Myles Turner scores season-high 33 points to lead Pacers over Mavericks

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Pacers ended Dallas' seven-game winning streak with one of their strongest performances of the year, knocking the Mavericks off 133-111 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

The Pacers improved to 33-25 to move back into sixth place in the Eastern Conference, going back ahead of Orlando. They are just 1/2 game behind Philadelphia for fifth. The Mavericks fell to 33-24, dropping to seventh in the West.

Here are four observations.

Myles Turner cracked 30 points for the first time this season

The Mavericks have invested in their interior defense since last season, adding Derrick Lively II in last year's draft and center Daniel Gafford and forward P.J. Washington at the trade deadline, but nobody they had in the middle on Sunday could stop Pacers center Myles Turner.

Indiana's veteran big man scored a season high 33 points on 10 of 15 shooting, including 2 of 7 from the 3-point line. He was a force at all three levels, getting to the rim easily on screen-and-rolls, knocking down mid-range jumpers and also hitting from long range. His combination of size and experience also helped get him to the line and he finished 11 of 12 on foul shots.

"A team like Dallas, they were living with (Turner's outside) shot," Haliburton said. "They were blitzing and trusting that they had the weakside rotation and living with the mid-range 2 from Myles. He makes that a consistent clip so we kept going at it the whole third quarter basically. Didn't really run much. Played a lot of high pick-and-roll and playing out of that."

He also grabbed eight rebounds and helped hold Lively and Gafford to a combined 12 points.

Andrew Nembhard was effective on Kyrie Irving, Luka Doncic

Forward Aaron Nesmith was still out with an ankle sprain on Sunday, and it wasn't a great time for the Pacers to be missing him. He and Andrew Nembhard are the Pacers' top perimeter defenders and the Pacers happened to be facing what is arguably the most explosive backcourt in the NBA in Dallas' Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

Nembhard took Irving to start, but the Pacers had second-year wing Bennedict Mathurin on Doncic, and that was very much an adventure for Mathurin, as he allowed Doncic to score 10 of the Mavericks' first 17 points. However, Mathurin got better as the game wore on and Nembhard was excellent on whoever he was guarding.

Nembhard helped hold Irving to 12 points on 3 of 10 shooting in the first half and when he was in the game and Irving was out, he brought more presence to the matchup on Doncic than any of the other Pacers. Doncic finished with 33 points and Irving 29, but they were a combined 20 of 43.

Nembhard also scored 15 points on 7 of 8 shooting.

"Drew is a guy that everybody takes a little bit for granted," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. "He's gonna press up in the pick-and-rolls. He's gonna play physical. He does a lot of the dirty work. He's quietly gotten in a real offensive groove too, so a lot of good things happening."

Nembhard spearheaded what was a very strong all-around defensive effort for the Pacers. Dallas was 41 of 87 from the floor (47.1%) and posted a mediocre 1.06 points per possession. Josh Green (14 points) and Tim Hardaway Jr. (11) were the only other Mavericks who scored in double figures.

Tyrese Haliburton posts double-double

All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton continued his steady progression now that he's off of his minutes restriction following his hamstring strain. He showed bounce and explosion in his legs, which made him a tough cover getting downhill off the dribble and also a problem to contain in the pick-and-roll game.

Haliburton scored 17 points on 8 of 15 shooting. He made just 1 of 5 3-point shots, but posted 10 assists against one turnovers and had four steals.

Haliburton helped the Pacers shoot 55.9% from the floor and post 1.21 points per possession.

Ben Sheppard perfect from 3

The absence of Nesmith has also forced the Pacers to rely heavily on rookie guard Ben Sheppard the last two games, and Sheppard came through in the most important ways on Sunday.

Sheppard played his usual steady defense even though he found himself on veteran guards including Irving, and he also knocked down every outside shot he took.

Sheppard scored 15 points, knocking down all five of his 3-point attempts with his only missed shot coming on an attempted layup that was blocked. Two of the 3-pointers came in quick succession in the fourth quarter after the Mavericks had cut the deficit down to four points against the Pacers' bench. Sheppard's 3s put the Pacers up by 11 with 7:01 left, after which the Pacers called a mandatory timeout and got their starters in for the stretch run.

"Everything felt good coming out of my hand today," Sheppard said. "... I'm just staying ready. Being shot-ready at all times."

Sheppard is essentially locked in a battle with recently acquired veteran Doug McDermott to step into the open wing spot on the second unit when Nesmith returns. Mathurin will presumably move back to the second unit. Sheppard and McDermott have been playing together in his absence, but Sheppard has been the stronger defender and the better shooter so far, so he will have a good case.

Sheppard's pair of 3s in the fourth were part of what Carlisle considered the most important stretch in the game. They made up the bulk of the points in the Pacers' 9-2 run. Carlisle had the option of putting his starters in at the 8:53 mark when the Mavericks called a mandatory timeout after a jumper by Kyrie Irving made it a 104-100 game but with this being the first game of a back-to-back and Toronto coming to Gainbridge Fieldhouse for a game tomorrow, Carlisle stuck with his substitutes.

"I just believe in those guys," Carlisle said. "They've been too important to us all year long. I just told them in the timeout, I said, 'We're OK, here's what we gotta do. We gotta get a couple of really good shots and we're going to make it harder on Kyrie.' They did exactly that. Otherwise our starters were heading for a boatload of minutes. This helps us for tomorrow night."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers vs. Mavericks: Myles Turner scores 33 points in win