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    • Pacers injuries derail defense against lowly Raptors
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    Pacers injuries derail defense against lowly Raptors

    Umito Posted on

    The Pacers entered Monday’s game without six players who were part of their extended rotation early in the season and they gave two players their first NBA starts. That put the Pacers behind the eight, even against a Toronto Raptors team that was also missing six players and had lost seven straight games.

    Forward RJ Barrett scored 39 points and center Jakob Poeltl had 30 points and 16 rebounds to lead the Raptors to a 130-119 victory over the Pacers on Monday night at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

    The Pacers have lost four of their last six games and fell to 6-8 overall with two games remaining on this road trip. The Raptors improved to 3-12.

    Here are five observations.

    The Pacers’ missing defenders were too difficult to overcome

    The Pacers were sufficiently short-handed defensively before Monday with backup centers Isaiah Jackson and James Wiseman out long-term with torn Achilles tendons and their two best perimeter defenders on the board, forward Aaron Nesmith (sprain left ankle) and guard Andrew Nembhard (knee). tendonitis).

    But on Monday, they found out that Ben Sheppard — a 6-6 second-year wing — would be out with an oblique muscle strain. Then they found out that center Myles Turner, who scored 34 points and grabbed nine rebounds Sunday, would also be out with right calf soreness.

    So the Pacers entered Monday without arguably their three best perimeter defenders and their best shot blocker of all time. The resulting problems were obvious and predictable.

    Nesmith would have kept Barrett, listed at 6-6, 214 pounds. And Sheppard would have had it if he was still healthy. Instead, Pascal Siakam drew the assignment and others, including Bennedict Mathurin and Obi Toppin, picked it up throughout the match. Barrett made 13 of 21 baskets, including 4 of 8 from 3-point range. Of his nine 2s, only one was outside the paint and he was able to drive his way to the lane for just about anything he wanted. When the Raptors needed someone to put the game away late, they turned to Barrett, who scored 15 points in the fourth quarter on 5-of-6 shooting, knocking down 5-of-8 free throws.

    They had even less of a defensive solution for 7-foot, 245-pound Jakob Poeltl. With Turner (and obviously Jackson and Wiseman) out, they started rookie Enrique Freeman at center. The Pacers have been pleased with Freeman’s energy considering he was the No. 50 pick in the draft, but he’s still 6-7 and 214 pounds.

    The Pacers’ other defensive option for Poeltl was Toppin, 6-9 and 220 pounds, who has always been a better offensive player than defensively. And anyone who turned to Poeltl never really had a chance. He scored his 30 points on 13 of 18 shots. Every shot he took was within 10 feet of the basket.

    The Pacers had other defensive problems. They lost shooters in stampedes. Gradey Dick scored 15 points with three 3-pointers; Ochai Agbaji hit a pair and scored 11 points and two-way player Jamison Battle knocked down three open 3s for nine points. The Raptors’ leading scorers were too physical for the Pacers’ remaining defenders. Toronto scored 66 points in the paint. It was 48 of 82 from the floor (58.5%) and 14 of 29 from 3-point range (48.3%). Only one of their 2-point baskets and three of their 2-point attempts came from outside the lane. This is the sign of a Pacers defense that has been controlled.

    Moses Brown can’t join the Pacers fast enough

    The Pacers have not indicated how long Myles Turner might be out, but the fact that they finally signed a free agent center 17 days after Isaiah Jackson tore his Achilles tendon suggests reinforcements suddenly seemed more necessary. The news came less than a half hour after it was announced that former UCLA center Moses Brown, who played 150 NBA games with six teams, was close to signing a contract. free agent in hopes of being able to rejoin the team Wednesday in Houston. Brown is 7-2 and the fact that the Pacers didn’t have anyone over 6-9 available had a lot to do with the Raptors winning the rebounding battle 46-32.

    The Pacers’ centers for the night – Freeman and Toppin – combined for six rebounds, with Toppin playing 31 minutes and Freeman 19 minutes. Siakam grabbed 10 rebounds and Mathurin had five but no one else had more than four.

    Toppin had an excellent offensive performance, scoring 19 points on 8 of 13 shots including 3 of 8 at 3 points and he even distributed five assists. However, he only averages 3.0 rebounds per game.

    Ball pressure kept the Pacers in the game

    Although the Pacers gave up more points to the Raptors than in Friday’s 124-111 loss to the Heat, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle wasn’t as unhappy with the defensive effort following Monday’s loss . This is obviously because this defeat is much more due to the personnel available than to the level of effort deployed.

    Carlisle was particularly pleased with the Pacers’ ball pressure, which resulted in a game-high 17 steals and a game-high 23 forced turnovers. The Pacers turned those turnovers into 24 points and scored 22 points on quick blocks.

    The pressure was at its peak when the Pacers had their reserves on the court. Veteran point guard TJ McConnell and two-way guard Quenton Jackson, making the most of his rare opportunity, helped force 10 turnovers in the third quarter. McConnell finished with five interceptions, Tyrese Haliburton also had five and Jackson had two.

    “We increased our pressure and made it harder for them,” Carlisle said. “Earlier in the game, they got a lot of easy shots, shots that weren’t contested. We didn’t play hard enough from the start.”

    McConnell is arguably the Pacers’ best remaining defender. He didn’t start Monday, but played 27 minutes and posted a remarkable +23 plus-minus on a night when all five starters were -12 or worse.

    It was another reminder of Tyrese Haliburton’s limitations

    The Raptors, it should be noted, were also very shorthanded. They were missing six players, including All-Star forward Scottie Barnes, their franchise player. Despite everything they lacked, the Pacers had their top three scorers in Haliburton, Siakam and Mathurin. It’s not uncommon for teams to lean on their superstars and win on a night where their depth is thin.

    But those three weren’t enough and that was mainly because Haliburton’s production was pedestrian at best. Siakam had 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Mathurin led the Pacers with 28 points, on 10 of 16 shooting including 4 of 6 from 3-point range. He had 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting, including 2-of-2 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.

    Haliburton scored 16 points, but he was just 5 of 18 from the floor and 2 of 9 from beyond the arc. He recorded five steals and two blocks in an impressive defensive performance by his standards, but he only had four assists and the Pacers were -15 in his 39 minutes.

    The performance was a reminder – and a worrying one given the circumstances – for the Pacers of the limits of Haliburton’s ability to carry them, especially when his 3-point shot isn’t going down.

    Haliburton is not built – neither physically nor philosophically – to settle for 30 points come hell and high water on nights when his team is shorthanded. He can get to the rim and he has a solid mid-range game beyond his outside shooting, so his game isn’t entirely limited to the 3. But he doesn’t bounce off contact or commit fouls like Luka Doncic, Jalen Brunson, James Harden or even RJ Barrett would do it and he’s also not looking for 25-30 field goal attempts per night, especially when the 3 is the case. I don’t fall.

    The Pacers might like to be able to count on Haliburton to get 30 with as many players as they’re missing, but that’s unlikely to happen, especially since he’s lucky to find his range. All of his shooting and scoring numbers are down as he averages 16.1 points per shot while shooting 38.3% from the floor and 28.8% from 3-point range, which would be by far the worst in career if they hold out. That’s not to say Haliburton won’t have better scoring and shooting nights than Monday, but as they figure out the equation it will take to win without Nesmith, Nembhard, Sheppard and maybe even Turner in the near future, they cannot assume monster performances from Haliburton.

    Bennedict Mathurin could be up for another explosive performance

    Bennedict Mathurin was 2 of 10 from 3-point range in his last 3 games after making 7 of 9 3s against the Knicks during his 38-point effort on November 10. He doubled that result Monday with four 3s on six attempts. He took smart shots and his operation looked clean.

    The fact that he scored 17 points in the fourth while the Pacers were mostly facing a double-digit deficit might suggest he was scoring at a lower difficulty level, but he still had the killer look he had shown during this Knicks game. If the Pacers are without Sheppard, Nembhard and Nesmith for the rest of the week, he’ll need to play a lot of minutes and if Haliburton is out, they’ll need a lot of points from him as well.

    Umito
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