4 observations as Bruce Brown, Tyrese Haliburton lead Pacers over Wizards in season opener

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Pacers slammed the Wizards 143-120 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Wednesday in the season opener for both teams, starting the 2023-24 campaign with a 1-0 record.

They play their first road game on Saturday at Cleveland.

Here are four observations.

Bruce Brown finds 3-point range

After making 36% of his 3-pointers with the Nuggets last season, free-agent acquisition Bruce Brown struggled to find his 3-point stroke in the preseason especially in the first two games before Tyrese Haliburton took the floor. He missed his first 7 3s and wasn't much better from 2-point range.

But since he's been paired with Haliburton and has seen the way the floor is spaced, he's found a rhythm. He was 5 of 11 from 3 in the last two preseason games, and Wednesday opened this season with one of the better shooting games of his career, hitting four of his first five 3-point attempts, matching his career high for a game in the first half alone. He kept rolling in the second half, hitting two more 3s to finish 6 of 8 and set a new career high. He was 8 of 11 from the floor for 24 points.

Brown credited the pace and ball movement of the Pacers' offense for getting him open looks.

"It's just the offense," Brown said. "We play fast. Everybody's running. Myles one time got me an open 3 just because of his seal at the rim. Our offense is so random. Anybody can score the ball that night and tonight it was me."

Pacers' offense is overwhelming

Especially for the last three quarters, the Pacers' matched the manically paced, wide-open vision for what they want their offense to be and they were even more efficient than typical last season; that was enough to overwhelm the Wizards.

Whether it was Haliburton or Andrew Nembhard playing point guard, the Pacers pushed the pace, shared the ball remarkably well, and drilled most of the shots that style created. Eight Pacers scored in double figures, led by Brown with 24 points and Haliburton with 20. They shot 56-of-106 from the floor (52.8%), 20-of-43 from 3-point range and posted a remarkable 1.25 points per possession, scoring 60 points in the paint and 32 on fastbreaks. Haliburton finished with 11 assists, Nembhard had 10 and the Pacers finished with 38 as a team on 56 baskets. From the second quarter on, they outscored the Wizards 109-81. Their 143 points were the most for an opener in franchise history.

"I just felt like the ball was moving," Haliburton said. "That's what we've tried to preach all preseason. We know we have a lot of different guys, it can be their night at any time. I feel like it was a really balanced scoring attack. Just balance with their touches and things like that. The way our offense is set up, the ball is put in our point guards' hands to make plays. We run usually a lot of high ball screens and usually make people play with rotations and everybody makes the right play. Having guys on the team who want to play basketball the right way really helps."

Defense steps up after rough first

In the first quarter, the Pacers' defense displayed all of the weaknesses that led them to finish 29th in the NBA in points allowed and 26th in defensive efficiency last season. They seemed lost in transition, they lost shooters on the perimeter and they allowed easy drives up the middle. The Wizards scored 39 points in the first quarter on 17 of 27 shooting (63%), hitting 4 of 7 3s and scoring 24 points in the paint.

But the Pacers' bench changed the tone in the second quarter, holding the Wizards to just four field goals on their first 16 shots of the quarter, and from there the tide seemed to turn. The Wizards didn't crack 30 points in a quarter the rest of the game and shot 27 of 69 from the floor the rest of the way. They still finished with 68 points in the paint, but they were on pace for 96 after the first so that represented an improvement.

"We just picked it up," Brown said. "More communication. We knew the spots we were supposed to be in. Then we changed some of it. At first we were (switching) 1-through-5 and then we switched to a 1-through-4 veer, so really just good communication."

A switch seemed to flip when the Pacers mostly had their subs on the floor, but it was notable that they mostly worked with a nine-man rotation and one starter was generally on the floor with the four subs. At the start of the third quarter, that meant Brown was on the floor with Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith, who are arguably their top three perimeter defenders.

"Bruce is a defensive monster," Nesmith said. "I would say us three together, we haven't had much time (in the preseason) and in practice, but you put three really solid defenders together, you figure it out."

Rick Carlisle played a somewhat shortened rotation

The Pacers had a clean bill of health to start the season with no one listed on the injury report and all 15 players available. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle spent most of the season talking about the quality of competition, noting that he trusted all 15 full-time players to play in an NBA game.

But in Wednesday's opener, he didn't even play two full units in the first half. He emptied the bench once it was clear the Pacers had a blowout, but before then he generally kept the starters on the floor.

The starting lineup was the same as it was in the last two preseason games -- Haliburton at point guard, Brown and Bennedict Mathurin at shooting guard and small forward, Obi Toppin at the 4 and Myles Turner at the 5. However, Carlisle never subbed that group out completely in the first half and one of the five was on the floor at all times. Guards Andrew Nembhard and Buddy Hield, forward Aaron Nesmith and center Jalen Smith came off the bench, but the other six players stayed on the bench. The first time those four played together, Brown stayed on the floor while Nembhard took point guard duties.

Center Isaiah Jackson got some run with the second unit because Smith had to get first-unit work due to Turner's foul trouble. But those were the only 10 who took the floor until T.J. McConnell took the floor with 6 minutes to go and the Pacers up by more than 30.

"One thing I know is if you devise a rotation just to play 10 guys just to play 10 guys, you can get in trouble," Carlisle said. "We saw that a little bit in the last preseason game with Cleveland. You play 10 games, you're limiting the minutes of other people in the rotation. This is just a decision that I felt was right for the team."

Playing the shorter rotation required a tough decision on Carlisle's part. Though McConnell had an excellent preseason, posting 24 assists against just four turnovers, Carlisle wanted Nembhard running the point with the second unit. He said he had an emotional meeting with McConnell on Tuesday to tell him.

"I had one of the most difficult conversations I've ever had with a player about the situation and the minutes," Carlisle said. "It was T.J. I was almost in tears talking to him about it. One of the reasons was he was so great. He was just him. He said 'Hey, listen, I'm disappointed. I'll be ready. I'll be professional, you know that. I'll do everything I can to set an example.' But this is one of the great competitors in the history of this franchise. There certainly are going to be opportunities for him to play, but heading into this game the minutes plan didn't shake out well for him. So we talked about it, and that was tough."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers vs. Wizards: Pacers' offense goes wild in season opener