Indiana Pacers: Takeaways From Game 1
It’s easy to overreact to October basketball, but here’s what we can actually learn from the Pacers 140–131 season-opening win.
It’s tough to make long-term assumptions based off of one game. It’s even harder when that one game is a mostly new roster facing off against the reigning worst team in the league.
Despite this, here are the big takeaways from the season-opener.
- The Pacers are finally going to run.
We’ve heard that the Pacers were committed to a more modern, uptempo offense for years now. It appears it’s finally coming to fruition. With athletes like Darren Collison and Victor Oladipo, the Pacers have no excuse not to run.
When Nate McMillan, a coach with a history of implementing a slow-it-down offensive approach, was hired to replace Frank Vogel after his failed attempt to speed up the offense, questions were raised. Last season the Pacers failed to play at the pace they wanted to play at.
Wednesday night was a great night for those who bet the over on the Pacers/Nets matchup. The 140 points put up by the Pacers is the most since the Pacers put up 144 on the Denver Nuggets in 2010, when the Pacers memorably made 20 straight shots to begin the second half.
The Pacers may not score 140 again this season, but now that the Pacers have seen what they can do with an uptempo attack, it’s hard imagining they revert to their old ways.
2. Victor Oladipo has finally found a good basketball situation for him.
In Orlando, he was a slasher with no room to slash. In Oklahoma City, he was asked to stand on the corner and become a shooter.
In Indiana, playing at a fast pace with bigs who can space the floor, Oladipo can finally play his style of basketball.
Oladipo is a special athlete who has seen his strengths mitigated by situations that haven’t been conducive to his success. In his first game, Oladipo finally looks like he’s in a position to reach his potential.
3. The Nets are still really bad.
For whatever reason, it became a popular internet thought that the Nets wouldn’t be very bad this season. They were wrong.
The Nets came into the season starting Jeremy Lin and D’Angelo Russell, two of the worst defensive guards in the league. Protecting the rim was slow-footed Timofey Mozgov, the 6'8 Trevor Booker, and 6'7 Quincy Acy. There’s no defense from the backcourt. Mozgov can’t defend pick-and-rolls, Acy and Booker can’t defend the rim.
The Nets should be the worst defensive team in the NBA by a mile. Now that Lin is out for the season with a knee injury suffered last night, their offense will take a few steps back.
The Nets are going to be atrocious yet again, rejoice Cleveland.
4. It’s clear to see why Collison won the starting job over Cory Joseph.
Going back to #1, the battle for starting point guard told us everything we needed to know about this team’s philosophy.
Collison is a pick-and-roll point guard who uses his great speed to get things moving. Joseph has played slow in San Antonio and Toronto, and is regarded more for his defensive ability.
McMillan choosing the offensive-minded, speedy point guard sets the tone for what this team is trying to accomplish. They want to run, they want to run a ton of pick-and-roll with Myles Turner and Thad Young. Collison is the right choice to do it.
5. Domantas Sabonis looks much, much better.
Lost in the shuffle of efficient stat lines of Myles Turner, Oladipo, and Collison was Domantas Sabonis, who couldn’t have looked much better in 19 minutes of action, while scoring 16 points on 7–7 shooting while snagging seven rebounds.
In a rough rookie season (being 6'11 and shooting under 40 percent from the field qualifies as rough), Sabonis didn’t look comfortable.
He bulked up a bit after his first season and it showed in his ability to play down low. No longer was Sabonis getting pushed off of his spots. It may have come against the aforementioned trio of lackluster Nets defenders, but it’s encouraging that Sabonis was able to deliver against them.
Sabonis is definitely the team’s first big off the bench.
6. We’re going to get a lot of Lance Stephenson this year.
Despite coming off of the bench and playing the sixth-most minutes in the opener, Stephenson took three more shots than any other Pacer. It was clear that when the second unit is in the game, Stephenson is the de facto point guard.
Stephenson was a bit trigger-happy as the Nets gave him the Rajon Rondo treatment. Stephenson, a 30.6 three-point shooter for his career, made it a point of emphasis to improve his jumper in the offseason and was more than willing to test it out, taking nine three-pointers and making only two.
Stephenson didn’t have an efficient game (6–19 shooting), but he did spark some offense with the bench as he attacked the rim and put pressure on the defense.
Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard spoke of taking the good with the bad when it comes to Stephenson at Media Day, saying “I’m a little old school with this. If you make three good plays and one bad play, you’re doing pretty good.”
As long as Stephenson is making the good plays, the Pacers won’t mind the bad ones.
