3 takeaways as the Indiana Pacers lose to Portland Trail Blazers and drop third-straight game
The Indiana Pacers are in their second slump of the season. The team lost four of its first five games, but then recovered and won in nine of their next 11 outings.
Now, the team is back to its early-season form and has once again lost four out of five. This time, though, it feels different as the team has been blown out in all four losses — each of them has come by at least 14 points.
The most recent of those losses came early tonight in Portland where the Trail Blazers beat the Pacers 116-100. Indiana was without Tyrese Haliburton and T.J. McConnell, the team's normal point guards on a standard night, so they were significantly undermanned and not expected to win, especially with superstar Damian Lillard returning from injury. But the team still lacked life, especially in the second half.
"We gave up too many second chance opportunities, open threes," Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said after the game, per Bally Sports Indiana.
The Pacers were already struggling, so the injuries made a victory nearly impossible. Their offense was much slower than usual, and they had trouble getting into the paint at their normal frequency — they finished with a season-low 12 free-throw attempts.
Indiana will hope there aren't too many long-term takeaways from a game in which they were missing an All-Star talent and his immediate backup. But there were some short-term makeaways the team must be mindful of.
Indiana has lost their groove from long-range.
The Pacers were without their best shot creator in Haliburton, and he is a quality three-point shooter as well. Naturally, the team couldn't knock down many threes and canned just 10/33. It was their second fewest in a game this season.
However, that accuracy is reflective of a current trend for the team. In the Pacers' last ten games, they have exceeded the league average three-point percentage (35.6%) just twice.
Indiana has lost some of its offensive mojo, and they need to find it. They attempt the fourth-most threes per game in the league, so recapturing long-range accuracy is a must for the blue and gold.
Point guard play is important.
Having a floor general is important in the NBA. Everybody knows that. But it becomes even more obvious just how necessary it is when a team doesn't have point guard depth available.
Without Haliburton or McConnell, the Pacers started Andrew Nembhard at the one spot. He did well by scoring 16 points and tossing eight assists, which was a solid follow up to his double-double on Friday. But the blue and gold had no other point guards available, so they struggled mightily when Nembhard sat.
At first, head coach Rick Carlisle tried to use James Johnson as a point forward. That didn't work, and the team lost Johnson's 3:57 of playing time by 12 points. Later on in the game, Carlisle turned to multi-guard lineups with Bennedict Mathurin, Buddy Hield, and Trevelin Queen, the latter of which is a two-way contract player who was making his season debut.
Nothing really worked for the Pacers. They had just 22 assists, their lowest total since opening night. Without a floor general, the offense was slow and stagnant.
Myles Turner had another solid game.
Something that has elevated Myles Turner's stats this season is his ability to flush bad games and respond to them with impressive outings. He hasn't done that consistently in the past.
On Wednesday, Turner had just four points and six rebounds in a loss to the Sacramento Kings. But on Friday, he had 18 points in Utah, and tonight he finished with 24 points and nine rebounds against the Trail Blazers. He led the team in scoring and shooting percentage.
Turner has been great for Indiana all season long, and they actually outscored Portland by one point with the big man on the court despite the blowout loss. He continues to find ways to succeed and not get too low, even after bad nights.
The Pacers next travel to the Bay Area to take on the defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors on Monday night.
- League source tells AllPacers the latest on Chris Duarte's ankle injury. CLICK HERE.
- Former Pacers All-Star center Domantas Sabonis on the Indiana Pacers: 'They're having a great season'. CLICK HERE.
- Inside Tyrese Haliburton's return to Sacramento and the emotions behind the game. CLICK HERE.
- Report: Los Angeles Clippers interested in Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner. CLICK HERE.
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