In loss to Orlando Magic, Indiana Pacers issue with fouling exposed again
Is fouling opponents too often a symptom of bad defense, or a cause? That’s the question the Indiana Pacers are trying to answer.
The pacers have struggled defensively in many ways all season. A new system, younger players, poor individual skills and effort — they have all come together and created a team that gives up 121.2 points per 100 possessions, a figure that ranks 28th in the NBA.
It also leads to fouls. And a lot of them. The Pacers are averaging 22.5 per game, which ranks 29th in the NBA. Their opponents take .253 shots from the charity stripe per field goal attempt, the worst figure in the league.
"Teams live at the free throw line against us," Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton said on Saturday night. His team lost to the Orlando Magic by seven points that day, and the Magic crushed Indiana at the charity stripe.
In short, Indiana is far too prone to fouls. There’s a myriad of reasons why that is the case. Saturday, as the blue and gold fell to Orlando, their hacking ways were the difference between winning and losing.
The Pacers sent the Magic to the free throw line 41 times (and only took 13 themselves, a season-high difference). They fouled Orlando 30 times. It was a choppy, slower game. That style alone favored the Magic, which doesn’t even take into account the free throws themselves.
"The free throw differential killed us," Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said after the game. He called it embarrassing.
The NBAs average free throw percentage is 78.8% this season. The Magic are slightly lower at 76.7%. A trip to the stripe yields over 1.5 points per possession, which is eons above the best offense in NBA history.
Fouls are as inefficient as defense gets. They are largely only beneficial when they prevent a play with a higher expected value. Sometimes, that is the case for the Pacers. They concede a ton of shots at the rim — many of those are worth preventing with a hard foul.
Not all of them, though. Several fouls committed by Indiana are out of desperation, or because of a slow defensive rotation. Sometimes, it’s just a handsy gamble. The blue and gold have many factors impacting their ability to avoid fouling.
"I think it's just human nature at times. When you get beat, you throw your hands in there," Pacers center Myles Turner said of his team's foul-prone nature.
When the Pacers played the Magic, they were unqualified to defend cleanly. Orlando had a massive size advantage — sometimes, smaller players had to foul to stay in those matchups. Indiana tried to go big and played two centers together in the first half, but — as one could guess — foul trouble made that plan unsustainable.
The Pacers made more shots than the Magic on Wednesday night. They made more threes and finished with more assists and blocks than Orlando. But they still lost. Fouls are the leading cause, and they are a symptom of the pacers defensive issues. Players are getting beat on the perimeter, and that forces rotations and leads to fouls. Everyone can be better.
"When you're out of position so much and scramble so much, it puts people in bad situations to foul," star guard Tyrese Haliburton said. He believes that his team is out of position often defensively.
Between the Pacers smaller roster, their guarding woes, and defense scheme, fouls are an issue. Some of that is unavoidable given the resources they have. But some of it can be cleaned up with discipline and communication, and the blue and gold must fix that low hanging fruit. It has cost them in too many games.
It also takes them out of their style. Indiana has the second-fastest pace in the NBA — they like to take the ball off the rim and fly around the court when they can. Even after made shots, the blue and gold try to push quickly.
After a free throw, it's difficult to play fast. At least one, sometimes two, defensive players can be back on defense before the final foul shot even goes up. The positioning isn't natural for a transition opportunity. When Indiana opponents are at the foul line all night, it slows the game down in a way that hurts the Pacers.
"Teams live at the free throw line, it's hard to run because it allows them to set up their defense," Haliburton explained.
There are countless reasons why fouling is bad from an efficiency and game flow perspective. All of those reasons impact the Pacers, and in some ways, they impact Indiana more than other teams. Yet the blue and gold foul more often than almost anyone. They need to fix that issue to the best of their abilities if they want to straighten out their record.
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