Indiana finds way to win without Myles Turner

On February 4, 2025By Littum

“This was a game where we collectively had to find a way and not find an apology.”

Salt Lake City – When Thomas Bryant stuck from the bench to the scorer’s table with Obi Toppin and prepared to check in with about seven minutes left in Pacers’ Play against jazz Monday night the stories in the evening seemed to solidify for good.

While Bryant waited for a flute, jazz guard Isaiah Collier drilled a 3-pointer that gave Utah another double-digit lead-this time 101-89-what caused Pacers All-Star Point Guard Tyrese Haliburton to lift his hands on the back of his head and throw them in disgust.

Since fell after 15 points in the first quarter, Pacers had searched back in the game, even taken the lead in the third quarter, but then found himself quickly and drove away again and left one-holding essence to the balloon for 9- 12 points.

Bryant had meanwhile seen his second start in relief from Myles Turner go much worse than the first one. At that time he was 1-of-9 from the floor with only four rebounds in just under 20 minutes, and Pacers was -18 in his time on the floor.

But in 6:43, Bryant was on the floor, he and Pacers managed to rewrite the stories again. The pacers went on a 14-1 race to delete the deficit with the three-minute brand, which then made clutch games after clutch games down the stretch to hold Jazz 112-111. Bryant had a part in several of these plays and scored seven points on 3-of-3 shooting in the fourth with a three-point game included, sending a +14 in the fourth quarter.

“Thomas was huge down the stretch,” said Pacers coach Rick Carlisle. “His big body was everywhere. He was done with spectacles. He had a transition can. He had one and-1. He was ever present … That’s it that being an elastic player on an elastic team means. “

Resilience, it appears may become the defining feature of this Pacers team, which was 10-15 on December 8 and has since won 18 of its last 23 games to improve to 28-20 sitting alone on Fourth place at the eastern conference with a two-game lead in fifth place bucks. They have won four equal and 12 of their 14 games since the calendar turned to 2025.

Several of these wins – including last week’s victories over pistons and Hawks – came in the evening when they didn’t play their best basketball and still found a way to win. Monday was one night when they played some of their worst basketball and still found a way to win, but it is in itself a sign that Pacers may have real residence.

If wins were classified by style points, Monday’s might have been Pacer’s worst of the year. They let an 11-37 jazz team that has lost nine of its last 10 games, go on a 22-2 first quarter and dictate the conditions of engagement for the rest of the evening.

In Turner’s absence with a right peroneal tribe, they made the strongest case possible for his importance to the team and to him to be signed in the peak season rather than acted at the coming time or at least not consider any agreement that would not bring a similar center as a replacement.

The lost rebounding strokes 60-37 and Turner are not the best rebounding big man in the NBA, but at least he makes a difference there and they only made 10 of their 42 3-point attempts. Turner shoots a career-best 40% from the range of 3-point and has become one of the most deadly pick-and-pop shooters in the league.

“There were times when you saw this game as a Pacers fan, you said, ‘It just won’t happen tonight,'” Carlisle said. “Our guys just kept hanging in. We still said,” Hi, let’s just keep hanging around and giving ourselves a chance. ”” ”

The victory required both individual and collective screens of resilience. The generally relaxed Bryant was so frustrated that he drew a technical error in the third quarter to discuss with officials. But he managed to shake off all that. In his first four minutes left on the floor of the fourth, he ran the floor for a transition, for a key bucket.

“It was a difficult game offensively for me, but my teammates continued to give me courage and enthusiasm to continue pushing through,” Bryant said. “For me it’s just trying to keep pushing through all the time. It’s not going to be a perfect game, but I’m just glad we were able to win in the fourth.”

It wasn’t a perfect game for anyone offensively, but Pacers continued to push through to try to get the ball in the paint, even if it wasn’t easy either.

For all their matches, jazz has a formidable front line with the 7-foot Lauri Markkanen, from the bench. These four make it difficult to get a clean look in the field, and Pacers sent several set -up attempts to be afraid of being blocked. However, they worked with the ball for more space and better appearance in the field and ended up scoring 58 points in the paint, making 29 of their 41 field target attempts there and 33-of-49 2-point attempts in general. Pacers ranks seventh in NBA with 51.8 points in the paint and they managed to go beyond their average.

“I think it speaks to maturity and growth in our group,” Haliburton said. “The last couple of years if we don’t make shots we’re just hanging our heads. We’ve figured out how to win games when we don’t make shots … We are really good when we get hold to protect More actions and we move the ball and do all these things thought we did a really good job with it.

They also turned defense into offense and created opportunities to get to the paint without having to handle all the length on the way to the edge. They registered 10 blocks and 13 steals and caused 19 jazz revenue. They scored 26 points from revenue and 26 quick points while turning the ball over only nine times themselves.

They sometimes struggled to finish possessions with rebounds, but they got better at preventing jazz from scoring every quarter and held them to 23 points in the fourth of 9-of-25 shooting including 2-of-8 from 3-point range. It was another sign of growth for a defense that was near the bottom of the league in most major categories in mid -December, but ranks third in the NBA in defensive rating since January 1st.

It is likely that the most important game at night came on the defensive end. With 1:09 to go, Aaron Nesmith highlighted – who rounded back in shape after missing 35 games with a sprained left ankle – chased jazz guard Jordan Clarkson until he lost the ball. Nesmith Dove for it and sent it from his back to Haliburton, who took the ball down the field and shot a transition 3-pointer that gave Pacers a 108-106 lead and gave them the lead too well.

“I just guarded the ball and he coughed it up,” said Nesmith, who also hit two critical free kicks with 12.4 seconds to go to put the game away. “Just ball pressure, that’s what we do. We are always in full court press, and always push them. So we just played our game.”

It was not the most beautiful or most effective version of their game, but it was a victory that spoke to their underlying character – something that matters in the future as they try to match last year’s Eastern Conference Finals Run and go beyond it.

“It’s one of the best victories of the year considering the circumstances,” Carlisle said. “… tonight, this was a game where we collectively had to find a way and not find an apology.”