- Turnovers, missed shots, scoreless Tyrese Haliburton all signs of an exhausted Pacers team.
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Pacers declined multiple opportunities to attribute their abysmal offensive performance in their 112-89 loss to the Trail Blazers on Tuesday as a sign of cumulative exhaustion, knowing it would come off as excuse-making, and also as complaining about getting a team trip to one of the most spectacular cities in human history on their company dime.
“It’s the NBA,” point guard Tyrese Haliburton said. “We’re grown men. We’re adults. We’ve just gotta be better. That’s all there is.”
Coach Rick Carlisle went so far as to say if any team had a right to be tired it was Portland, a squad that had played the night before, had a later start Monday night than the Pacers did and also went to overtime.
“What are we talking here?” Carlisle said. “If anything we should’ve been the team with the advantage even though we travelled. We played earlier and everything else.”
But after the Pacers had won their previous four games, six of their previous seven and 12 of their previous 14, it’s hard to find a better explanation for what went so uncharacteristically wrong Tuesday night than that they hit a wall against a suddenly streaking young team very capable of making a team pay for its fatigue.
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The Pacers were on the second night of a road back-to-back with games in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, but that’s of course only part of the story. They’re still only about 10 days removed from their flight home from Paris after two games there against the San Antonio Spurs and since Jan. 25 they’ve played in four time zones with the earliest being nine hours ahead of the latest. There’s a cumulative effect of that even if the NBA spaced out the Pacers’ schedule last week with recovery time, and there are some parts in the Pacers’ game where it’s clearly making an impact. It wasn’t the only reason the Pacers posted their second-lowest scoring output of the season Tuesday and their lowest score since they had 83 in a loss to the Hornets on Nov. 8, but it certainly had an impact.
Even when they arrived in Utah on Monday their shooting was already off. They made just 10-of-42 3-pointers including 6-of-25 in the first half and needed a stirring comeback from a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat a struggling Jazz team that had lost eight of its previous nine games.
On Tuesday it was even worse, and there were points it got so bad the Pacers effectively abandoned the 3-point shot — the defining weapon of modern basketball offense. They made just 1-of-10 first half 3-pointers. In their more successful second half, they still made just 4-of-14 attempts (28.6%).
In two games on this western trip, they’re 15-of-66 from 3. (22.7%).
“That’s basketball,” forward Pascal Siakam said. “Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t. It happens that they’re not going in right now and it is what it is.”
But what made it worse Tuesday night is the Pacers were dealing with a Blazers team that knows how to make life especially difficult for teams that aren’t making shots.
The Blazers have been dealing with injuries for much of the season and they’re still without guard and two-time All-Defensive team pick Matisse Thybulle. But that’s the only player who was on their injury report.
Portland has a starting lineup with lots of length and lateral quickness, and it’s made its defense stifling. Point guard Anfernee Simons is their only starter under 6-7 as they start three big wings in 6-9 Deni Avdija, 6-7 Jerami Grant and 6-7 Toumani Camara along with 7-foot center DeAndre Ayton. The Blazers have more big bodies off the bench including former Celtics center Robert Williams III — also known as “Time Lord” and owner of a 7-6 wingspan. They’ve won five straight games and nine of their past 10 and just three of their opponents have cracked 110 points in that stretch. No team in the NBA has given up fewer points per game than their past 10 games than their 102.1 per game and no one has a better defensive rating in their past 10 than their 104.7.
The Pacers dealt with an even bigger frontline against Utah on Monday but still managed to work the ball into the lane for 58 points in the paint on 29-of-41 shooting in the lane. The Jazz start two 7-footers but still didn’t contest shots inside with the same amount of ferocity the Blazers did. The Pacers scored 44 points in the paint but shot exactly 50% there, getting four of their shots blocked and more either altered or simply deterred into becoming passes.
“They were very physical, and you have to give them credit,” Carlisle said. “They dictated the physicality of the game.”
They also took one of the Pacers two All-Star, max contract players out of the game entirely. Camara, a late-second round pick in 2023 whose quickly becoming one of the best defenders in the class and one of the best young defenders in the league, was assigned to take on Haliburton in full-court denial mode, and he kept him from making almost any impact on the game whatsoever.
“It all starts with Toumani Camara,” Blazers guard Scoot Henderson said. “… He enjoys those matchups man, to take those 1-on-1s, stick to the best player on their team and just challenge himself to challenge the other guy.”
When teams are that devoted to taking him away that the player guarding him loses all connection with the grander play, Haliburton is usually comfortable operating away from the play and removing his defender from impacting anyone else. Even in those cases, he’s usually at least a little more aggressive than he was Tuesday. However, Haliburton was scoreless, attempting just three field goals and one 3-pointer and missing all of them. He managed six assists, but also turned the ball over twice and was -23 in the 24 minutes and 44 seconds he was on the floor. Camara, meanwhile, was +33 in 35:30.
It was just the fourth time Haliburton has been held under double-digit scoring since Dec. 8 and the first time he’s been held scoreless since Oct. 25 against the Knicks.
“I could have done a better job hunting the ball and making the right plays,” Haliburton said. “It was a poor game for me.”
It was also a poor game for the Pacers collectively in terms of handling the basketball. After giving the ball away just nine times against the Jazz, they committed 19 turnovers Tuesday, their fifth-highest figure this season and their highest since they committed 21 turnovers on Dec. 3 in a loss to the Raptors. The Blazers recorded 11 steals and turned turnovers into 28 points to the Pacers’ 12.
The Pacers rank 10th in the NBA for fewer turnovers per game with 13.7, so Tuesday’s performance counts as out-of-character. But it made for a terribly inefficient evening. The Pacers already shot just 42% from the floor and with those wasted possessions they finished with 0.93 points per possession.
“They were aggressive,” Siakam said. “They played harder. Some of the turnovers were just careless. That’s not usually us, so I’m just going to take it as that and just fix it.”
It all suggests a team that is a little dead-legged and losing focus. The Pacers couldn’t deny Tuesday night they fit those descriptions.
“We just kinda got hit over the head tonight,” Pacers center Myles Turner said. “… Second night of a back-to-back, guys just missed shots. Call it what it is, heavy legs, travel, whatever you want to call it. There’s no excuses in this league. We kinda just got hit over the head with the schedule.”
But they also acknowledge that comes with the territory and they don’t have a choice but to get right quickly. They get Wednesday to relax, but will be back at it Thursday against the Clippers on one side of Los Angeles, then on Saturday against the Lakers on another side of town with an apparently real possibility that Luka Doncic will make his Lakers debut.
“I know we’re tired, but at the end of the day, in this league, there’s no excuses,” Turner said. “You gotta show up and put your hard hat on and go to work. Plenty of people wake up at 6 a.m. and go to work when they’re tired. We kinda got the same responsibility.”
