Pacers open season with tough win in Detroit
The Pacers are 1-0 after surviving a slow start to eventually work their way past the Pistons.
The Pacers struggled to get their expected elite offense going all night, eventually leaning on a strong fourth-quarter defensive effort to beat the Pistons, 115-109 and win the first of 82 regular season games.
The Pacers were 9-2 last season when holding their opponents to110 points or fewer. The fact this happened only 11 times was the headline, but the fact the Pacers hit that mark in game one of the 2024-25 season is just one of the differences that were noticeable to start the season.
The Pacers held the Pistons to just 19 points at winning time in the fourth quarter as Detroit ran out of gas following a strong start when vets Tim Hardaway Jr. and Malik Beasley were knocking down open threes to get this going. Cade Cunningham put on an All-Star performance with an 18-point third quarter which included a few contested midrange shots that looked like prime Bernard King (Google him) getting buckets. Cunningham and Jaden Ivey fueled an 8-0 run to close the third quarter after the Pacers finally caught the Pistons.
Myles Turner stepped up to duel Cunningham in the third quarter, scoring 16 of his 20 points, including a trio of threes early in the quarter. Those early buckets after the half just helped the Pacers stay in touch as they struggled to get stops, but eventually the stops came in bunches.
The Pacers were quite comfortable in the fourth quarter of a tight game, suddenly the experienced team in crunch time as they found a way to defend and eventually score to take control of the game. They even out-rebounded the Pistons 12-8 when it mattered late.
Bennedict Mathurin played the whole fourth quarter and made his presence felt in big and small ways, scoring 14 of his 19 points, getting to the line nine times. He also grabbed a pair of big rebounds and got his hands on loose balls while continually needling Ivey.
Tyrese Haliburton did not match the All-Star type of performance Cunningham delivered, but he showed up late with a dagger three to put the Pacers up six and up for good. While his offensive game was not as expected with 15 points and 4 assists, Haliburton was solid at the defensive end and even ended up with 3 steals and 2 blocks.
The Pacers offense was far from the elite version we witnessed last season, but they were mixing and matching approaches with Andrew Nembhard and Pascal Siakam running things instead of full diet of Tyrese. Siakam has 9 assists and Nembhard pitched in 7 assists, so the trio did alright finding advantages after struggling early. Siakam added 19 points and 8 rebounds to complete his solid as a rock performance.
As for the playing rotation, Carlisle used a 10-man rotation which ended up using 12 players. With Isaiah Jackson out, James Wiseman was the reserve big in place of Myles Turner and scored 6 quick points before coming up lame with a non-contact leg injury. An MRI on Thursday revealed the worst, a torn left Achilles tendon which will shut down the young big man’s season and leave the Pacers searching for big man options.
Enrique Freeman played the remaining Wiseman minutes in the rotation and held up pretty well, but he’s not a long-term option at the five. Hopefully, IJax can return soon and remain healthy, but until then the Pacers will have to go with some small and very active lineups.
The other 2-man rotation spot involved Jarace Walker playing six minutes in the first half with Ben Sheppard playing six minutes in the second half. As I suspected, Shep would be a second-half option the Pacers could lean on to fortify their defense. For his part, Walker showed up fine in his minutes and had a couple of plays, one tracking down a rebound and another taking the ball in transition before dishing for an assist, where he showed an athletic burst you can’t teach.
1-0 wasn’t easy, and credit to the improved Pistons for flashing on opening night, but it was a very nice, tough win to secure particularly when you consider the next seven games against top teams in the East. As Tom Ziller said Thursday morning, this was the type of game a “serious” team finds a way to win.
Couldn’t agree more.