Pacers come up short against Rockets

The Pacers kept things tight throughout the game but you need the ball and the Pacers struggled to get the ball far too often against the Rockets.

The Pacers were unable to deny the Rockets key rebounds nor eventually the win at the Fieldhouse on Monday night, losing the first game of the current homestand, 118–114.

The final 20 seconds of the game highlighted the problem plaguing the Pacers in this loss, namely the Rockets +23 rebound differential for the game. After Benn Mathurin brought the Pacers within three points late in the fourth quarter, the Amen Thompson bounced a jumper with 19 seconds to play, but the Pacers couldn’t gather the rebound before it went out of bounds to the Rockets.

On the ensuing play, Alperen Sengun was fouled and sent to the line for his 11th and 12th free throws of the QUARTER. He missed both to the delight of the Fieldhouse, but the Pacers were only able to tip the rebound in traffic and Sengun raced in to secure the ball and get it to Thompson before he was fouled. Thompson made one free throw to push the lead to four and seal the deal for the Rockets.

Sengun was a menace from the tip, forcing a few of us to search for his career high in the first quarter when he was scoring early and often. He came up a few points short of that career high but did finish with 39 points, 16 rebounds and 5 assists leading the extreme interior advantage for the Rockets who do lead the league in rebounding.

Between the rebounding and the +16 free throw attempt advantage for the Rockets, it is hard to believe the Pacers lead after the first quarter and kept pace much of the way with a strong third quarter keeping things tight. Despite the rebounding issues, the Pacers did play with strong energy doing more of their damage on the floor. That helped them generate a big turnover advantage with 26 points off turnovers compared to just 8 for the Rockets.

The Pacers starters were slow to get going other than Aaron Nesmith who had 8 first quarter points, but the reserve unit played a strong 6-plus minutes to finish the first with Benn Mathurin and Jarace Walker seemingly taking turns making plays.

Mathurin had a fabulous all-around game and ended up playing the most minutes of any Pacer in the game, finishing with 25 points, getting to the line to make 9 of 10 freebies. He also had 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 0 turnovers. He was even the most physical player with Sengun, mucking it up with the big fella in the second half before both exchanged shoves and were given technical fouls.

Pascal Siakam was celebrated for his fourth All-Star selection when announced to the crowd and then struggled to get the buckets flowing. But, per usual, he was able to get the buckets flowing, scoring 20 of his 27 points in the second half, continually keeping the Pacers in touch.

The Pacers bigs obviously struggled to play Sengun straight up, taking a combined 13 fouls between them. Isaiah Jackson had 5 of those fouls but played the most minutes at over 24 and honestly looked quite good overall. While his offensive game remains limited, he did grab 6 rebounds, had 4 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks. IJax also had two turnovers after two of those steals, trying to get something going quick the other way. He did finally hit one in the fourth quarter, after stealing the ball from Sengun, Jackson fired a long pass to Mathurin who was behind the defense for an easy bucket.

Despite the loss, there were good times in front of another good crowd at the Fieldhouse. Oh, and if you hustled home you may have caught Darryn Peterson make two clutch 3-balls late to push Kansas past Texas Tech, 64-61. Good player.

Now what?

The Pacers wrap up their homestand against the Jazz on Tuesday night. This will be the last home game until Dallas visits on Feb. 22 with the next six games on the road around the All-Star break.

With the Pacers on a back-to-back, there may be a few players out, similar to the situation in Detroit a couple of weeks ago. Utah is not really trying to win of late and will be without some key players, so we’ll see how the Pacers play it throughout the day on Tuesday, but for now there have been no changes to the injury report.

Pacers vs. Jazz

Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN

When: Tuesday, February 3, 2026 - 7:00 p.m. ET

TV: FanDuel Sports Network

Radio: 93.5/107.5 The Fan

Odds: Pacers -3.5

Projected Starters

Pacers: Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, Johnny Furphy, Pascal Siakam, Jay Huff

Jazz: Isaiah Collier, Cody Williams, Ace Bailey, Lauri Markkanen, Kyle Filipowski

Injuries

Pacers: Obi Toppin (hammy) - out, Tyrese Haliburton (Achilles) - out

Jazz: Keyonte George (ankle) - out, Walker Kessler (shoulder) - out, Georges Niang (foot) - out, Jusuf Nurkic (rest) - out