INDIANAPOLIS -- As T.J. McConnell crossed the timeline to dribble out the last seconds of the clock in the Pacers' 119-110 win over the Heat on Sunday, Myles Turner paused to process a moment that was redemptive for the Pacers and himself. The 10th-year veteran center walked up the floor, came to a stop with his hands on his hips and let his head fall so he was staring at the floor. After a few moments he started walking toward the bench and didn't say anything until second-year forward Jarace Walker came up behind him to pat him on the back.
It wasn't a jubilant moment because it wasn't a win that necessarily proves anything about this so-far inconsistent Pacers team and where it's headed this season. They are still under .500 at 6-7, and the Miami team they beat is under .500 at 5-7 and was playing without its most accomplished player in injured forward Jimmy Butler. Turner's individual performance was spectacular as he scored 34 points on 14 of 23 shooting including 5 of 8 from 3-point range, knocking down a critical 3 with 53 seconds left that put the Pacers up seven. However, Turner has also had some struggles with consistency and stacking strong performances together this season.
Still, the win and Turner's performance mattered because he and the rest of the Pacers' starting five got their acts together after an abysmal performance against the Heat on Friday in a 124-110 defeat. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle took out the whole starting five in the third quarter to make the point that they weren't playing hard enough, and they were severely outclassed by a second unit that included two players on two-way contracts. Turner's -29 plus/minus figure was the worst of the group, which peaked at -22.
On Sunday, all five starters were +6 or better. Turner was +11. They took lessons of about 45 hours worth of self-flagellation that included a film session on Saturday to delve into just how awful Friday was. They didn't believe they had met their standards as a team or as individuals and they set out to turn that around.
"It was big for me personally," Turner said. "I just, publicly, like, I just haven't liked my attitude around here the past couple days. I feel like you have to be an energy giver. Just in the interest of accountability, I've been an energy sucker. I think I've been getting in my own feelings a little bit if I don't get the ball or a shot doesn't go in. That type of (expletive) is just negative, bro. Obviously, it was a great game, but just growing as a leader and growing as a man, you just can't put that type of stuff out until the universe. So I'm gonna hold myself accountable for that."
Saturday was entirely devoted to accountability. The Pacers expected to practice but didn't and instead just watched clip after clip of their embarrassing breakdowns. The Heat hit two 3s on which there was barely a defender on the same half of the floor as a shooter and another in transition off a made Pacers free throw.
"It was worse watching it the second time," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said before Sunday's game.
Turner said All-Stars Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam both made a point to address the team to note that Friday's performance wasn't good enough while also acknowledging that they, too, were part of the problem.
“When I got traded here I helped build a culture," Haliburton said. "That's sacred to me. We're all a part of it, but especially a guy like me who, when I came here, I was a part of building that and just wanted to keep that. We have a standard that we must meet that we didn't meet on Friday night."
Indeed, the Pacers clearly put their focus on making sure that every facet of the game that was truly atrocious on Friday was better on Sunday. They cut their turnovers in half from 20 to 10 while also increasing their assist figure from 28 to 30. They moved the ball well enough to score in the paint rather than settling for jumpers, posting 62 points in the paint after scoring 48 on Friday.
Their starters were dramatically better. Turner had nine rebounds to go with his 34 points after scoring just nine points on 3 of 7 shooting and grabbing just five rebounds on Friday. Siakam scored 23 points on 9 of 11 shooting on Sunday after scoring 14 on 6 of 14 shooting on Friday. Bennedict Mathurin had 21 points on 6 of 10 shooting, making 8 of 8 free throws while also grabbing 12 rebounds.
"I thought we were just more connected," Siakam said. "There's a lot of things happening in a game, there's ups and downs, and I think it's easy -- we're humans -- to go away when things are not going right. We had to just get back to us, being together no matter what.."
They also did a better job, as Turner noted, of not getting caught up in their own feelings and sticking to the game plan. Haliburton has sometimes struggled to stick with it when his shot isn't falling, and on Sunday he scored just six points on 2 of 8 shooting including 1 of 4 from 3-point range in the first half. However, he drilled back-to-back 3s with 5:10 and 4:38 left in the fourth quarter after the Heat had tied to game to give the Pacers a six-point lead and he did excellent work distributing the ball all night. He was ruthless at seeking out mismatches, finding Siakam and Turner around the rim anytime they were posting up smaller defenders and avoiding Heat defensive ace Bam Adebayo. He dished out 13 assists without a turnover and also scored 16 points.
"He was great," Carlisle said. "He had a great leadership vibe going all night and kept everybody poised and aggressive."
The most drastic improvement from Friday to Sunday, though was on the defensive end. The Pacers’ rotations were much sharper, they kept their eye on cutters and they didn't give up much of anything easy. The held the Heat to 40% shooting while making 51.8% of their field goals themselves, and they gave up just 28 points in the paint after Miami scored 44 points there on Friday.
"I thought our attention to detail was good," Haliburton said. "I thought we did a good job of having the low man rotate for the next guy. (The Heat) played very hard, they've built Heat culture, but you've got match that energy. I think we did a good job of matching that today."
They continued to match it even when they had a setback. Second-year wing Ben Sheppard, inserted into the starting lineup thanks to injuries to starters Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith, played seven minutes in the third quarter but left and didn't return in the fourth due to a strained left oblique.
Nesmith and Nembhard are the Pacers' two best perimeter defenders and Sheppard is arguably their third-best and at worst fourth-best. He'd been guarding Heat guard Tyler Herro, Miami's top available perimeter scorer with Butler out, helping to hold him to nine points on 3 of 11 shooting through three quarters.
With Sheppard out, the Pacers were relying on Quenton Jackson and Jarace Walker, among others, to take some tough assignments and Herro got going with 19 fourth-quarter points including five 3-pointers on six attempts. Adebayo also hit a 3-pointer and sharpshooter Duncan Robinson scored six points with a 3-pointer and three free throws on a three-shot foul. The Heat were down by as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter, but they rallied back to tie the game at 97 with 5:37 to go.
"We were pretty quiet on Friday and it showed by the way we let shooters get free," McConnell said. "The connectivity we had tonight with the five guys out there was great. It showed with the way we were able to switch and fight through screens."
The next goal for the Pacers is to try to turn one strong performance into more. That's something that hasn't been easy for them and won't get any easier now. They've won consecutive games just once this season when they beat Dallas and Orlando in succession Nov. 4 and 6. They go to Toronto on Monday for a road game on the second night of a back-to-back. If Sheppard is out, they'll be missing three of their best four perimeter defenders with Nembhard out for another week and Nesmith out until at least December. They'll be down to just seven members of what could've arguably been viewed as a 12-man rotation at the start of the season. After that Toronto game, they have two more road games coming at Houston and in Milwaukee before they come back to Indy on Nov. 24.
But they're trying to hold themselves accountable not just to the standard they've set, but to a higher one.
"We've done a good job of responding when we've come off a loss and our backs against the wall a little bit," Haliburton said, noting not just responses off losses this season but in the last two. "But I think the maturation of this group is continuing to do the little things on an every-night basis, not having to lose to gain a reminder. I think the maturation is being able to do that for 48 minutes on a game-to-game basis every night. We just have to keep building off this."
