Pacers 'needed everybody' to put down Pistons with lock-down fourth quarter

INDIANAPOLIS -- For the first 8 minutes and 59 seconds of Friday night's fourth quarter, Tyrese Haliburton found himself in what this year has been the rare position of watching a game being decided in his team's favor while he was not on the floor.

That's not to say that the Pacers' would have won their game against the Pistons without his contributions, as the Pacers All-Star point guard put together another exceptional performance with 26 points and 10 assists against just one turnover. Once he got on the floor in the fourth he quickly helped turn what was becoming a comfortable win into a laughable rout. In his 2:26 on the floor, the Pacers scored 12 consecutive points and a nine-point lead turned into a 136-113 blowout of Detroit.

Haliburton posted at least 25 points and at least 10 assists for the sixth time in his last seven games, but even he had to acknowledge that the most necessary work was done by the players on the floor before him. The Pacers' needed Haliburton's points, but they also needed to get defensive stops for once, and the players on the floor in the fourth quarter's first nine minutes provided them.

"It was big time," Haliburton said. "They won the game."

The group that specifically formed "they" in this case were guards Bruce Brown, Andrew Nembhard and Bennedict Mathurin, forward Obi Toppin and center Myles Turner. Their contributions in the fourth were decisive as the Pacers outscored Detroit 39-17 in the fourth and blitzed them 32-7 in the final 8:49 after they fell behind 106-104 on a running layup by the Pistons' Cade Cunningham.

But Friday night's win was one of the most truly collective of the Pacers' season to date. They played nine men at least 18 minutes. All nine provided critical contributions when the Pacers had to have them and at least at some point in the game did exactly what it was the franchise drafted, signed or traded for them to do in the first place. The NBA's most potent offense did what it does, cracking the 130-point barrier for the eighth time in the season's 15 games. However, the Pacers' defense, one of the league's worst, also held a team under 120 for just the sixth time this year and the first since Nov. 8. Throughout the game they showed signs of their evident flaws, but they also showed a capacity to complete the task at hand on both ends when it needed to be done. That's relevant because there have been times this season the Pacers have seemed too content to follow Haliburton's lead and allow his hyperkinetic brand of offense to carry them by virtue of sheer point production without taking care of the other facets of the game.

It's worth noting, of course, that the Pacers (9-6) needed all those contributions to put away an extremely young Pistons team (2-14) that has lost 13 straight games since starting 2-1 and is the midst of some serious growing pains in its first season under coach Monty Williams. But it's also worth noting that those Pistons start five players who were taken in the top 16 of their respective drafts and three taken in the top five in the last three seasons.

And, of course, its worth noting that the win gave the Pacers a 4-0 finish in East Group A in the first-ever In-Season Tournament and sets them up to be either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the East knockout bracket and guarantees they will host a quarterfinal Dec. 4 or 5. They are one of just two teams in the NBA, the other being the Lakers, who have finished their group play schedules with 4-0 records. The Bucks and Kings are 3-0 with games left to play but everyone else in the NBA has lost at least one game. The Pacers and Bucks have each outscored their opponents by 39 points so if the Bucks beat the Heat on Tuesday, the Bucks will be the No. 1 overall seed in the East, but the Pacers will be No. 1 if the Bucks lose.

"Thats enormous for our team, for the organization, for ownership, for our fans," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. "That's gonna be another opportunity for us. That's a little ways down the line, but I'm really proud of the guys and the effort they put into this."

At various points throughout the Pacers' four In-Season Tournament games, Carlisle showed he was willing to take chances with rotations and lineups in tournament games to indicate their importance. He did it again Friday when he decided in the first quarter when the Pacers fell behind 11-3 in the rebounding battle to be willing to put two bigs on the floor at the same time. He brought Jalen Smith out to play power forward, and not long after, Turner picked up his second foul and had to go to the bench, but Carlisle didn't hesitate to bring out Isaiah Jackson so the two backup big men could play together. The Pacers especially had to be able to play with size because the Pistons were using the 6-8, 250-pound Isaiah Stewart at power forward next to centers Marvin Bagley III (6-10, 235) and Jalen Duren (6-10, 250).

Smith and Jackson hadn't played together for a single minute yet this season, but they got work together in the past and they immediately stemmed the tide on the boards. The Pacers got six of the last eight rebounds of the first quarter and Detroit ended up winning that battle 13-9 in the first quarter, but in the long run the minutes with two big men helped the Pacers finish down just 43-40 overall on the boards but with more offensive rebounds and more second-chance points. Each of them finished with eight points and six rebounds and Jackson blocked three shots on top of that.

"Honestly, I was impressed," Turner said. "They both know their role and they both play their role very well. Zay is just so mobile. Sticks (Smith) can obviously play inside-out. But defensively, that's where I've seen the growth on both of their parts. We all know Zay and Sticks can block shots, but now they're moving their feet and guarding guards. Being two-way players is so important in this league and what's going to help them grow and make their marks."

But even though Jackson and Smith helped neutralize the size advantage, the Pacers were still having trouble guarding the perimeter where Pistons guards Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey were giving them trouble. Cunningham, the No. 1 pick in the 2021 draft scored 31 points and Ivey, the former Purdue All-American and No. 5 pick in the 2022 draft, scored 25 on 9 of 16 shooting.

So in the fourth, Carlisle made sure the Pacers always had their two best perimeter defenders available out on the floor. Brown and Nembhard played all 12 minutes, and switched off on the duty of guarding Cunningham. Carlisle particularly challenged Brown to step his game up, noting that top defensive assignments were the reason the Pacers lured him from the NBA champion Nuggets with a two-year contract worth up to $45 million if they pick up his club option for next season. Brown took on tough assignments coming off the bench for the Nuggets, and the Pacers signed him because they desperately needed someone to do that.

"At halftime I said to Bruce, 'This is why we brought you to Indiana,'" Carlisle said. "'You've got to do a job on Cunningham. You've just got to make it difficult.' He and Nembhard made it really difficult."

In the first half Cunningham scored 22 points on 7 of 15 shooting, getting easy looks for pull-ups in the mid-range off of ball screens and continually taking advantage of the Pacers when they switched bigger defenders on to him. . In the second half, he had just nine, making 3 of 11 field goals. In the fourth quarter alone, he was 1 of 6 from the field for four points against three steals, including one play in which Brown picked his pocket and got all the way to the rim before being fouled.

"We just had to be physical," Brown said. "Get up, get over the screens. We knew he likes to settle for mid-ranges, which we want, but we just need to contest them and be there for them."

Nembhard's performance was particularly impressive considering he was in his first game back after missing three with soreness in his lower back. Forward Aaron Nesmith was still out with a right wrist sprain, so the Pacers couldn't afford to ease Nembhard back into action. He scored 13 points, grabbed three offensive rebound and dished out four assists, but his defense was his most important contribution and he spent much of the fourth taking on Cunningham one-on-one.

"Drew and Bruce and Double-A (Nesmith) are three of our best on-ball defenders," Haliburton said. "Missing Drew and Double-A when we've already been struggling defensively doesn't help at all. To be able to get one of them back helps a lot."

While Nembhard and Brown were focusing their efforts on Cunningham with whoever wasn't guarding him generally taking on rookie Ausar Thompson, Bennedict Mathurin took on Jaden Ivey and seemed to relish the assignment. Ivey was taken one pick ahead of Mathurin in the 2022 draft. Ivey outscored Mathurin 25-15 on the day, but Mathurin held him to five points on 1 of 4 shooting in the fourth quarter and blitzed a screen to rip the ball right out of his hands at one point.

Mathurin scored just two points on 1 of 3 shooting in 12 fourth-quarter minutes, but that in itself is a sign of maturity. Mathurin is wired to go to the basket and score and he can get frustrated when he isn't getting buckets. He was first-team All-Rookie last season because he averaged 16.7 points per game and he seems to have all the physical tools to be a great defender, but he hasn't put the pieces together on that end yet. Carlisle has been trying to get him to truly absorb the idea that he can impact the game without the ball in his hand, and Friday's performance was another sign he's learning to do that. Carlisle mentioned the Milwaukee game because Mathurin came up with two critical stops to help the Pacers beat the Bucks on Nov. 9.

A locked-in Mathurin helped the Pacers hold the Pistons to 6 of 17 shooting and 0.66 points per possession in the fourth quarter.

"Tonight, he went into the game with force and a level of determination that was really key to this victory," Carlisle said. "If you look at the end of the Milwaukee game and look at this game, particularly in the second half, and you look at Benn Mathurin, you're looking at a guy that can be a really good two-way player in this league, can be a force on offense, which he is, and also a force on defense. I was really happy for him. This is who he is. He's a ferocious competitor that loves the moment. Being a big part of this is really cool."

Everyone else was a big part too. Turner shook off foul trouble that held him to 13 first-half minutes and grabbed 10 second half rebounds including seven in the fourth quarter and scored 10 points in that period to finish with 23 for the night. With Turner attacking the glass, the Pacers won the rebounding battle 16-6 in the fourth and 27-15 in the second half. The Pacers had 19 second-chance points in the second half compared to Detroit's six.

Obi Toppin had some first-half troubles but finished with 15 points on 6 of 8 shooting and hit a key 3-pointer in the fourth. Buddy Hield had some struggles on defense and didn't play in the fourth, but he scored 18 points with three 3-pointers.

"We needed everybody," Carlisle said. "Everybody did what was necessary."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers vs. Pistons: Pacers 'needed everybody' in key win