Seven things learned as Pacers lose fourth quarter lead to Cooper Flagg and Mavericks
The Pacers blew a fourth-quarter lead again.
MY OFFICE, Ind. – The Pacers were in Dallas to finish off their weird Memphis-Mexico City-Dallas road trip on Monday. The Mavericks are playing well this season and somehow, despite being in the Western Conference, are the Pacers second repeat opponent this season (Nets).
The Pacers entered needing a win in the worst way. They're healthier now but still finding themselves with Tyrese Haliburton out. The Mavs were on a back to back for this one – the Pacers rest advantage had to be exactly that: an advantage.
Dallas is a younger team but sits at 6-4 thanks to Cooper Flagg's constant ascent and Kyrie Irving's return. Those two, plus a roster filled with size, has the Mavericks exceeding expectations.
What did we learn from round two of Pacers vs Mavericks?
Tony East
Pascal Siakam dominated early
Pascal Siakam made his first shot. Then his second, then his third. And fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth before finally, with 1:03 to go until halftime, missing for the first time.
The star forward was outstanding early. His threes were falling – he made five in the first half. He attacked mismatches and pushed to the rim when the Mavericks opened the lane. Despite Dallas' size, it felt like Siakam often had a mismatch in the first half.
He made the Mavs defense pay. "Just let him do his thing," guard Quenton Jackson said of playing with Siakam in that half during a halftime interview on the DAZN broadcast. "Try to free him up, get him open shots."
At halftime – yes, halftime – Siakam had 26 points, six rebounds, and four assists. That's a great full game. The Pacers next three highest scorers had combined for 22 points at the break.
In the second half, the Mavericks doubled Siakam in the post and he struggled to get going. The Pacers tried to generate offense elsewhere but weren't able to rely on Siakam's gravity despite a special start.
Siakam's final stat line: 29 points, nine rebounds, eight assists.
The Pacers found some, but not enough, offensive flow
Everything looks better when shots go in, and the Pacers made nine of their first 17 three-point attempts. But the Pacers offense just felt better early in this game than it has recently.
Their player and ball movement was tidy. They rarely asked someone to play hero ball. When Ivica Zubac posted up, there was enough cutting to keep advantages alive.
In the first half, the Pacers had 19 assists on 25 made shots. "I think in general, the first half was probably our best first half in terms of complementary basketball," assistant coach Lloyd Pierce said during a halftime interview on the DAZN broadcast of the game.
The Pacers style continued for a few moments into the second half, but the new coverages on Siakam halted the Pacers flow. Andrew Nembhard exited for a moment and went to the locker room while T.J. McConnell didn't play after getting minutes in the first half.
Those factors, combined with worse shot making, made the Pacers offense feel off in the second half. They needed a more consistent game but didn't get it.
Kyrie Irving was on fire
Irving was, as usual, a tough cover for much of this game. The Pacers sent two bodies his way after his defender felt a screen, and Irving carved them up.
His handle was spectacular, and his three-point jumper was falling – Irving drilled six of his first eight shots from beyond the arc. Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith were his primary matchups.
Irving nearly matched Siakam's scoring total by the middle of the third quarter and was the leading figure in a Mavericks comeback. The Pacers needed to slow him down in the fourth quarter.
They were somewhat able to, but that was more because the Mavericks turned to other options. Irving's final stat line: 35 points and four assists.
Ivica Zubac was a weapon inside
The Pacers were better in this game at identifying mismatches down low and using Zubac's strengths. His post ups were a weapon, both in terms of creating scoring chances for Zubac himself and opening up other avenues for the rest of the team.
The Croatian big man scored well in the paint and drew fouls, finishing with 16 points on 5/7 shooting. His rebounding wasn't at the level it needed to be, but he added an element to the team's scoring attack.
And Gafford, who gives the Pacers trouble historically, was limited to just XX minutes because of the many fouls he committed on Zubac. This was one of Zubac's best games with the Pacers so far.
Rebounding was a challenge for the Pacers again
After three quarters, it was reasonable for one to think that the box score was glitching: It showed that the Pacers had zero offensive rebounds.
But that was no glitch. That was reality for the Pacers, who were basically even on the defensive glass at the time but couldn't keep up in the possession battle because of the boards on the other end. Most of the damage from Dallas was coming from their bigger forwards rather than their centers.
The Pacers had to clean up the glass late, but they weren't able to. The final rebounding margin: 43-27 in favor of the Mavs.
Copper Flagg was hard to guard
It's amazing that Flagg is this good at just 19 years old.
The ascending star did it all, drilling deep threes, defending, creating for his teammates, and running the Mavs offense when Irving wasn't in the game. The Pacers couldn't stay in front of him or force him to miss.
While the jumpers from Flagg made him feel unguardable, it was his inside-the-arc play that transformed the game. He made more than 10 two-point shots and was particularly hard to stop in the second half.
Flagg's final stat line: 43 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists.
The Pacers couldn't get stops in the second half
The Mavericks shot over 63% for the first 17 minutes of the second half.
They made 16 of their first 19 two-point field goal attempts in that stretch.
The Pacers were much better rotating behind the play in the first half and, in turn, cutting off the rim. "Defensively we've had a tight paint, been connected," Pierce said at halftime.
That did not hold in the third, or the early parts of the fourth, quarter. Despite leading to start the final quarter and holding an edge for much of the game, the Pacers found themselves behind midway through the fourth quarter because they couldn't get stops.
This did improve in the final minutes, and the Pacers needed it after struggling for several minutes.
The Pacers weren't good enough in crunch time
The Pacers were trailing entering crunch time, a tough place to be. It's hard to win playing from behind late despite what Haliburton has shown in recent seasons.
The Pacers did well to get their deficit down to one in the final minute, and the Mavericks split a pair of free throws with 38.6 seconds to go. But Dallas pulled in a rebound, which gave them an extra possession that Flagg used to score again.
Then, with the Mavs once again up one late, the Pacers fouled Irving 70 feet from the basket while trapping him, sending him to the charity stripe. That was another painful error in the final miuntes.
Nesmith missed a three-point shot to tie the game inside the final 10 seconds, but Dallas followed it up with two missed foul shots. That gave the Pacers one more chance to tie the game with under four seconds to go.
Fitting, given the rest of their crunch-time play: The Pacers turned the ball over on that possession – though they certainly thought Siakam was fouled on the possession. That trip ended the game. The Mavericks took it 125-122 as the Pacers dropped to 3-8.
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