Bennedict Mathurin is stepping into his power (Patreon)

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By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper 

Bennedict Mathurin scored 26 points against the Milwaukee Bucks. At times, he was slow and methodical, starting with the ball at his right hip and sweeping it low in front of his defender to clear up enough space to operate out of the corner from a standstill. At other times, he was quick and responsive, stopping on a dime and snatching back for a step-back three or putting together a dribble combination move just slick enough to grease his path to the front of the rim. He cleanly stepped into a jump-shot in transition, just as he was also buttery, snaking in front of the screener for a pull-up two. He was the author of his own usage, crashing from the wing for rebounds as if he had been embodied by the spirit of prime Lance Stephenson. He recycled his own miss, despite the presence of multiple bodies in the paint. He cut behind the exaggerated help that was being shown to Tyrese Haliburton at the nail, and he calmly knocked down two free throws during crunch-time that gave the Pacers a three-point edge with under 10 seconds to play.

He was both singular and complementary, without overthinking what move to make or where to move the ball, and none of that matters or stands out near as much as what happened at the other end of the floor, particularly over the final seven minutes of the game. First of all, take note that he was actually on the floor during the final seven minutes of the game. That wasn't the case in the first match-up with Cleveland, when after getting cooked by Caris LeVert and losing track of Max Strus, he didn't play for the entire fourth quarter, as the current starters were largely replaced by last season's starters, only with Bruce Brown in place of Buddy Hield. Less than a week later, he watched from the sidelines yet again in another win over Cleveland, as he was replaced by Hield, with Haliburton making a big late-game shot and Turner collecting a huge, potentially game-saving block. Likewise, the status quo remained the same against the Hornets, with the career-game for Haliburton and a 50-point third quarter ultimately being squandered in the wake of several miscues. Overall, prior to the win over Milwaukee, Mathurin had averaged fewer fourth-quarter minutes as a starter (6.8), than he did last season as a rookie coming off the bench (8.8).

And, here's the thing, it hasn't been without reason. There was a prolonged stretch in the first game against the Cavs in which he was guarding no one, only to be followed up by a possession in which he got back-cut twice by two different players.

A few plays later, he got knocked off the scent chasing the sharpshooter around a pair of staggered pindowns for three, and after putting no pressure on the ball in transition, he gave Strus enough cushion to deliver an easy assist to Evan Mobley as a rim-runner. At that point, Rick Carlisle called for a timeout with 8:55 to go in the third quarter. Mathurin stayed on for a few extra minutes and converted a couple of tough shots, but he eventually exited at the 5:53 mark and never returned.

Of course, most of what the Pacers are doing on defense is quite different this season. When defending 1-5 ball-screens, the aim is to guard the pick-and-roll two-versus-two. If the on-ball defender can't get back in front by the time the ball breaks the free throw line, then they are supposed to late-switch, veering into the legs of the roll-man with the big absorbing the ball. Everything else is geared around limiting three-point attempts. They don't have the same early and aggressive presence at the nail as last season, the low-man isn't as overzealous in providing help, they generally funnel the ball middle instead of pushing the action to the sideline, and they are largely resistant to double-teaming, even to the point of staying the course with Haliburton getting bullied repeatedly by the Bulls or Giannis Antetokounmpo going off for 40+ points before making an adjustment, so as to keep themselves out of rotation. Taken altogether, they are trying to instill a mentality of pursuing and taking pride in defending individual match-ups.

Thus far, the early returns have largely been a reflection of what can come across like being thrown out to sea without a life preserver, as they currently rank dead-last in paint-points allowed and opponent rim frequency, as well as 25th in points allowed per chance defending picks, while simultaneously locking down the arc -- staying home on the corners and holding opponents to the lowest rate of above-the-break three-point attempts. It's possible some of those numbers are skewed by the blowout loss to Boston in which the Pacers gave up the second-most points in franchise history, but they actually surrendered the fewest paint-points of the season in that particular drubbing, as they instead allowed what they typically discourage.

For a team lacking in both wing-sized wings and stout on-ball defenders, they oftentimes end up giving up a ton of mismatches around the basket, whether on the glass or the roll. That's why the defense tends to look more tenable when Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith are both on the floor, with Nesmith cross-matched onto opposing fives and switching out to the ball while the big guards the corners and kicks out the smaller defender. The only problem is, there is still typically a weak-link to be found somewhere.

Or, at least there was, until that very same weak-link, who had to be shoved in order to snap to attention, suddenly transformed into a crunch-time stopper, taking a big step forward in stepping into his latent power as a defender. With 3:40 remaining in the third quarter, Giannis Antetokounmpo had amassed 42 points and 13 free throw attempts for the game, largely against single coverage. At that point, when the one-man wrecking crew checked back into the game, the Pacers finally decided to mix in some half-court trapping and double teams to get the ball out of his hands. After some initial success resulting in a pair of turnovers and a stop, Giannis started beating the traps by attacking the bigger defender and still drawing fouls. In that regard, the Bucks did the Pacers a favor by no longer calling Brook Lopez into the action as the screener, which meant that Myles Turner -- after surrendering a lefty drive and getting split -- also was no longer involved in the action as the screener defender.

Of course, the pivot from Giannis-Lopez screening action to Giannis-Middleton screening action meant that Mathurin was going to have to sink-or-swim, albeit with a life preserver in the form of Bruce Brown as an extra defender that never came when LeVert started heating up against him and was getting LeVengeance. Even so, Mathurin absorbed the body bump from Giannis and still managed to be quick enough with his hands to strip the ball.

Not once, but twice!

That's a stunning turnaround from where he was as an on-ball defender even just two weeks ago, and it came with his team clinging to a one-point lead against one of the best players in the world; and yet, he was almost even more revelatory when the action was reversed, with Khris Middleton as the ball-handler. When he got switched onto Giannis under the basket, he remained alert as the back-stop, trapping the box while staying vertical to make up for the reach from Brown that enabled the 34-year-old scorer to get middle.

Moreover, after Middleton walked him into the post and turned over his left shoulder to can a pull-up jumper in the lane, Mathurin made the adjustment to force him baseline and stay in front, sitting on his left hip and preventing him from replicating the same formula. This time, with only the faint hint of Turner lurking in the background, as opposed to the all-out hard traps and doubles that were being sent at Giannis.

Just as a refresher, this was all of six days ago, when Gordon Hayward was sliding to the block and dispensing of Mathurin in the post against single-coverage.

Granted, with the Hornets setting an off-ball screen and re-screen by the same player for the same cutter, the options for doubling were trickier than what would've been the case on that more static play against Milwaukee. But, that's also sort of the point. Mathurin didn't begin to turn Hayward; if anything, Hayward turned him, and he did more of the same against Haliburton in the second half. Mathurin was more disciplined in his approach against Middleton, but the specter of help in the lane also may have served to keep the canny scorer off-balance. Meanwhile, when he switched off from Middleton onto Lopez, he didn't protect against the potential slip, which might've been open with an overhead pass, but he kept the bigger body off the glass.

So, in one seven-minute stretch, he stripped the ball from Giannis (twice!), he stayed in front of and rotated to Middleton, and he boxed-out Lopez. Some of the lapses he can demonstrate away from the ball weren't readily tested, as far as his tendency to have a strong initial thrust and relax, nor was his ability to impact passes to the roll-man after switching, but he manufactured critical stops even as he was also manufacturing points, very notably as organically as ever, at the other end.

From where he was at the start of the season, when he wasn't closing games (either as a product of his shot against Chicago or, in most cases, his defense) to staying on the floor when the game was en route to being decided and playing an instrumental role in deciding it, he revealed what he's capable of as a two-way player and so too maybe did the Pacers as some semblance of a two-way team.

Just as his growth is and likely will continue to be incremental, perhaps the same should and will apply to the coverage, amplifying what strides he's making in giving the game what it needs while also quietly supporting him with the very same, flexible intention, regarding how much help to send and when, in the shadows of his sudden emergence and the expectations that should now follow.