The messages sent from Pacers no-defense loss in Utah
The Pacers finally scored against Utah. But man, their defense was awful.
MY KITCHEN TABLE, Ind. – Messages – or perhaps a lesser version of a message? Maybe a dispatch? – were sent as the Indiana Pacers gave up 152 points in their 24-point loss to the Utah Jazz on Tuesday. And both messages are obvious ones based on the Pacers results so far: what they have been doing isn't working, and what they are hoping to do needs to click.
Look no further than the lineups put on the floor. Isaiah Jackson started nine of the Pacers first ten games, only coming off the bench when James Wiseman assumed the starting center role during a game in his hometown of Memphis. On Tuesday in Utah? Tony Bradley started at center while Jackson played with the second unit.
Jarace Walker was given a spot in the Pacers starting five back when the team played in Dallas last month. He held it for seven games, but against the Jazz he, too, went to the bench. Head coach Rick Carlisle turned to Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, a forward who wasn't even on the team on opening night but has provided steady play in every area of the game besides shot making.
There were no questions postgame about the lineup change – which is understandable. The Pacers were blown out again, 152 points is a lot, and T.J. McConnell returned from injury. Other matters needed to be addressed.
But the shift in starters was telling. Outside of Aaron Nesmith and Pascal Siakam, two starters in any scenario for the Pacers, Walker and Jackson are the only other members of the blue and gold with more than six starts this season. Yet that quartet (I. Jackson, Nesmith, Siakam, Walker) only hums when paired with Quenton Jackson – they are +20 with the ball-handler Jackson as their fifth player and -19 with any other body rounding out the group. Q. Jackson is, of course, currently out with a hamstring injury.
That – combined with wobbly play, to put it kindly – from Walker of late made a lineup shift worth exploring. And Bradley has been the Pacers steadiest player at the five this year, albeit with the lowest ceiling. He's earned the opportunities he's been given and is the team's best matchup against bruising Utah big man Jusuf Nurkic.
To me, the five-man lineup that opened the game in Utah featured the players who have been the most consistent this season. Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, and Pascal Siakam are going to start if healthy. Bradley has been a rock-solid five.
That leaves Robinson-Earl, who has been on the team for less than two weeks. And yet, this argument is pretty straightforward. Beyond Siakam and Nesmith, who has been the most consistent of Robinson-Earl, Walker, Sheppard, Cody Martin, and Taelon Peter? While Walker, Sheppard, and Peter have been big in certain moments, Robinson-Earl has a strong argument to be the answer.
So, the message from the starting five shift might have been "Robinson-Earl (who spent more than four minutes guarding Jazz star Lauri Markkanen, nearly equal Nesmith) and Bradley (best option against Nurkic) are the best options against the Jazz." And if that's the case, we'll know tonight when the Pacers play the Phoenix Suns. But the message might have been "consistent, hard play will get you on the court." The five-man combination brings that.
In a 24-point loss, that starting five won their minutes – they outscored the Jazz by three in 16:05 of action. Proof of concept? Maybe, but the same lineup was outscored in their brief stint together in Denver. Still, they worked fine-enough together on an otherwise poor night. The Pacers defense was atrocious in all other alignments.
"Too many missed assignments defensively," Pacers assistant coach Jim Boylen said during an interview at halftime on the Fanduel Sports Indiana broadcast of the game. "Gotta be more competitive."
Message number two involved the same five players, though they were not the specific subjects of the communication. This time, it was about the whole team. And the message was "We're going to fight to figure something out."
The Pacers, down 23 after three quarters at 114-91, deviated from their usual rotation to start the fourth quarter. Carlisle instead opened the period with his starting five on the floor in an attempt to make one last push, and to show that the Pacers are trying to figure things out.
The starters cut into the lead, but only from 23 to 19 before Bradley, Robinson-Earl, and Nesmith exited. 76 seconds later, out went Siakam and Nembhard. None of them ever saw the floor again. But that change in substitution patterns made it clear the Pacers were still chasing that win. They want to find the answers and find them now. Carlisle is going to put the players on the floor that he thinks gives the team the best chance to do that.
What does it look like if those messages are received? Better play, first of all. Carlisle has stressed for years, even when the Pacers are winning, that hard and consistent play are non-negotiable. He's rewarding it. Players who operate with those core values will get on the court.
To me, the message being received will show up in the results at some point. I thought the most interesting postgame quote came from Nesmith. When speaking with Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star (shoutout to Dustin for being on this road trip), Nesmith was asked about the Pacers shooting struggles and what has been tough for the team in that department.
"We've gotta make things easier. Once we make things easier, play as a group, play faster, play to our rhythm, shots will start to fall. Things will turn for us," Nesmith began. Then, the kicker.
"It just takes a game. Just need a game," he concluded. The mental switch will flip for the Pacers if they just can get one game, especially as they get healthy. One win will go a long way. The Pacers need to receive the messages about consistency and hard play to get that victory.
The crushing loss to Utah was just the ending to a busy Tuesday for the Pacers.
The Pacers have new uniforms for this season and they rock
I generally loathe how many jerseys the NBA has nowadays. There's so many bad ones, and too many teams use colors that aren't even a part of their color scheme for their City Edition kits.
The Pacers did none of that. They nailed it this year with what they are calling the Moments Mixtape jersey (and court!). It is, as the Pacers say, "A remix of fan favorite uniforms reimagined in white and royal blue to reflect a new moment of Pacers basketball."
There are mixed elements from Pacers uniforms from the mid-to-late 80s, the early-to-mid 90s, and the logo dating back to the team's days in the ABA – albeit tweaked to actually look like a basketball. It all blends really well.
And, and!, there's a court to go with it.
10/10, no notes. Really good work from the Pacers, to me. You can see this court for the first time on Saturday when the Pacers host the Raptors (I will, somehow, miss that game for my SECOND wedding of the season [and I have a third one the following weekend???]). The Pacers will wear their new uniforms that night as well.
The new kits will be worn 21 times, though the Utah game was one of the 21. So, 20 more, and there's an "at TBD" on the uniform schedule. So perhaps they get used for the not-yet-scheduled games that are based on NBA Cup results. I love all of this and look forward to seeing it with my own eyes.
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl signs another 10-day hardship deal
Robinson-Earl signed another 10-day contract with the Pacers on Tuesday as the team was granted another hardship exception. It says everything about the Pacers injury situation that they've already been granted, and used, three hardship exceptions less than a month into the season.
The recently-25-year old has been largely solid, as noted above, and started on Tuesday. He's got the Johnny Furphy quality of somehow always being around the ball on rebounds, and Robinson-Earl is very aware on defense. He's already trusted. It's good for the Pacers that he's on the team until November 20.
It's bad, though, that they were granted a hardship. That means Furphy is likely out for at least two more weeks (or, more officially, the 10 days Robinson-Earl is on the team) per hardship rules. Because the Pacers only have five standard contract players on the injury report right now and five player absences are required to have two hardship exceptions (remember, Cody Martin is signed to one as well), that means Furphy's absence has to be involved in one of the hardships... and because he wasn't out for three consecutive games yet at the time of the Martin signing, his absence is connected to Robinson-Earl's signing.
I went into more detail on all of this here. Now, with the power of deduction, it's clear that my predictions for how this is all structured were right. For Martin's hardship exception, the four players that were deemed to be out for two more weeks were Tyrese Haliburton, Kam Jones, Obi Toppin, and Bennedict Mathurin. Robinson-Earl's current hardship is then connected to Furphy by default and three of the four other injured players – my well-educated guess is Jones, Toppin, and Haliburton. Mathurin is progressing well.
Martin's current deal expires once Friday ends. If he signs another hardship contract at the time, that would indicate Mathurin's timeline is still a multi-week thing. Keep an eye on that – Martin's last game with the Pacers could be tonight. They'll try to beat the Suns and, as Nesmith said, get the one game they need.
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Tony East
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