Pacers second half rally not enough to catch Raptors
Poor play put the Pacers down big once again before they made a remarkable rally that ended up falling short in the first game of a back-to-back.
The Pacers dropped their third consecutive game in Toronto, 122-111 in a wild game that saw the good guys try to steal a win by playing about 15 minutes of quality basketball. However, the basketball gods rarely reward such an effort and now the Pacers are 0-2 on their current road trip with a game against the Nets in Brooklyn on Wednesday night.
At halftime, Pacers assistant coach Jim Boylen referenced his team’s lack of “leverage” that had the Pacers down 17 points at the break. Following the game, after the Pacers nearly erased what had become a 24-point lead in the third quarter, getting as close as down two with the ball and six minutes to play, Rick Carlisle said that a “lack of overall force led to a lack of leverage” in putting the Pacers down early.
The ‘leverage’ term is interesting, assuming the idea is to use your leverage to push the opponent off balance make them uncomfortable, as in a tug of war battle. Jim O’Brien and Frank Vogel used to refer to the effort to deliver defensive toughness as getting under the opponent’s chin. Be tough, get in their air space and yes, make them uncomfortable. Those successful Vogel teams lived and died by that defensive toughness.
On Monday in Toronto, this current Pacers team was uncomfortable all over the court. They had 14 first half turnovers including 9 in the first quarter. Just getting a decent shot was a struggle and then making said shot just as tough. This allowed the Raptors and their top players, Scottie Barnes (35 pts, 9 asst, 6 rebs) and RJ Barrett (29 pts, 5 asst, 9 rebs) to get rolling.
The turnovers came in bunches early as did the timeouts by Carlisle. Seemed like he took 10 timeouts in the first half. Things didn’t improve much out of the break as the Pacers fell behind by 24 points, appearing ready to head to the airport. But then something clicked, a combination of a couple of made shots and the Raptors exhaling at the wrong time and suddenly the Pacers had life for a 15 minute stretch of game time starting at the 6 minute mark in the third quarter.
A 7-0 run fueled by Haliburton and Obi Toppin breathed life into the comeback. The Pacers kept getting stops, but failed to score again on three consecutive trips. This became theme as the Pacers trudged back into the game despite missing several scoring opportunities. Now, you could argue the Raptors were doing the same thing but at this point, they were the uncomfortable team.
When the Pacers drew within two points with six minutes left in the game, it would be easy to speculate that they should have been up by 10 points. Of course, the Raps could’ve been up 15. Unfortunately, the Pacers ran out of juice at crunch time in the final five minutes which seemed to be when the basketball gods kicked in.
Obi Toppin had his best stretch of play this season, playing several minutes at the 5 in relief of Myles Turner and delivering on both ends of the floor. Toppin finished with 15 points and 9 rebounds, making a couple of big threes during the rally. Tyrese Haliburton finally had an individual road game to remember, pumping in 30 points on just 16 shots, with 6 assists, and 4 threes. Myles Turner also made 4 threes and finished with 16 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks.
Pascal Siakam had a rare frustrating night, including a late technical, scoring just 13 points on 13 shots in yet another return to Toronto. TJ McConnell also played a big role in the late run, scoring 12 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter.
Despite the 15 minutes of fight shown to get back in the game, the Pacers continue to have issues coming close to playing 48 solid minutes. The current defensive approach isn’t sustainable and while it showed strong flashes late in the third quarter, the will and toughness to make those types of defensive possessions the norm is severely lacking. Whether it is the coaching approach, the players or both…something has to change.
On to Brooklyn
No rest for the weary, as the Pacers make their way to Brooklyn for a Wednesday night game against the Nets. The Nets know all about injury issues and hope to have a couple of healthy bodies return. Like the Pacers, the Nets have lost their last three games and have a 9-13 record.
Pacers vs. Nets
Where: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY
When: Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, 7:30 p.m. ET
TV: FanDuel Sports Network
Radio: 93.5/107.5 The Fan
Odds: Pacers - 1.5
Projected Starters
Pacers: Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, Bennedict Mathurin, Pascal Siakam, Myles Turner
Nets: Denis Schroeder, Tyrese Martin, Ben Simmons, Jalen Wilson, Nic Claxton
Injuries
Pacers: Andrew Nembhard (knee) - questionable, Ben Sheppard (oblique) - out, Aaron Nesmith (ankle) - out, James Wiseman (Achilles) - out, Isaiah Jackson (Achilles) - out
Nets: Cameron Johnson (ankle) - questionable, Dorian Finney-Smith (ankle) - questionable, Bojan Bogdanovic (foot) - questionable, Cam Thomas (hamstring) - out, Zaire Williams (knee) - out, Jaylen Martin (knee) - out, Noah Clowney (ankle) - out
Benn is Jekyll and Hyde for this team. His offense transforms the team at that end but his defense undoes them at the other. Pascal is just ok defensively but he's the best we've got up front. Myles is very weak against any physicality. And the team does absolutely NOTHING to change that situation aside from signing a back up center that is on his 4th team.....
Blown out by the Raptors. Multiple times already.
Made Scottie Barnes (who?) look like an all star.
Ye reap what ye sow.