Pacers look to bounce back against Pelicans
The Pacers are back on national TV on Wednesday which should help add some juice to their effort that was sorely lacking in loss to Raptors.
Round and around we go.
The Pacers backed up arguably, their best win of the season on Sunday over Dallas, with a dud of an effort which lead to yet another disappointing loss to Toronto on Monday night.
While we’ve seen this pattern playout throughout the season thus far, the impact of the clunky losses are crystal clear now. Had the Pacers beaten the Raps on Monday, they would’ve moved into 5th place in the East. Instead, the loss combined with Miami’s short-handed win over the Kings, pushed the Pacers down to seventh.
The Pacers will wake up on Wednesday in eighth place after the Magic beat the Nets on Tuesday night. Life comes at you fast in the East when you don’t handle your business. The Pacers gave up 78 points in the paint, most of the layup/dunk variety, as the Raptors ran their stuff to perfection, seemingly leaving the Pacers trailing in defense all night.
Benn Mathurin had a career offensive night with 34 points, but was essentially apologizing for his defense after the game. He was repeatedly a step late as the Pacers hung tough, swapping buckets with the Raps most of the night, until they couldn’t keep pace. Much of what worked on Sunday, clanked badly on Monday including shots by rookie Ben Sheppard who struggled at both ends of the floor in this one. Not worse than Tyrese Haliburton though. Hali finished with 9 points and 7 assists, lacking the normal juice in his game all night.
While Mathurin came up huge playing with a reserve unit to give the Pacers the lead early in the fourth quarter, when the rest of the starters joined Mathurin to close out the game, that lead quickly turned to a deficit they were unable to overcome. Everything just felt off.
I clipped a play that stuck out in my mind at the time as an example of how off the Pacers were much of the night. This was following a timeout, after yet another bucket at the rim (a dunk for RJ Barrett) put the Raptors up 9. This is what we saw coming out of the timeout. It is no highlight, but an example of how the energy and fight was missing. The initial action is mucked up and a second of standing and staring leads to Nemhard trying to make something work. Again, this after a timeout where frustrations were no doubt expressed.
So the Pacers lose despite a 34 points from Mathurin and 27 points from Pascal Siakam. The Mathurin progress in the back-to-back is certainly a positive to glom onto. He played a team-high 33 minutes (along with Nembhard) on Sunday and then a team-high 38 minutes on Monday.
No doubt many will clamor for him to start due to his play of late and he has certainly earned the shot. However, I also thought while watching the first half how Mathurin is in a different role as a starter, being the 3rd or 4th option, setting up camp in the corner. If he plays starter minutes, I’m not sure he wouldn’t prefer having a big chunk of those minutes as the top option among the reserve unit. Regardless, Mathurin’s development continues to show and is showing up right on time.
The Pacers are now 2-9 in games with zero days of rest. Not a good mark to say the least among other contenders in the East. This goes back to the immaturity of this team (the team, not players) as they continue trying to build a standard of consistency that would have them in play for a top four spot instead of sliding back and having to climb back up continually.
Pelicans up next
The Pacers will host the Pelicans on Wednesday night for a game that will tip at 7:30 p.m. ET and be broadcast on ESPN. Bally Sports Indiana will also broadcast locally, but the bright lights of another national broadcast should bring out the best in the Pacers and put them in position to bounce back nicely. This is the first of a home-and-home series between the two teams.
The Pels are a brutal matchup with their excessive length, but they did have to play the Knicks on Tuesday night without CJ McCollum, so we’ll see if their full lineup makes the back-to-back. Zion Williamson was questionable but played over 29 minutes as New Orleans beat the Knicks, 115-92. That was mighty nice of them. Philly also took another loss, 117-99 to Boston, so the quagmire in the Eastern Conference standings continues to remain mucked up. Win three or four games in a row and things can flip in a hurry.
But for now, the Pacers are back to trying to win one in a row.
Game Details
Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN
When: Sunday, Feb. 28, 2024, 7:30 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN/Bally Sports
Radio: 93.5/107.5 The Fan
Odds: TBD
Projected Starters
Pacers: Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, Bennedict Mathurin, Pascal Siakam, Myles Turner
Pelicans: CJ McCollum, Brandon Ingram, Herbert Jones, Zion Williamson, Jonas Valanciunas
Injuries
Pacers: Aaron Nesmith (lower leg)- questionable, Doug McDermott (calf) - out
Pelicans: CJ McCollum (ankle) - questionable, Zion Williamson (foot) - questionable, Jose Alvarado (suspension) - out, Dyson Daniels (knee) - out