Pacers can't grab boards, or a win, in Houston

MY OFFICE, Ind. – Finally back in my usual sitting location for Pacers road games, I was able to watch Pacers-Rockets on Monday night with more room to take notes and spread out. The Holidays are mostly over, which is a bummer, but Kam Jones played real minutes, Johnny Furphy started again, and the Pacers are kinda getting healthy. What a game for diligent note taking.

Yet half of my notes were the same. They were all about rebounding. As is very predictable against a Rockets team that leads the NBA in offensive rebound rate by a solid margin, the glass became the story early. The Pacers defensive rebounding rate? It ranks 22nd.

I even wrote before the game (in the last paragraph here) about the stylistic challenge the Pacers were about to face. Rebounding was going to be an issue. Don't ask me, ask Lloyd Pierce. The Pacers assistant coach said as much during an interview at halftime of the FanDuel Sports Indiana broadcast of the game.

"Everything we've talked about playing these guys has to do with rebounding," Pierce said. The game was 30-30 in the second quarter before it got out of hand in a hurry. "We've gotta control the pace defensively against these guys."

Circle City Spin

The Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever, up close

Circle City SpinTony East

That's the right focus, but the execution was poor. Houston's first possession? Kevin Durant miss, Steven Adams offensive rebound, Adams dunk. Their next trip? Durant miss, Adams rebound, Adams drawn foul.

80 seconds into the game, head coach Rick Carlisle took Jay Huff off the court and put in Tony Bradley, the Pacers best rebounding center. He solved some problems and could have been more useful if not for his own foul trouble.

So, I took notes. But several of them were about rebounds and the style of the game – and the jotting was more positive about the Rockets. At halftime, Houston had 27 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end. The Pacers had 13 total.

"Keeing Adams off the glass is the first priority," Pierce said. The Rockets play slow and have the third-lowest pace in the NBA. The Pacers are in 13th. Indiana wanted to run, but a rebound is required to do that. Hoston got all of the rebounds.

Adams left the game with an injury in the third quarter. He finished with just five rebounds, but his presence alone forced the Pacers to change their approach on the boards. The second half rebounding battle ended at Rockets 23, Pacers 17. The hosts finished the game with 21 more rebounds and would have run away with the possession battle were it not for a tidy game with few turnovers for the Pacers.

"They're a great rebounding team and we didn't do a good enough job hitting bodies," Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said postgame. He noted that the team has to battle their inconsistent ways – and that's been a problem for the team of late. Not only do they keep losing, but the primary reason for their defeat is different almost every night.

This time, it was primarily the glass. The Rockets made nearly 60% of their shots, the Pacers first-shot defense wasn't good enough. But at the same time, the Pacers made 18 of their 34 three-point attempts. Shots were going through the net for both teams. Only one group was grabbing the missed ones.

These are the rebounds that feel the worst when re-watching the game.

The ball bounced in the lane on both of those plays, and the Rockets still got to them first. You'll look at me and know I didn't play basketball competitively for much of my life, but my last coach would have blown a fuse the first time that happened. The second? Yikes.

Granted, on the first one it appears that every Pacers player doesn't realize that Aaron Nesmith blocked the shot, so they are looking at the rim. On the second one, though, Pascal Siakam loses his man. Those just need to be rebounds the Pacers end up with.

It wasn't all bad. The Pacers made more than half of their outside shots, as noted above. Johnny Furphy popped again, as did Jarace Walker playing in the city where he became a high level NBA prospect in college. Aaron Nesmith looks spry already, and Kam Jones got real rotation minutes. With even a halfway decent rebounding game, the Pacers may have had a chance to win.

Instead, they got smoked on the glass. And they lost their ninth game in a row.

All-Star voting rightly honors Siakam

The first round of fan voting for NBA All-Star starters was announced on Monday early in the afternoon. Naturally, I wanted to see if Pascal Siakam was getting the proper appreciation for his season.

To my surprise a bit, given the Pacers record and market size, the answer is sorta yes. He is in ninth-place when it comes to fan votes in the Eastern Conference after the first round of ballots, coming in at 155,910 votes.

As I covered here, I ultimately don't think Siakam is named an All-Star. It won't be because of his production, though. Round all of Siakam's stats down to the nearest half-a-whatever and you get 23 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game. He's one of just eight guys doing that this season – it's Siakam, then Nikola Jokic, Jalen Johnson, Deni Avdija, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama, and Kawhi Leonard.

Some bums, huh? Only three of those eight guys are in the East, too. But Siakam may be held back by the difficulty that will come with being an international player – it will be hard to be named a replacement player for that team in the current format – and the Pacers record is doing him no favors. Last year, Wembanyama – a one-of-one talent – was the only All-Star who wasn't on a team with a playoff seed when All-Stars were named.

The Pacers... are not in a playoff position. So without many wins between now and the end of January, I would give Siakam somewhat low All-Star odds despite a tremendous season.

Almost everyone is back on the floor

For the first time this season, all five of Andrew Nembhard, Bennedict Mathurin, Aaron Nesmith, T.J. McConnell, and Pascal Siakam played in the same game on Monday night.

That's great news for the Pacers, who at least need to learn something about their Haliburton-less team and its true level ahead of the trade deadline. The more games with their core players the better, especially as they tumble so far down the standings that a few wins won't even hurt their lottery odds all that much.

Ben Sheppard was questionable for Pacers-Rockets as he recovers from a calf injury but didn't play. If he did suit up (or if he does this week), it would have been just the second time this season the Pacers had six of their top nine players from last season available in the same game. Myles Turner and Tyrese Haliburton are impossible, but the other seven are still around. Nembhard, Mathurin, Nesmith, Siakam, Sheppard, and Obi Toppin all played on opening night but only during the first half.

Since then, the Pacers have had five or fewer of their top-nine players from last season available in every game. Perhaps that changes today as they close out the year in search of a win.

Thank you for reading. I started this website this year and it has been a blast so far. I hope you're enjoying reading the stories. For more, subscribe below.