Pacers offense fell flat late vs Knicks, ruining otherwise better performance
The Pacers, for the second time in three games, had their offense crumble late in a close loss.
INDIANAPOLIS – It was deja-vu for the Pacers against the Knicks on Thursday night. Just six days prior, the Pacers led by five against the Philadelphia 76ers with 8:04 to go. They lost that game by 10, conceding a 20-5 run down the stretch in defeat. 20 points allowed in eight minutes is a just-ok run of defense, but five points scored in eight minutes is shockingly bad. It led to a loss, and it led to head coach Rick Carlisle saying that the Sixers, rather than his team, "made plays" down the stretch.
Teleport back to Pacers-Knicks, and there's a nearly equivalent situation. After Quenton Jackson hit a corner three with 5:44 to go, the Pacers were ahead 109-102. With 5:08 to go, that score remained. Then, disaster. The Pacers missed eight shots the rest of the night and made just one – an Andrew Nembhard mid-range look with 2:31 to go. Pascal Siakam made two foul shots. That's it.
The Knicks, meanwhile, scored 13 points in the final 5:08. That's a bit warm – the equivalent of about 122 points in a full game – but not blistering hot. Manageable, certainly. Yet the Pacers, for the second time in a week, fell flat down the stretch.
It cost them the game. "A lot," guard Bennedict Mathurin said of the Pacers late struggles. "We scored four points?" he asked, "In almost six minutes? We couldn't score. That's the biggest thing. The ball could have moved a little bit more. There's nothing that we can do now but to watch film and to improve."
Tony East
Outside of one putback attempt from Isaiah Jackson, every field goal in the final five minutes came from Mathurin, Nembhard, or Siakam. The right players shot the ball. Nembhard, who finished with 31 points, took five shots (making one) while Siakam was 0/2 and Mathurin 0/1. Most of the attempts came from one player.
Nembhard was rolling and canned 11 of his first 15 shots entering crunch time. That's the guy who should be leading the way in a tight game. He and Siakam both missed looks that they make often, including earlier in the same game. That's just missed shots, it happens.
Mathurin was off on a turning hook shot that I've seen him nail many times. Siakam missed near the foul line while being guarded by Jalen Brunson and had a running, semi-contested layup roll out. Nembhard, who was in the midst of his third-ever regular season game with 30+ points, missed a gorgeous step back jumper over Brunson with the shot clock at three, two heavily-contested layups, and a contested long two over Brunson. If I personally had to nitpick anything late, it would be Nembhard's shot selection, but truly only one of his late-game looks was puzzling in the moment.
None of those attempts would even be talking points if not for the last two plays. The Knicks, down two with 11.4 seconds to go, cleared out for their star player. Brunson delivered with a difficult stepback three-point laser with 4.4 seconds to go, putting the Pacers down by one.
On the other end, the Pacers tried to have Nembhard set a down screen for Siakam to give their star a chance to answer. But Siakam stumbled trying to stay tight around the screen, and that was right as the inbounds pass was coming. The Knicks stole it. Jay Huff, the trigger man who inbounded on a few other plays throughout the night, tossed the ball toward where Siakam was going to be before OG Anunoby took it, sealing the game.
"Yeah, I tripped," Siakam said. He was clearly frustrated postgame, and who could blame him? Between Aaron Nesmith's miss in Dallas, plus made shots from Brunson, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Brandon Ingram, the Pacers have now lost four times thanks to the final shot of the game this season (Siakam, of course, drilled a buzzer beater himself to life the Pacers over the Bulls late last month).
"We didn't execute it well enough," Carlisle said of the final play. "It happens. That's my responsibility, we've got to execute better."
Execution has been the most common thing pointed to by the Pacers in these late-game collapses. That's two in a week and somewhat of a theme all season. They've led at some point during the second half in 15 games this season and during the fourth quarter 11 times. Despite those figures, they're 6-21.
Clutch time data, sometimes faulty, is telling. The Pacers are 3-9 in clutch games, the second-fewest wins in the NBA despite the 18th most clutch outings. Their late-game defensive rating of 101.8 is solid and among the top-10 marks in the association.
Their clutch time offensive rating? 99.0. That ranks 25th. If the Pacers are going to win some close game, they're going to have to finally score and execute.
Also keep an eye on after Pacers-Knicks
Andrew Nembhard, ballin'
As mentioned above, Nembhard scored over 30 points for just the third time in his career during a regular season game. After a 3/14 stinker against the Wizards, the Canadian ball handler was outstanding against the Knicks. He made Brunson work, wiggled to his spots, and knocked down shots.
Despite crunch time woes, Nembhard shot 12/19 from the field on his way to 31 points, including hitting 4/5 from deep. Don't look now, but after a dreadful start from long range this season Nembhard is up to a career-high 36.8% from beyond the arc. He went 8/32 (25%) in his first five games and is 27/63 (42.9%) from the outside in 14 games since.
As a playoff riser, the Pacers and Nembhard will hope this shooting sticks and finally translates from the big stage down to... well, a smaller stage.
"Nembhard was great. He was great," Carlisle said postgame. "He was great on both sides of the ball. He led us. He got our running game going. He was involving the right people at the right time. He was spectacular in this game."
Nembhard added four assists and one steal, and the NBA's matchup data says he held Brunson to 6/15 shooting. That's a pretty good, and pretty demanding, outing.
Quenton Jackson, starting
As noted in this notebook about the week that was for the Pacers, Quenton Jackson shared that he did some work with the starting five on Wednesday after practice. He then explained after Pacers-Knicks that he found he would, indeed, start vs New York that same day.
"Coaches decision," Carlisle said of the move. "Looking at the matchups, it made sense... we stayed with it because we thought it was the best thing."
Jackson is dynamic in a way that no other healthy Pacer (who wasn't already starting) – sans maybe T.J. McConnell – is. He can comfortably knock down jumpers, drive with speed and force, and defend when needed. One of my favorite plays of the game was Jackson shutting down Brunson in the clutch twice on the same possession.
"He was great, man. He was great. His energy is very, very unique. We need that. Very, very proud of him," Mathurin said of Jackson postgame. "Very happy for him... always hold him to a high standard because I know what he can do."
Jackson was +14 for the game, and the Pacers were +13 when they had Nembard, Q Jackson, Mathurin, Siakam, and Huff all on the floor together. Swap out Huff for Isaiah Jackson and that five-man combination was +2.
Granted, it's just a one-game sample, but Quenton Jackson in the starting five seems to be something that works and adds a new element to the Pacers. Until Aaron Nesmith returns, it wouldn't shock me if the Pacers stuck with this opening five. It gives them the best chance at being ahead when clutch time arrives, which the team needs, and gives them another weapon for big moments. They'll try for Rick Carlisle's 1,000th win again on Saturday in New Orleans.
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