliburton said. “As we go into the playoffs here soon, that’s all it’s about is winning. That’s all this game was about, winning. Figuring out what you can do to win games. Obviously we’re in a time right now where we’re competing for home court and every game matters. I think I’m proud of our resilience, just finding out a way to win.”
The Pacers have now won more this season than last season with Tuesday’s win marking victory No. 48 after last year’s team won 47 games before reaching the Eastern Conference finals. They have matched the 2017-18 and 2018-19 teams for the highest win total since the Pacers last cleared 50 wins when they finished 56-26 in 2013-14.
Last year’s group earned the No. 6 seed, finally sewing it up and avoiding the play-in round with a win on the season’s last day. This year, the Pacers have already assured themselves with three games to play that they will finish no worse than fifth. They nearly clinched the No. 4 seed and home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs on Tuesday night, needing a Timberwolves win over the Bucks to get it done. Minnesota led by 20 points heading into the fourth quarter and by as many as 24 early in the period but were outscored 40-13 in the fourth to lose 110-103 and the Bucks hope for the No. 4 seed stayed alive. The Pacers’ magic number to clinch the No. 4 seed is 1, meaning they only need one more win or one more Bucks loss to get it done.
These mark incremental steps for the Pacers in their rebuild from a 25-57 record and a roster flip in 2021-22, but notable ones all the same. The acquisition of Haliburton at the trade deadline in 2022 led the Pacers’ front office to quickly rethink their rebuilding plans and after a 35-47 season in 2022-23 got the ball rolling they’ve combined to win 95 games over their past two seasons with a second straight playoff run coming.
“We feel like we’ve really built something special here in the last two years,” Haliburton said. “Obviously, when I got here, the majority of this team was not here outside of T.J. (McConnell) and Myles (Turner.) It’s cool to see what we’ve built and what we’ll continue to build moving forward.”
The Pacers’ performance on Tuesday night did not provide the greatest vision of what has been built, and in truth, they might have suffered a defeat if they weren’t playing a team so deeply invested in the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes. The Wizards are long since eliminated from postseason contention and at 17-62 their record is just one game better than that of the Utah Jazz, who have the worst record in the NBA. Lottery odds are flat for the teams with the worst three records in the league the Wizards are in no danger of improving beyond that, but keeping wins down would also help them if they don’t win or place or show in the lottery because it limits the extent to which they can fall backward. They entered Tuesday’s game with no organizational incentive to win and more to lose.
The Wizards made several fourth quarter decisions that appeared to show an understanding of the assignment. Center Alex Sarr, last year’s No. 2 overall pick and a Rookie of the Year candidate, scored 20 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, dished out six assists and blocked three shots, posting a +16 plus-minus figure in 32 minutes on the floor. He started the game, but subbed out with 6:17 to go in the fourth and the Wizards leading 84-81 and did not return. Guard Jordan Poole, the team’s leading scorer heading into the game with 20.5 points per game, scored 19 points in 19 minutes and was +14 in 5:39 in the third quarter but didn’t play at all in the fourth.
Still, the players who were on the floor made life as difficult on the Pacers as they could, seemingly motivated by the previous blowout. And since the Pacers had lost the magic shooting touch they had in D.C. that made for a legitimate challenge. The Wizards won the first quarter 35-21, building a 16-point lead in the first, and they held leads of at least 14 points in each of the first three quarters.
“They were the more forceful team,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “You’ve gotta give them credit, they’ve been a difficult team to play all year. The last game at Washington where we made every shot, that’s an outlier. … You can’t make excuses. You come off a big win in Denver and you beat these guys by 100 points two weeks ago and it just feels like we’re just gonna show up and it’s just never like that. They played with some real venom in the first quarter and the first half and in large part because of the last time we played them. You have to give them their props.”
The Pacers struggled to shoot the ball all game both inside and outside. They were 16 of 46 from the field in the first half (34.8%) including 1 of 14 from 3-point range and 11 of 24 on field goal attempts in the paint. The second half was better even though the Pacers ultimately scored fewer paint points with 14 after they scored 22 in the first half because paint touches led to better looks from beyond the arc and led to free throws. The Pacers were 14 of 18 at the line and 8 of 21 from beyond the arc in the second half.
“We were just trying to get downhill,” said Haliburton, who scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half. “When you’re not shooting well from outside, if you can see the ball go in a little bit, get some layups and dunks, stuff like that it opens everything up for everything else. That was definitely a point of emphasis at halftime to keep getting downhill get to the paint a little bit more.”
And ultimately that approach combined with solid enough defense in the final three quarters was enough to win. All-Star forward Pascal Siakam scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in his return after missing Sunday’s game with right elbow bursitis. Center Myles Turner had 14 points and 11 rebounds and perhaps most notably five blocked shots, helping hold the Wizards to 41.8% shooting.
The Pacers’ largest lead was their final one, but it was still a lead so they reached one milestone and took another step closer to another one.
“This is the NBA,” Siakam said. “What says that we’re supposed to win by a certain number? We have to get the wins. Some of those games we lost, but even if we won by half a point, I’m taking that. This is the NBA. Everybody who is dressing out there is playing for something. We can say that they’re a lottery team or whatever, but it’s still the NBA. They have players out there. You have to come in and win the game, which we did tonight.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers win ugly, but take another step toward first-round home-court
