Pacers with deja vu in second loss vs Celtics, but fight appears

INDIANAPOLIS – If I had a nickel for every time the Pacers had a hot start in a blowout loss to the Celtics this week, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz memes aside, Friday night was another weird one for the Pacers. They made their first six three-point shots and were ahead by 15 points after seven minutes of play. Alright! Good stuff and a needed response after the rudderless performance that happened on Tuesday.

Circle City Spin

The Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever, up close

Circle City SpinTony East

But once the threes stopped going through the net, everything fell apart. The Pacers made 12 of their next 38 threes, a respectable but unremarkable number. The Celtics, on the other hand, got hot quickly as the Pacers defense turned to dust.

After scoring 28 points in the first quarter, Boston changed their gameplan. They executed a zone defense with the Pacers deploying a lineup of T.J. McConnell, Johnny Furphy, Jarace Walker, Pascal Siakam, and Micah Potter (we'll get to him). All of those players can make jump shots, but the Celtics were more than happy to guard Siakam and let anyone else shoot or attack. Hence the zone, and hence their tight paint defense.

The Pacers offense died, and they were thus defending in the open floor much more often. The Celtics took advantage with a ridiculous second quarter. They poured in 47 points (a season-high allowed for the Pacers in a single period this season) on 16/25 shooting while making six threes and nine foul shots. Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, and Payton Pritchard scored 10+ points just in the second quarter. Living at the foul line and making threes will obviously lead to a big scoring frame, but the Celtics deserve credit for drilling mid-range shots that some defenses are willing to live with.

Postgame, it felt like the story would be the Pacers poor defense. And it mostly was the center of conversations about the action that had just unfolded. But the team also focused on how their offense struggled in that second period, which directly led to some of their issues on the defensive end of the floor.

"I feel like we didn't really get back in transition well. It's a full game, it starts with our offensive approach," point guard Andrew Nembhard said of the defensive struggles. "Didn't move [the ball] enough, took bad shots, put us behind the 8-ball with them getting in transition, getting easy looks."

The feedback loop of poor offense causing even worse defense was undoubtedly a problem for the Pacers. Yet even as their offense bounced back in the third quarter, their defense remained off. Boston poured in 36 more points in that frame, bringing their total from the second and third quarters t0 83 points. Yuck. The Pacers scored just 22 in the second quarter but reached 30 in the third.

So, even when the blue and gold could put the ball in the basket, their defense was flimsy. "I think it just starts on the ball. They set really good screens," forward Jarace Walker said of the defensive breakdowns before pointing to the Pacers ballscreen coverages as an error. "Just comes down to our will, our effort, our energy."

Quarter two went in favor of the Celtics 47-22. The rest of the game was 100-93 Pacers. That's obviously a lazy way of looking at a 48-minute battle, but the Pacers did string together more effective offensive processes and defensive looks throughout the night. Compared to their recent games against Milwaukee and New Orleans, this outing had more successes.

But their failures were far, far more dramatic. The Celtics scored with comical ease for about 20 straight minutes. That can't happen for the Pacers given the extremely low margin for error provided by their once again 30th-ranked offense.

"We've got to play better," head coach Rick Carlisle said. "We made some mistakes that were critical."

The Pacers are now 6-25, and with the Washington Wizards victory on Friday the Pacers officially have the worst record in the NBA. They have work to do on both ends of the floor if they hope to change that.

Elsewhere in Pacers-Celtics, there was a new player (again) and a rare moment of force from a veteran.

T.J. McConnell, scrappin'

T.J. McConnell is fiery and filled with energy. He loves to yap and be frisky. But it rarely spills into anything physical or extra like it did on Friday.

With the Pacers down by 24 and 1:24 left in the third quarter, Jordan Walsh and McConnell got into a shoving match. During a battle for a rebound, Walsh – who is an intense defender and had been a part of some talking with Pacers players throughout the game – lightly shoved McConnell. McConnell shoved back with much more force.

McConnell is a fan favorite, and the Gainbridge Fieldhouse faithful loved the passion with the Pacers down by so many points. The crowd was into the game for the next few minutes as Indiana pushed the deficit down to 17.

The Celtics, of course, kept the Pacers away in the win. But for a Pacers team in search of spirit, McConnell provided a spark. As a group, they need to summon more of that fight naturally. But it was a noteworthy moment for a struggling team.

"I thought it was just basketball. Probably escalated a little too much by me," McConnell said of the incident postgame. Both players were handed a technical foul. "It was just one of those moments just competitively. Thought it was unnecessary, some of the stuff that he said. But again, I don't take it personally. It's just basketball. If it gave us life, great. But it couldn't have been that inspiring, we still lost."

Pacers sign Micah Potter

As predicted in this story, the Pacers signed a center. They needed one with Isaiah Jackson (concussion) and Tony Bradley (thumb) banged up.

Insert Micah Potter, a former Utah Jazz and Detroit Pistons big man with some shooting capability. He's been with the Austin Spurs for this entire season and is in his fifth NBA campaign.

Potter is good friends with Pacers center Jay Huff, which dates back to the pre-draft process for both players. Potter signed a two-year, completely non-guaranteed contract with the Pacers on Friday – and he was available to play against the Celtics.

"Excited to be here. It's a great organization," Potter said. He found out on 23rd late in the day that he would be signing with the Pacers and he has a lot of personal connections to Indiana. "I'm just here to help the team out in any way that I can."

The Ohio native finished with nine points, one rebound, and one block against Boston – he was productive in his nearly 18 minutes. He hit his only three-point shot, something that no center besides Jay Huff has done for the Pacers this year.

Potter will have to prove himself in the coming games. NBA players will have their contracts become guaranteed if they are not waived by January 7, so Potter has at most until that date to prove he belongs with the team. His tryout may be shorter than that, though.

James Wiseman was with the Pacers on a hardship contract, but his situation is complicated. To sum it up with perhaps too much simplicity – Wiseman took over Gabe McClothan's hardship exception, and that exception was granted to span December 16-25. But Wiseman actually signed a 10-day deal on December 20. So Wiseman was unavailable for any games after Christmas (the end of the hardship exception he signed into), but he was still technically under the terms of a 10-day contract through December 29.

Thus, he had to be released, and he can't sign with the Pacers again until December 30. That's the next date for the Pacers to consider their options when it comes to center depth – with Potter and Wiseman being the considerations behind a banged-up group.

Those two players have drastically different skillsets. The next few games will be telling for the Pacers next transaction(s) – and they had to waive Garrison Mathews to even bring in Potter. As has been the case all season, health will guide the Pacers choices.

Speaking of health, Aaron Nesmith is trending toward a return tonight. Perhaps he can help with offense and defense as the Pacers battle the Heat and look to end a seven-game losing streak.

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