Ambitious Franz Wagner. In a two-on-two counterattack, the Magic winger decided to attack the circle himself. Before running into the rampart named Myles Turner. The Pacers pivot thus signed one of his six blocks of the evening. Or twice as much… as the entire opposing team. And Indiana won comfortably on the floor of the Orlando franchise.
“ They are one of the best teams when it comes to getting to the paint and finishing at the rim. We tried to emphasize this to limit them in this area. They're a physical team, they tried to impose themselves, but I think we did a good job meeting the challenge “, judges the 10th best blocker in the league.
Tyrese Haliburton has found his inner “ amazing » in this part regarding circle protection. “ He was great at helping with the rebound, but also blocking shots on the opposite side. Their game is really focused on the circle, so we put emphasis on protecting the racket », Notes the playmaker whose training limited the Magic to 37.5% success.
With the finish, the best defensive performance of their year for the Pacers: only 97 points conceded. A rare performance for the best attack in the league, recently dethroned by the Celtics in terms of offensive efficiency (“offensive rating”).
27-0 on the counterattack!
“ We realize we are one of the best teams in transition, and the only way to get baskets in transition is to make stops. I think we managed to do them, which allowed us to get a lot more points in transition », rightly remarks Obi Toppin. The differential in points on the counterattack is quite telling: 27 on the Pacers side against… not a single one for the Magic.
“ We understood that if we don't make a basket, we can run. We have a team that runs very well, that’s well known. What we needed was a much higher level of determination than in the last two games against these guys », Adds Rick Carlisle, whose Pacers had conceded 128 and 117 points in two previous games, lost, against the Floridians.
Such a defensive performance was necessary this night as their attack took time to get going: only 18 points after 12 minutes. A reaction took place in the second quarter, and especially in the third, won handily (39 to 21).
“ We showed unfailing determination. Even in the first quarter, when we were struggling to score, we held them to 24 points. This is a score we can work with even if we struggle to put the ball in the basket. Everyone committed to trying to keep these guys away from the rebounding and painting as much as possible », Continues Rick Carlisle whose team had not conceded less than 110 points for a month.
Next test, and not the least, on the floor of the Thunder, the 3rd best attack in the league.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Tyrese Haliburton | 51 | 32.0 | 48.3 | 37.7 | 84.8 | 0.6 | 3.2 | 3.8 | 11.4 | 2.3 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 20.8 |
| Pascal Siakam | 23 | 32.7 | 55.3 | 38.6 | 68.8 | 2.0 | 5.0 | 7.0 | 4.3 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 2.6 | 20.6 |
| Myles Turner | 60 | 27.2 | 52.2 | 33.2 | 78.5 | 1.6 | 5.5 | 7.1 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 1.8 | 3.2 | 17.2 |
| Bennedict Mathurin | 59 | 26.1 | 44.6 | 37.4 | 82.1 | 1.0 | 2.9 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 14.5 |
| Aaron Nesmith | 55 | 26.9 | 50.6 | 44.4 | 71.4 | 0.9 | 2.9 | 3.8 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 3.3 | 12.2 |
| Bruce Brown, Jr. | 33 | 29.7 | 47.5 | 32.7 | 81.7 | 0.8 | 3.9 | 4.7 | 3.0 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 2.5 | 12.1 |
| Buddy Hield | 52 | 25.7 | 44.3 | 38.4 | 84.8 | 0.7 | 2.6 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 12.0 |
| Jalen Smith | 45 | 17.8 | 61.8 | 44.9 | 67.9 | 1.6 | 3.8 | 5.5 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 10.4 |
| Obi Toppin | 64 | 21.9 | 56.2 | 40.0 | 75.3 | 1.0 | 2.8 | 3.8 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 10.3 |
| Andrew Nembhard | 50 | 23.7 | 49.5 | 36.2 | 78.9 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 2.0 | 4.3 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 2.0 | 9.1 |
| Tj Mcconnell | 53 | 17.5 | 55.1 | 29.2 | 77.1 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 2.6 | 5.5 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 8.8 |
| Isaiah Jackson | 47 | 13.6 | 66.3 | 0.0 | 71.6 | 1.5 | 2.6 | 4.1 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 2.5 | 7.0 |
| Jordan Nwora | 18 | 10.1 | 45.1 | 30.6 | 81.8 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 5.2 |
| Ben Sheppard | 39 | 12.0 | 42.1 | 37.4 | 82.4 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 4.1 |
| Jarace Walker | 22 | 10.2 | 40.0 | 38.5 | 85.7 | 0.4 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 3.9 |
| Oscar Tshiebwe | 8 | 5.2 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 75.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 3.3 |
| Doug McDermott | 6 | 10.9 | 29.2 | 20.0 | 50.0 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 3.2 |
| Daniel Theis | 1 | 8.4 | 25.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| Kendall Brown | 8 | 3.6 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 66.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.3 |
| James Johnson | 6 | 5.3 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 1.0 |
