10 thoughts: Pacers have another franchise record night in victory over Hawks
How the Pacers controlled the game from start to finish against the Atlanta Hawks for the 2nd time in 8 days.
The Indiana Pacers started their 6-game road trip with a visit to Atlanta, taking on a Trae Young led team who has underwhelmed for most of the season. Last Friday, Indiana set a franchise record 50 assists against the Atlanta Hawks in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, where Trae Young was an abysmal 4-18 for the field. The Pacers won the game by 34 points, their largest lead was 38 and the Hawks never saw the lead again after Bruce Brown made a 2 point shot with 7:01 in the 1st quarter. You think this type of beat down would encourage a better effort from the Hawks in their rematch Friday night, but instead, it was more of the same from Indiana and the Hawks had no answer.
Here are my 10 thoughts on the Pacers 126-108 victory over the Atlanta Hawks:
1). Pacers set franchise record for best Field Goal Percentage in a game
The Atlanta Hawks are a pitiful defensive team, but they take steps backwards when trying to defend the Indiana Pacers. In the Pacers previous 2 games against the Hawks, they dropped a total of 257 points, an average of 153.5 per game. Without Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers offense is not nearly as emphatic as it is with him, but when playing the Hawks, apparently it doesn’t matter.
Despite turning the ball over 27 times, the Pacers were lights out when shooting against this Hawks defense that the turnovers didn’t have any impact on their ability to win. Out of the 11 players who qualified, only one player shot under 50% from the field (2 attempts or more) and that was Jalen Smith who went 3-7 from the field.
The team as a whole shot 53-79 from the field for a franchise setting 67.1%. Obi Toppin was the most efficient going 7-7 from the field. In 4 minutes, Oscar Tshiebwe went 2-2 to join the 100% club with Toppin. Isaiah Jackson went 6-7, Aaron Nesmith went 5-6, Andrew Nembhard went 4-6, Myles Turner and Bruce Brown went 5-9, T.J. McConnell went 3-5, Bennedict Mathurin was 6-9 and Buddy Hield went 7-11.
The shot making was incredible, but the ball movement was what led to such a great percentage. There weren’t many bad shots taken and the Pacers assisted on 41 of the 53 shots! That shows what style of play the Pacers are playing. Indiana would have easily put somewhere between 140-150 points if they had protected the rock better and if Tyrese Haliburton would have played. Unfortunately for the Pacers, they won’t get to beat up on the Atlanta Hawks again until the final game of the season.
2). Indiana’s bench demolishes the Hawk’s second unit
While we are piling on, let’s look at how incredibly lopsided the two bench units were. Indiana outscored Atlanta’s bench 73-26. They out rebounded the Hawks 22-8 and dished out 25 assists to the Hawks 8. I discussed in yesterday’s article how Indiana’s most offensive minded players come off the bench and this domination over the Hawks bench displays why they can use this to their strength.
I still have concerns about the offensive output from the starters, but with the balance and depth of this roster, looking at minutes played is more important than who is starting or not starting games. Mathurin led the team in minutes with 27, Turner was second in 26, McConnell played 25, Hield and Nembhard each logged 23 minutes, Toppin, B. Brown and Nesmith all played 21 minutes, Smith played 19 and Jackson played 18.
The bench went on a 23-4 run in the 1st quarter into the 2nd and the Pacers never looked back. It was a group effort that led to this incredible play, and it wasn’t just on the offensive side of the ball but on the defensive side of the ball as well. The bench had 7 blocks and 7 steals and held the Hawks bench to 10-28 from the field. In order for the Pacers to win some of these upcoming match ups on the road trip, they will continue to need strong efforts from their bench.
3). Isaiah Jackson was phenomenal
Enough can’t be said about the performance of Isaiah Jackson in Friday night’s game. In just 18-minutes, the 3rd year center was impressive on both ends of the floor. He finished the game with 4 steals and 3 blocks.
In the beginning of the 2nd quarter, Jackson was switched onto Trae Young and was able to block his 3-point attempt. A few possessions later he stole the ball from Trae Young. There aren’t very many big men in the league athletic enough to stay in front of Trae Young, let alone block their shot and steal the ball from them.
Jackson’s athleticism is a special talent and why the team believes in him. He played so well when Jalen Smith was out with an injury that they had to adjust their rotations to make sure that Jackson was still in the rotation.
Offensively, he is a simple player. He sets screens and lives in the paint as a roller and lob threat. The growth from year 1 to year 2 was minimal, but the growth from year 2 to year 3 is exponential. Jackson is proving why he is deserving of the backup center minutes, and his 12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks in just 18 minutes against Atlanta is another example of that.
4). Improved Defense
The Indiana Pacers are a league best 9-1 in their last 10 games played. Over those last 10-games they rank 13th in defensive rating. In addition to that, they’re 8th in rebounding, 6th in blocks and 9th in steals.
With a new defensive scheme spearheaded by assistant coaches Jenny Boucek and Jim Boylen, Indiana has held their opponents under 120 points seven times since making a starting lineup change. Being an already powerful offensive team, getting better defensively has helped them go from 14-14 after a loss to Orlando to 23-15, the 4th best record in the Eastern Conference.
Indiana held the Hawks offense in check, keeping them to just 108 points for the game. This was the third lowest point total for the Hawks this season (103 against Boston and 105 against Cleveland) and all have resulted in losses.
Dejounte Murray had another standout game, but Trae Young struggled once again. He went 4-17 in this game for 13 points and had a plus-minus of -19. The last 2 games against Indiana, Trae Young has shot 8-35 from the field and is a -47. This poor play from Young has resulted in the Hawks losing by a combined total of 52 points.
5). Tyrese (Timothy) John McConnell
That’s right…no Tyrese, no problem. Am I right? Am I wrong? Kidding aside, McConnell has been sensational in his role. McConnell dropped 14 dimes against the Hawks in 25 minutes. Haliburton had 18 assists in 25 minutes against the Hawks the week before, so McConnell didn’t quite reach Haliburton status but he was pretty darn close.
Since Haliburton’s injury, McConnell has had a total of 28 assists in 66 minutes of play. He has only committed 2 turnovers in that stretch, posting a 14-1 assist to turnover ratio. McConnell has been playing awesome basketball of late and is doing a terrific job leading the second unit.
6). Pacers tie record for most points in the paint this season
Indiana matched their season high for most points in the paint on Friday night with 76. The Hawks interior defense was lost in outer space as the Pacers relentlessly attacked the rim with ease. All of Mathurin’s, Jackson’s, Smith’s, Toppin’s and Tshiebwe’s shots were in the paint (24).
It was mind boggling to me how the Hawks, a team that has two rim protectors in Capela and Okongwu were unable to stop the Pacers from getting downhill. The Pacers were playing with such force against Atlanta. The ability to get into the paint opened up the outside for Indiana, who went 11-18 from three (61.1%). However, Indiana only needed to take 18 shots from outside because the pathway to the paint was more open than a 24 hours iHop.
The coaching staff preaches “paint to great” and that is exactly what they did in Friday night’s game. It led to great looks at the rim and great looks outside. This was a special offensive performance from the blue and gold.
7). Controlling the glass
As I mentioned earlier, Indiana is 8th in rebounding the last 10 games. In this particular game, the Pacers out rebounded the Hawks 45-28. Part of that was elite shooting that prevented the Hawks from getting more rebound opportunities, but the group as a whole did a solid job keeping Atlanta from dominating the offensive glass.
Atlanta did outdo the Pacers in offensive rebounds 12-10, but it wasn’t enough to shift the game in their favor. Indiana doesn’t have that one dominant rebounder like they had in Sabonis, but it was a group effort that got the job done. Turner, Toppin and Smith all had 7 rebounds, Jackson had 5 and Nesmith, Nembhard and McConnell had 4. This team effort to rebound is just another example of how playing as a team has helped the Pacers take a step forward the last 10 games.
8). Turnovers pile up, but don’t cost Pacers — will be costly moving forward
As I mentioned in #1, the Pacers had TWENTY-SEVEN turnovers. That is WAY too many for this team to have on a consistent basis. It didn’t cost them against Atlanta, as the Pacers were still able to score more points off turnovers (28-22), but when they play more competent teams across the league without Haliburton, those turnovers will come back to bite them.
Mathurin struggled to protect the ball in this game, as he had a team high 5 turnovers and a majority of them were just careless. Nembhard had 4, which is too high for the position he is playing as the team’s starting ball handler, but with greater responsibilities the likelier chance there is to turn it over. The Pacers are 15th in the NBA in turnovers with 13.7 per game. Doubling that in one game against a putrid defense is concerning and something that can’t happen moving forward, with or without Tyrese.
9). A perfect night for Obi Toppin
Since moving to a backup power forward role, we are seeing a different level of play from Obi Toppin. I am not sure if the benching was a wake up call or if the new defensive system is forcing him to play a different style then he did in the first part of the year, but no matter what it was, there is no denying the growth we have seen from Toppin.
Competing against another bouncy power forward who can shoot from outside in Jalen Johnson, Obi outplayed him in 11 less minutes. Toppin finished the game a perfect 7-7 from the field, tied for a team high 18 points (Buddy Hield), had 7 rebounds, 4 assists and was a +10. Over the last 10 games, Toppin is a +37 and continues to prove why he is a solid fit with this team.
10). Another strong 3rd quarter
The Pacers allowed the Hawks to get back into the game at the end of the 2nd quarter, cutting the lead to 4 before Brown hit a floater at the buzzer to improve the Pacers lead to 6. Momentum was beginning to shift in the favor of Atlanta, but Indiana regrouped at halftime and came out with a punch. They outscored Atlanta 31-19.
Indiana pushed their 6 point lead to 12 with 6:02 left in the 3rd. The score was 84-72 and caused Atlanta to call a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Indiana piled on their lead by closing out the quarter on a 15-9 run. This cushion gave Indiana an 18-point lead heading into the 4th quarter.
It was a solid effort across the board, but Nembhard took his game up a notch, scoring 8 points on 3-4 shooting in the 3rd. Myles Turner added 6 points in the quarter, but no other player scored more than 1 basket in the quarter, but 6 more players scored. Awesome ball movement and attacking the weaknesses of the Hawks defense.