Haliburton return gives Pacers better look at playing rotation
With the regular season fast approaching, the Pacers are still competing for minutes but they may have found some initial answers after preseason game number three.

Prior to the Pacers 116-112 preseason win over the Hawks on Monday night, Rick Carlisle discussed the state of the preseason competition for spots in the regular season playing rotation.
“There’s a presumptive starting lineup, that’s just that - presumptive,” Carlisle said. “I’m very interested to see how they play tonight. How hard, how together how connected.”
The indication was that the competition for playing time was continuing, and not one had seized the open spots. This far into preseason, one might hope some of those battles would be settled, but nothing in the prior games indicated so. Carlisle mentioned that the competition has been stronger in practice than in games.
However, Carlisle also warned that the Pacers best player ( Tyrese Haliburton) and arguably their best competitor (Andrew Nembhard) had yet to play. Haliburton made his preseason debut a couple of hours later and much of what the Pacers are doing made more sense.
The presumptive starting five looked like a great fit, aside from a foul fest in the first three minutes of the game, the Pacers started strong against the short-handed Hawks. While the second unit with TJ McConnell, Buddy Hield, Ben Sheppard, Aaron Nesmith and Jalen Smith let the early lead slip away, they made up for it in the second quarter, pushing the Pacers back in the lead by 10 points before the starting group went nuts leading to the Pacers winning the quarter, 43-15. Bonkers.
The second half wasn’t so fruitful as the Pacers scored just 43 points the rest of the way, but the flash of potent offense along with a solid defensive presence revealed the potential this group can have, at least in bursts. When they can consistently deliver a similar effort in sustained stretches of games, then we’ll be on to something.
More thoughts on what we saw:
No concerns about Tyrese being ready to roll next week. He only played 23 minutes, but finished with 15 points and 8 assists and appeared to loosen up the rest of the starting lineup. They spread the wealth on offense as Hali was looking to run at all times, pushing ahead to Obi Toppin a few times which will always be a pressure point opponents have to account for. The pair also worked in the half court with Toppin as a screen roller which created decisions for where the defense had to help which was usually followed by a decision from Hali to find the man left open.
Toppin also had his best defensive showing, applying some quality pressure on the perimeter and even gathering a couple of steals in his 18 minutes of time.
Bennedic Mathurin continued to look like he belongs among that group even with Hali back in the mix. In fact, he looked even better a one of five working together. Twice he made his way into the lane, within five feet of the rim, open enough to shoot, but instead fired a pass to an open shooter on the perimeter. Mathurin finished with four assists and I counted at least two other assist opportunities that were lost to a missed shot and foul. Of course, his easiest assist came on a transition lob to Toppin.
Speaking of fouls, Mathurin along with Myles Turner were the worst early foul offenders. For Mathurin, he was caught one time hand fighting with DeAndre Hunter away from the ball, trying not to give ground as Hunter started running around a screen. Just too physical for that time and place. Turner fouled out midway through the third quarter after playing just over 15 minutes. The Hawks had 52 points in the paint, but also shot 27 free throws, many after Pacers’ bigs tried to stop shots at the rim.
Despite still struggling to keep the opponent out of the lane, there was improvement from the perimeter defense. Bruce Brown and Ben Sheppard in particular did well staying in front of their man. Sheppard created a couple of turnovers by stoning his man and cutting off any drive options. Brown had a signature effort against Bogdan Bogdanovic, getting up into the Hawks’ scoring threat on the perimeter, goading him into a drive and then blocking the shot attempt.
As for the rotation, Carlisle staggered the reserve group, which helped split up the point guard minutes and create different rotation groups. For starters, it gave Haliburton and Buddy Hield a few minutes together on the court. As for the front court, with rookie Ben Sheppard in the mix, essentially behind Mathurin, Aaron Nesmith backed up Obi Toppin, which left Jarace Walker and Jordan Nwora out of the mix. Also, Jalen Smith played the backup big minutes behind Turner. Unlike the second game in which Isaiah Jackson played the first half and Stix played the second, IJax didn’t play until the fourth quarter third string minutes.
Jarace Walker did get a few minutes in the second half, playing with a group of starters. During a radio interview on 107.5 The Fan on Tuesday morning, Carlisle mentioned this was an effort to give the rook a feel for playing with that top group, but it is obvious the rook is still in the learning phase.
Carlisle also expanded on Walker’s situation compared to Sheppard who is older and much better prepared to play in the league at this moment. In fact, Shep will be hard to keep out of the lineup with his ability to hit open threes (still working on the contested threes) while also defending at a level the coaches are looking for right now. Andrew Nembhard was back in practice on Tuesday and he will be in the rotation, so where any minutes for Shep come from will be a challenge. It would certainly require going smaller with Nesmith in the reserve power forward role.
One more positive from Monday was reserve Buddy Hield. Whether he’s happy about his role or not (prolly not), Hield is certainly embracing and enjoying his role with the reserve unit, making more plays with his passing than shooting. Buddy was 3 for 9 from three land on Monday but had five assists. For the preseason, Hield has struggled from behind the arc, making just 4 of 19 three balls. But he is second on the team in assists with 16 over the three games. No doubt, until Tyrese surpasses that pass total, Hield will be letting him know about it.