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The Indiana Pacers boast the league’s top offense, but coach Rick Carlisle knows his squad needs to improve on the defensive end in order to make a lengthy postseason run.
The Pacers’ ongoing journey to become a complete squad continues on Monday when they face the visiting Portland Trail Blazers in Indianapolis.
All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton averages 25.4 points and 12.1 assists to lead Indiana, which is scoring a league-high 128.8 points per game.
Haliburton had 26 points and Myles Turner added 23 in the Pacers’ 136-113 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Friday. The win earned Indiana a quarterfinal home game in the NBA in-season tournament.
Turner is averaging 17.2 points and 7.5 rebounds for the Pacers, who have scored at least 130 points in seven of their first 15 games. Indiana’s high-scoring attack has been presenting new challenges for opposing coaches.
“We’re the highest-scoring team on the planet,” Carlisle said. “Teams are loading up, trying to figure out ways to slow us down.”
Next up is Portland, which has lost nine of its last 10 games. The Blazers led by as many as 26 early in the third quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday before losing 108-102.
“To be a good team, a really, really good team, contending team in this league, you’ve got to have composure,” Portland coach Chauncey Billups said. “Our composure was good for the most part, but when it really, really counted, we came unraveled a little bit.”
Jerami Grant scored 22 points to lead the Blazers in the loss, while Malcolm Brogdon added 18 points and 12 assists. Shaedon Sharpe had 17 points and rookie guard Scoot Henderson chipped in a career-high 13 points.
Billups has been pleased by Henderson’s development over the past few games. He was 3-of-4 from 3-point range against Milwaukee after going 2-of-24 (8.3 percent) from beyond the arc to begin the season.
“I thought Scoot played good,” Billups said after Sunday’s contest. “I thought he was confident. Obviously, knocking down three 3s. Getting to the rack. I thought he did a good job. He had five fouls at the end. But I still want him to be aggressive on both sides of the floor. But I could see his confidence continuing to pick up.”
Portland continues its five-game road trip with a tough matchup against Indiana’s up-tempo attack.
In addition to proven scorers Haliburton and Turner, Pacers guard Buddy Hield has scored 73 points in his last three games while shooting 16-of-24 (66.6 percent) from 3-point range.
Indiana has also received a spark from shooting guard Bennedict Mathurin, who is emerging as complete player in his second season. Mathurin scored 15 points in the win over Detroit on Friday and was a key part of the Pacers’ defensive effort in the fourth quarter.
“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,” Carlisle said. “This is who he is. He’s a ferocious competitor that loves the moment. Being a big part of this is really cool.”
–Field Level Media
