The Pacers are still winging it against wings (Patreon)

Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards weren't the first forward/wings to score in bulk against the Pacers, and they likely won't be the last -- unless and until something changes 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper 

The Minnesota Timberwolves scored 128.3 points per 100 possessions against the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night, which ranks in the 88th percentile of all games this season. The Pacers were without Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, and Jalen Smith, and it was the second night of a back-to-back for a team that was late to arrive in Minneapolis due to travel issues and hasn't played at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in nearly two weeks. All of that context matters and should be taken into consideration, but so should the fact that Karl-Anthony Towns went on a rampage out of simple post actions, tallying a season high of 40 points to go with 37 from Anthony Edwards, who was on fire in isolation. Put simply, the Pacers had no reliable answers for either player, and they haven't had reliable answers against interchangeable forwards and wings for most of the season.

Just look at this list of players at those positions who have notched season or career-high marks against the Pacers through the first 24 games:

• Karl-Anthony Towns - 40 points, season high 
• Giannis Antetokounmpo - 64 points, season high and franchise record (previous season-high of 54 points also came against the Pacers)
• Jimmy Butler - 36 points, tied season high
• Jaime Jaquez Jr. - 24 points, season and career high 
• De'Anthony Melton - 30 points, season high
• Evan Mobley - 33 points, season high

Moreover, while not season or career-high performances, Anthony Edwards (37), Pascal Siakam (36), Jerami Grant (34), Jayson Tatum (32), and Kyle Kuzma (31) all also dropped over 30 on the Pacers. Granted, that rundown includes several All-Stars as well as a former MVP (i.e. these guys are good!), but there also appears to be at least some degree of vanity sizing that comes along with  playing the Pacers, particularly at warp speed and with the added benefit of extra possessions, for players of this size. That said, the game against Minnesota was one of the slowest, in terms of pace, that the Pacers have played this season. Unlike what happened the night before in Washington, this wasn't a case of two teams merging both ends of the floor together into a single, frenetic blur; it was a steady stream of bully ball, with certain stretches looking as though they needed to be accompanied by a "must be this tall to enter" sign at an amusement park.

On two possessions in a row, Towns dispelled of Nesmith's scrappiness at the end of the first quarter, and when he came out of the game, Naz Reid took over where he left off. 

Jarace Walker, meanwhile, played a season high of 24 minutes and got a few sporadic chances at the match-up while sprinkling in some creative passes throughout his playing time, but he didn't exactly look ready to put up a stop sign against the All-Star forward. At one point, he compromised the defense with his tendency to gamble, and he also attempted to front the post with his toes in, for reasons that are unclear.

This is fine, he's a rookie and rookies make mistakes, but if the argument is that the Pacers struggled to contain Edwards and Towns mainly because of fatigue, Walker should be anything but fatigued, given that he's only logged 10 or more minutes four times this season.

Another possible angle is that the Pacers might've been fine exchanging these types of post scores for threes, if Haliburton had been available. That's possible, but Buddy Hield has very notably shot 4-of-20 from deep over the last three games, and the Pacers have gone 1-7 this season (including the IST finals loss) when shooting below 30 percent on three-point attempts. Shooters go through slumps, but there's no sugarcoating how much of an indictment it is that, in two of those last three games, Hield has been tasked with punching above his weight class on defense with Giannis and Kuzma as his primary assignments. As strange as it may seem at first blush, it makes sense -- at least for that lineup. Obi Toppin and Myles Turner got worked in single coverage against Giannis in the prior two games against Milwaukee, and the Pacers needed Bruce Brown to defend Damian Lillard at the point of attack. That leaves Haliburton and Hield. Of those two, Hield is sturdier and less important to kick-starting basically everything on offense. 

Plus, by comparison to his own standard, he's quietly held his head above water in a handful of instances when he seemed destined to sink. Here, for example, he's switches from Scottie Barnes to O.G. Anunoby and ultimately knocks the ball away from Dennis Schröder on the drive.  

Not bad, right? Well, he's still had some other "not great" moments that have resulted in him being immediately subbed out, such as when he got caught trying to duck under a screen against Jerami Grant and then never managed to square himself to the ball after jumping on a pump fake. In that regard, these types of assignments are too much to ask -- not only as it pertains to his defensive capabilities but also with respect to the potential for him to get worn down over time. 

And yet, to watch an opponent isolate against him in space and intentionally call for a screen to go at Obi Toppin, it becomes understandable as to why the Pacers are matching up as they are.

Toppin deserves credit for staying down and using his length to disrupt some of Jimmy Butler's process in the second game against Miami, and he certainly builds out the team's strengths in transition and with his play-finishing as a cutter, but the Pacers have been outscored during his minutes and he's the only starter for which that applies.

None of which is to mention that, what was almost more troubling against Minnesota is that other options were also open, even as the Pacers were getting overwhelmed by Towns and Edwards. Consider this baseline out of bounds play, for example. As Towns pops off the screens for the catch against Toppin, Mike Conley simultaneously wheels around a pair of middle pindowns.

When Toppin gets beat on the perimeter, T.J. McConnell stays put in the paint to wall off Towns. The only problem is, Towns scores over both of them and Conley is also wide open at the top of the key.

Likewise, there was a similar occurrence in the third quarter out of this horns formation. When Towns comes off the flare screen from Rudy Gobert at the elbow, this could be a hand-off to play through Edwards coming up out of the corner.

Or, he could've kicked the ball to the corner for an open three. 

Instead, he got past Toppin and then scored around Turner with Brown also pulled over to help.

To that point, Towns wasn't just backing down the Pacers, he was also collapsing the defense and working them over from the outside. And, here's the thing: This is a much different response from what went down in the finals of the In-Season Tournament, when the Lakers scored 86 points in the paint, while only attempting 13 threes. Following that loss, it was reasonable to ask why Toppin was picking LeBron up this far from the basket while everyone else stayed affixed to the perimeter, with two defenders having their backs turned to the ball and Turner keeping a hand on Anthony Davis.

For context, Davis has attempted a grand total of nine corner threes over the last three seasons, which is why this was preferable -- apparently? 

What happened against Minnesota wasn't that, and the Pacers were undermanned at the end of an unprecedented road trip, but they also set a new precedent, as far as uncovering other options, while continuing the ongoing trend of giving up season highs to bigger, interchangeable forwards. It's possible that Walker will eventually grow into being part of the solution. Some of his instincts as an off-ball defender were better than what he's shown in other extended minutes this season. But, he isn't there yet, and even when he gets to the undefinable "there," he isn't going to be able to guard Towns and Edwards, with Towns and Edwards representing any teams with multiple scorers of this size and capability, at the same time. 

Again, none of this is new, but at some point, the approach of continuing to wing it on defense with makeshift versions of wings, needs to get old -- especially if Tyrese Haliburton continues to play like an MVP candidate, soaring without the balance that he and the team need at the other end of the floor to really takeoff.