Pacers show they can win ugly in season opener (Patreon)

Notes from navigating an uneven start to the season in Detroit

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

In a 115-109 win that saw the Pacers trail by as a many as 12 points and featured 13 lead changes, it was almost like two different life stages were on display. At one end of the spectrum, the Pistons were a bit like a rambunctious toddler, suddenly growing stronger and more confident in their newfound stability, even if they ultimately struggled to maintain it. At the other end of the spectrum, meanwhile, despite how much the word "continuity" was used in the run-up to the season opener, the Pacers started out the game appearing somewhat disjointed, as their age in team years manifested not so much in experience but rather hesitancy, avoiding areas on the court where their footing perhaps wouldn't feel as secure.

Just take a look at this possession from the first half. The Pacers call this play "two side," as the ball not-so-coincidentally typically changes sides of the floor multiples times. Beginning with an Iverson-like cut from wing-to-wing over a pair of slightly staggered screens, the action then flows into an empty ball-screen, with options to reject and attack baseline or hit the screener slipping out into space. More often, though, if those reads aren't available, or when Tyrese Haliburton is the primary ball-handler, the ball gets swung back to the middle of the floor for the star guard to attack into a tilted defense. The only problem is, in this case, he ended up being more off-kilter than the coverage.

That's because, in contrast to his shot, which went haywire before ultimately clinching the game to put the Pacers up 113-107 with 21 seconds to play, he's waiting for the next part of the play to develop in a way that it just never did. As a counter, if the defense plays the middle ball-screen in drop coverage, then the screener is supposed to screen away for the player at the weak-side wing so as to pin the tag in what they refer to as "smash" action or veer. Of course, just as the Pistons are a young team interspersed by veterans, the Pacers, at least in that moment, were an experienced team having to rely on youth. After James Wiseman went down in the first quarter with a left calf injury on a night when Isaiah Jackson wasn't available, Indiana had few options but to call on rookie, two-way player Enrique Freeman to man the middle as part of a lineup that was already attempting to jell while reincorporating Bennedict Mathurin and adding Jarace Walker. Turns out, with Mathurin and Freeman unable to come to terms on how to shake loose from the top-locking coverage, the former ended up getting whistled for applying the pressure uphill with his hands that the ball never managed to generate downhill.

It was that kind of night, choppy both within possessions and from possession-to-possession, as the Pacers had to overcome shying away from the lumps and bumps in their path against a team that certainly wasn't shy. Here's what stood out from the uneven win.

Combating boredom on the boards

In the first half, the Pacers gave up 13 second-chance points to the Pistons. For frame of reference, that only happened five times last season. On one particularly egregious possession, Ron Holland misfired from deep and the ball hit the ground before he simply collected his own miss, largely, because Obi Toppin was already heading the other way after running through the closeout. On another possession, Myles Turner never established inside position, as Jalen Duren easily pulled down the rebound, which was contested only by proximity as opposed to ferocity.

That changed in the second half. In addition to knocking down every shot in sight while scoring 16 of the team's 33 third-quarter points, Turner could be seen boxing out Isaiah Stewart to such an extent that he actually ended up drawing a foul, resulting in a boisterous celebration from him headed the other way along with a very mindful, very demure clinching of fists from Andrew Nembhard.

There aren't any stats to include as to how many times that exact sequence has occurred in Turner's career, but the number likely isn't high. At any rate, here's a fun fact: Stewart and Duren only combined for one offensive rebound in the second half.  

"Their defense has been stellar"

Less than a minute later, that was a sentence that was actually said on the opposing broadcast about the defense played by the Indiana Pacers. At that point, the Pacers were on an 11-0 run, which began with this stop. After slowing down the ball in semi-transition, notice the response when Haliburton is left alone on the right side of the floor with Cunningham.

He doesn't get left alone, right? Nembhard immediately pounces, forcing the ball out of his hands into what becomes a missed three from Jaden Ivey. With the roles reversed, that's a change from the prior three possessions, in which Cunningham had proceeded to walk the ball into the post, turning over his left shoulder against both Nembhard and Nesmith for hook shots and step-backs without anyone coming to double in what was another example of reticence as they toiled over how far to stray from shooters. (As a brief aside, imagine writing that sentence a year ago about the Pistons while writing about the defense for the Pacers being described as "stellar." Wild stuff!) Granted, the Pacers didn't come up with the rebound in the above-shown clip after rotating out of the double-team, but they forced Detroit's coaching staff to call a timeout and no points were scored coming out of the huddle.

Then, there was also this possession, in which Turner maintained the edge of the defense, only peeling off to the corner after Cunningham attempted to create separation with his off arm. Then, with active hands, Haliburton knocked the ball away without requiring help, as Nembhard took up root against the stockier Stewart under the basket.

In that way, while they certainly didn't take the correct steps in every possession, they were generally better at standing their ground for stops when they were at least sure and fully committed to what steps they were taking in connection to each other.

Sophomore Switcheroo

After playing 6:21 in the first half, Jarace Walker never entered the game after halftime. Ben Sheppard, meanwhile, never played prior to halftime, but logged 6:18 of action in the second half. While that may seem like a one-for-one swap, the decision between which of them played likely had as much to do with the context of the game as merely playing one of them over the other.

Remember, that 11-0 run? Well, it ended with a layup from Cunningham, followed by this possession.

After getting snagged and staying snagged with a rookie playing too deep as the ball-side anchor, Mathurin came out of the game and was replaced by Sheppard, who immediately took up the assignment against Ivey. That way, if the Pacers switched on the Ivey-Cunningham guard-to-guard screens (see: above), they would still (theoretically) have someone to slither over the top in hard rearview pursuit against Cunningham. As it was, Cunningham ended up drilling a shot against Sheppard to close the quarter against that switch without calling for a subsequent screen. Still, Sheppard was the more natural fit to play that role under the given circumstances, and regardless of the rotation carousel between him and Walker (who admittedly had a few hiccups), the substitution quietly seemed to have a latent effect on Mathurin.

Closing Time

With Nesmith picking up his fourth foul with seven minutes to play in the third quarter, Mathurin's scoring got the nod in the closing lineup with Haliburton, Nembhard, Siakam, and Turner, as he ended up playing the entire fourth quarter. And, here's the thing: He wasn't just scoring. In addition to tallying 14 points in the frame while getting to the line at will, he provided a stark contrast to his defense earlier in the game and especially by comparison to the majority of preseason. Think back to when he allowed Desmond Bane to drive all the way to the rim with his strong hand without putting even the slightest bend in his driving angle in the loss to Memphis. Now, look at this wide-angled finish from Cunningham, who quickly runs out of real-estate with Nembhard lurking in the paint.

At the other end of the floor, Mathurin wasn't just reinforcing his point from All-Star weekend, in which he boldly proclaimed that Ivey can't guard him; he was also making hustle plays like this, saving the Pacers from themselves in saving the ball.

Again, that's quite the contrast from the first half, when the ball was bouncing on the floor without anyone collecting the rebound. As poetic as it was for Haliburton to be better late than never, turning his first three of the night into a big, late-game dagger, this was anything but an artful finish (apologies to T.J. McConnell's nearly flawless finishing, of course.) Otherwise, beyond overcoming the first-half bumps from the Pistons, the Pacers also had to overcome their own lumps, including some uncharacteristic decision-making faux paus from the starting back-court that resulted in offensive fouls and bad passes where other easily accessible options were available. Still, for a team that went just 4-15 in games last season when they shot below 30 percent from three, they found a way to outlast their opponent, holding the Pistons to just 19 fourth-quarter points, rather than solely being dependent on outrunning them.

As such, while there may not been many glimmers of hot girl basketball, the Pacers showed, at least for this game against a mostly young and rambunctious Pistons team, that they can win ugly, perhaps preparing themselves for the twists and turns of the season by leveling out, and coming to eventually embrace, the unevenness.