Why the Indiana Pacers changed their starting lineup + how it helped them beat Houston Rockets

Why the Indiana Pacers changed their starting lineup + how it helped them beat Houston Rockets

Pacers win in Houston their best win since the inseason tournament their first road win in over two weeks and they do it behind the back of a starting lineup and a huge lineup change at that we have a lot to talk about on today’s locked on Pacers podcast you are locked

On Pacers your daily Indiana Pacers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day what up y’all happy Wednesday and welcome into another edition of the lockon Pacers podcast where we of course talk about the Indiana Pacers as always my name is Tony East I cover the team

For Forbes and Si and today we’re talking Pacers we’re talking Rockets we’re talking a Pacers win in Houston tyres Halbert and clutch heroics lineup changes the Pacers with the new starting five three new starters for the Pacers in this game wow Rick Carlile really going for it and it works out well in

Some ways but not others we’ll talk about all of it today what an important win for the Pacers though um to win in Houston to get it done to get their first road wi over two weeks man did they need that and they got it done on

The back of everybody we gotta start though with where this game all spreads out from and that is the starting lineup change made by the Pacers Rick Carlile on 1075 the fans the morning show the Wake Up Call with Kevin and and uh Kevin Bowen and Andy Sweeney said that Bruce

Brown would not be playing in Houston he did not play over the weekend this past weekend against the magic either he’s got this bone bruise in his knee so we knew that and then he kind of hinted at some changes that could be coming which is interesting because he’s hinted at

This recently earlier this month but didn’t opt to change anything and at the time he kind of said well the numbers are good and you know it’s just we gotta play better and they beat the Hornets the next game and then they stuck with it so here’s the thing before we talked

About the starting line of change why it surprised me so much and I talked about this on this podcast their old starting five the Pacers had and this wasn’t available to them because Bruce Brown is hurt but tyres halberton Bruce Brown buddy heeld Obi toppen Miles Turner that

Lineup has an awesome net rating spectacularly good right and so it made even if they were losing games because of some rotational struggles that lineup itself was giving them good minutes right good enough minutes at least they would say well we should stick with this

And see if we can just tweak our bench or tweak our rotation just to have different guys out there at certain times just so that we could win right and I think that was something that made sense to me right I thought that made S I thought that made sense I defended

That as a strategy that the Pacers could deploy and that’s kind of what they did against the Hornets you know after talking about all that stuff they had a plus 20.4 net rating that original starting five that entering the Pacers game against the Grizzlies last Thursday

As it stands right now the Turner heeled Brown top and Halbert lineup has a plus 19.9 net rating in 171 minutes as the Pacers most Ed lineup so I thought that maybe if they made changes it would be a small one like n Smith starts that’s the

One one that people have talked about that makes the most sense to me or they would just change who Subs out first for example or how you know how long they keep halberton in with certain guys uh and instead they said screw that we’re making Dynamic huge sweeping over half

The starting lineup changes now caveats abound Bruce Brown was hurt when Bruce Brown returns he and neard have similar is skill sets it’s possible things change again but they started in this game for those who didn’t see it tyres Alberton he stayed obviously Miles Turner obviously stayed and then Andrew

Nard again in Brown’s place because Brown was hurt neard started against the magic on Saturday Aaron n Smith at the three guy I thought could start if they decided to shake things up and Jaylen Smith started at the four You could argue funnily enough that this lineup is

The Pacers best or most consistent five performers this season maybe not n hard maybe you’d pick somebody else in that spot maybe you’d put Brown there but that group they’ve all earned minutes they’ve all been playing well and they all have done well on defense this year

Which I think is no worthy for the Pacers and we’ll talk about that in a second the thing that struck me at first and then I thought about it a little more was J Smith’s inclusion for Obi toppen I thought that was very fascinating I thought maybe if they did

This it would be something like howbert nard uh maen n Smith Turner or healed n Smith Turner or something like that to go back to Smith Turner is interesting they did it against the Houston team to be clear that does start a little big is uh with with Jabari Smith and ALR shenon

But sh Shen shenon excuse me Smith is tinier and thinner and plays on the perimeter and threes like he’s spaces the floor he’s mobile so he’s not like a big uh in the front court or anything like that he’s more wingy than biggie to me right so it’s not like you need two

Bigs if you’re the Pacers and then their bench group was mine hee top and Jackson TJ McConnell did not play which is not worthy as well and Bruce Brown was obviously out with an injury so if they did do this again and Bruce Brown was healthy I’d presume n hard would play

Off the bench and they would go 10 guys that way and then Bruce Brown would start but maybe Andrew nard would start BR play his minutes off the bench we don’t know that it doesn’t matter that much what we do know is that was a starting lineup they went with in the

Bench rotation they chose to follow it that surprised me the Smith Turner part did but the more I thought about it there is a few differences between last year’s Pacers and this year’s Pacers and the biggest one that matters the absolute most is Jaylen Smith’s just playing way better right like he and

Turner did not work last year and then Smith played better at Center and then this season he was playing great at at Center so I thought they really want to get away from that this year he’s playing way better he’s earned a chance to do it with new Jaylen Smith better

Shooter although he wasn’t in this game he was one for four from deep in this game one of his worst shooting games of the season and he’s been defending better and he looks more mobile and he was a plus 11 he still played well so perhaps what you could see is that it

Still works this year that this new improved Jaylen Smith is better next most Turner than last year’s was when they had to yank that exact experiment right so that was the first thing that surprised Ur me and second thing that surprised me is to turn away from

Shooting right that this is an initial surprise we’ll we’ll talk about it in a second they took heel out of this group they took top it out of this group both those guys are shooting well but then I thought about it again like I just said

And they had Smith starting who has been on fire although went one from four from deep in this game and they had Aron Smith in this game starting who’s also shooting well from three right Jaylen Smith before this game was shooting 70% from three which is obviously the most unsustainable ridiculous hilarious thing

To see on paper of all time and N Smith is shooting 46% from three entering this game and he has done it like kind of capably he had half of his threes in this game he was two for four so maybe they do have enough maybe Halburn who

Can create good looks for everybody and is by himself a walking 40% three-point shooter who was unbelievable in this game and made Seven threes himself and and N Smith and Turner who’s a good shooter in his position and Smith and nard who’s fine enough as a three-point shooter maybe that is enough three-point

Shooting maybe that is enough and so the more I thought about it again I datawise would I to be clear would have stuck with the old lineup I I did not I am not in charge of any decisions of course I would have stuck with the old lineup

Even with the slump I would have tried to make tweeks elsewhere but the more I thought about it the more I got it the more I understood why they did it and what benefits it’s going to provide them especially defensively right the key thing is neard and N Smith in there last

Year’s Wing Duo that was so good on the defensive end you get a lot there that you weren’t getting and don’t get with Maan starting you get a lot of Defense without topping in there uh you get defense by just adding defensive players you lose that defense with your second

Unit by a great deal but perhaps starting the game differently or working through rotational tweaks as this rotation evolves could be something the Pacers pursue so that’s to me why they did it they got defense in the starting five and they still have enough shooting to let things work and it helps that

Halberton can cook connect to anybody was amazing in this game now a problem that is going to make it hard to fully assess the lineups and the build out from this is Jaylen Smith got hurt during the game he ran into Aaron Smith it was an unfortunate Collision it was

Just a Scramble for a loose ball so he didn’t play as much as the rest of the starters and then Turner had foul trouble so he also didn’t play as much as the rest of the starters that group still played a good amount six minutes and 20 seconds the third most used

Pacers lineup plus five they scored 19 and they allowed 14 in that span so that’s pretty pretty good their most used lineup in this game was actually the bench group except uh nard was running the show so it was nard heel maen Topp and Jackson that group played

Eight minutes and 47 seconds and was minus seven they were not very good so that’s also an interesting data point is that the bench group the new bench group stunk it up and that that’s another part of this whole rotational shift is figuring that out they have good

Shooting and good offensive weapons but that is not a good defensive group at all and hey they gave up 33 points and at something minutes right like that group is going to just give up points they’ve got to either score like crazy or find a way to defend a little better

Because they’re relying a lot on Andrew nimart to defend so that will be an interesting thing to see as this rotation evolves but the starters themselves were good uh the second most played group with Turner Healed nard Halbert and N Smith so healed in for smith after Smith’s injury was plus

Three and eight an over eight and a half minutes so that lineup was good and McConnell didn’t even play and Bruce Brown wasn’t even available so early signs and again this wasn’t even a move I would have made they still have a lineup with a crazy good net rating on

Their roster of guys that make sense but Rick Carlile Ops to make a change and even with what I keep saying they have this Great Net rating even although that’s factual it’s also totally right of them to say who cares Tony about that net rating we’ve stunk recently something

Had to change about our team we had to structurally change something to either light a fire or find other Solutions or start games better something that they’ve been doing terribly they gave up 73 in the first half to the magic two days ago they had to change something

And I am receptive to that and if this is what they determined was the best option then it makes sense and they were right that it would work at least in this game it did work I’m looking forward to I’ll be in Chicago and these guys play the bows to hearing from Rick

Carlile and some players about it and what they think about all of it and how it’s going to work because this is a Titanic shift I mean 60% of the starters being different in one game is drastic obviously Bruce Brown’s hurt so we still have some questions to learn Jaylen

Smith got hurt so we still have more questions that will be answered but they passed the test in day one and that was a very interesting thing that they finally make those changes to the starting five and unlike what I would have done it did work credit to the team

They’re smarter than me there’s a reason I’m talking in front of a bookshelf in Central Illinois instead of doing anything in basketball and we have more to talk about from this game tyres halberton amazing Pacers getting in the win column despite a second quarter uh in general other things that I think

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Team and the loser side of this game Rockets a threatening team this season like this is actually an impressive win for the Pacers this is funny to say so like when the Bucks beat the Pacers earlier this month in the dramatic ball game game I saw some people who cover

The Bucks tweeting like oh really good win for the bucks like in their top three best wins of the season I thought wow that is big respect for the Pacers descent this season that was before the Pacers really big slump I don’t know if they would be saying that anymore well I

Thought during this game and tweeted after it like oh that win over the Rockets that’s a great win for the Pacers on the road against a pretty good team the Rockets are 12- two at home entering this game they have a great defense Pacers look good they found ways

To score all night and then I thought wow what a compliment to the Houston Rockets who’ve been in the bottom of the near the bottom of the lottery every year for the last two three years that that’s what they are now they are they are a tough win it is it is impressive

To go into Houston and beat the Houston Rockets this season given that they’ve been good at home and given their record and given the way they play is tough for the Pacers but the Pacers outside of shenon who gave them so much trouble holy moly ALR shenon is an amazing

Player the Pacers were awesome in this game they they consistently could score outside of a few stretch ugly stretches with their bench and they played very well and they deserve a lot of credit for that and it all starts at the head of the snake let’s talk about tyres

Halber he’s back maybe it’s a stretch to say he was ever gone but I did a whole segment about his slumping the way teams are defending him differently the down numbers he had from you know that game against Washington really I guess where he had 19 but I would say the start was

In Detroit they won but he had 14 points from that point to the Memphis game that’s when I did it was after the Memphis game you know that’s six or seven games for the Pacers six games for him where he only cracked 20 once and his shooting percentage was not very

Good like his splits in those six games were 40 2979 and he was averaging 16 and a half and 12 like that’s down numbers for him and then he’s exploded out of it right against Orlando he found some space he made some shots he had 29 and

15 and then tonight he completely kept that going which is very important right to show that he he is it wasn’t just a flash in the pin this is what he’s going to be he can keep playing this well he is still tyres salurn 33 points 10 assists six rebounds he was doing

Everything on offense for the Pacers in this game two plays that stand out to to tell you about the impact he had they were both the same play Rel in the game and and Rick Carlile said the postgame stand that credit to Mike Wier for drawing these up late in game the

Rockets take their only lead of the fourth quarter 117 115 with a minute and 50 to go tough for the Pacers who were ahead for so much of the fourth and kept making timely plays to hold the rockets off and they were doing a great job

Staying in the lead and every time the Rockets tied up the Pacers would score until that moment under two minutes to go the Rockets Take the Lead home crowds going nuts timeout Pacers they come out Mike Wier draws up this double screen play at the top of the key and on the

First one of the two miles Turner rolls and two Defenders go to halberton who’s having an awesome game and so he throws this perfect snapping boom pocket pass right into the lane Miles Turner catches the only way the Rockets could stop it as tar Eid coming over from the weak

Side and fouling Miles Turner halbert’s pass I mean Turner deserves a lot of credit for Rolling well and getting the foul halbert’s pass was perfect perfect and then he makes both free throws tie the game Pacers forc to Jabari Smith Miss they get the rebound they come up

They run the same play and then Miles Turner rolls hard and this time shenon who’s on Turner just creeps back like like six inches eight inches off of where he was on Halburn on the first play doesn’t want that pocket pass to be there doesn’t want Turner to get a free

Roll you can’t scoot back on tyres Halburn you can’t do that halberton rises up for a three right in his face completely drills It 33 points at that time a 26-footer perers go up three they get a stop on the next possession alren shenon can’t quite handle the ball

Misses a dunk and the Pacers are able to hold on and get a win nart hit a clutch shot Turner hit another free throw they get it done credit to the Pacers their clutch time ex once they went down7 115 we’ll talk about this in a second their clutch time execution was basically

Perfect the rest of the game but those two plays when the Pacers needed him most halberton did the stuff that he did really all night seven for 13 from three huge the Pacers in general shot very well in this game 19 for 43 from the game they hit 14 more threes in the

Rockets that’s how you can overcome some other deficiencies they tied at the foul line so the Rockets did really well inside the arc the Rockets had way fewer turnovers the Rockets did very well on the offensive glass they took 15 more shots than the Pacers in this game but

When you make 14 fewer threes it’s very easy to get lost in that balance that’s 42 points they had to overcome with those shots that’s a lot of points right so credit to the Pacers for getting all that done and halberton was a huge part of that seven of 13 threes himself six

Rebounds not something he normally does and on twos he was still good six of eight on two getting into the paint carving up space and again 10 assist fantastic passes Pacers win his minutes by 15 points they win the game by six so that means he almost played 38 minutes so in 10

Minutes and 24 seconds with Adam they lost those minutes by nine the bench was not very good and that speaks to that but when the Pacers needed him most tyres halberton was fantastic in the clutch and he was really good all night and it wasn’t just like some of his

Games where it’s like H he was all right the first quarter then gets a little better in the second and he keeps reading the game better and better until eventually he goes bananas at some point usually in the second half or his impact is sort of you know concentrated to a

Late point in the game he was really good and consistent all night right he had four assists and five points in the first quarter he clearly had it going early he clearly could read the game get his team going and that was important for the Pacers and at halftime he

Already was up to 15 points right like that he is usually and this is a trait of his because he can read the game because he can adjust so well to what’s being thrown at him he’s usually a guy who’s going to score more and have a

Little bit higher of an impact in the second half so to have 15 points in the first half is generally a good sign for what his second half is going to look like and that’s what he had right at halftime of this game he had 15 and

Seven and was plus six and in the second half of this game he was still a little bit better with 18 points five rebounds three assists and was plus nine so all the credit in the world of teres Howton for I mean as expected right like guys

Who can read the game at his level you can’t shut them down with one defense over and over again it’s not like he’s seen the coverages all the time the Grizzlies didn’t Blitz him as much as he had been I didn’t see as many blitzes in this game although again some are still

Coming but credit to him for just trusting himself right he said he said correctly that during his slump yes some of the issues are coming from the fact that he is being defended differently and some of them are coming from the fact that he’s just missing shots he

Feels like he can make and boy did he had some deep threes in this game and he’s turning it over more which is self-inflicted he he was at had four more per game in five of the six games from that stretch of in Detroit to in

Memphis he’s had under four in both of the last two games his three-point percentage has been good in each of the last two games he is their star and when he plays well they have a chance to win they had a chance against Orlando but blew it late they had a chance in

Houston but they stepped up late and halton’s gravity and influence and successes were a huge part of them getting over the Houston Rockets late in this game everybody else deserves some praise too as the lock on he guys call it credit cookies we’ll talk about the rest of the Pacers and there struggling

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Thanks for making us your first listen today and every single day for your second listen check out lock down Blazers with Mike grman why because they had an awesome win tonight against the Kings maybe the Blazers best win of the Season not a lot of chances to dive into

The Portland Trailblazers this season because they’re not exactly killing it but Mike Richmond kills it covering them and you should check out lockon Blazers for your second listen after a fantastic performance speaking of fantastic performances how about the Pacers getting on track staying over 500 they still have not

Been under 500 this season Bulls is a tough now because the Bulls are playing well but win aable game Thursday and then a home game against the Knicks on Saturday will they be over 500 or at New Year’s they need one win in those two

Games to get it done and I have been saying it it’s coming the January schedu is coming being over 500 by as much as possible at that time is crucial so far and the this pivotal stretch of schedule to me they’re two- two big win today uh

In Houston to keep that one rolling and in their key Nine games of schedule that I highlighted before the season they are now four and five I bet they would like to have that number be closer to six wins but alas that is life they can get

It to six if they win these two games to close out this week and this year which is crazy to say uh this remaining week unlocked on Pacers we’ll be talking about looking back at 2023 next Monday uh we’ll also talk Nicks talk some Bulls three burning questions about the Pacers

Amid their worst play tomorrow with a guest it’s harder to get guests around Christmas so just won this week I apologize for that you’ll get a lot of me but such is the holiday life we got to talk about the Rockets before we do any of that stuff later in the week

Pacers got it done in Houston and I talked about halber and he was fantastic two games in a row or Andrew neard is is making me feel better about my ex Factor prediction from before the season he’s just a great fit with Halbert I said this after the Orlando game on my first

Show this week I just think that he you know like a secondary guy as a Creator next to Halbert and I think he’s a little better at that stuff than Bruce Brown at least right now and he’s hitting shots so of course he’s gonna look but this is the second straight

Game where his efficiency’s good his passing is good his defense is typically solid he had 11 points on five for six shooting fantastic six assists and two rebounds plus 10 in this game he continues to be a fantastic fit in the starting five the thing he needs to

Clean up so much he had some head scratching turnovers and some of them like half of them I think are just bad passes inaccurate passes that they were just more accurate or just a little cleaner it’s like man that play was right but it wasn’t a good play he

Cleans those up his impact of Skyrocket I think of every change the Pacers have made to their starting five unironically the one they were forced to make due to injury injured M hard starting has turned out to be the best one and I might consider sticking with

It even when Brown comes back and bringing Bruce Brown Off the Bench although I understand why that might be odd or impossible from a Dynamics perspective Miles Turner you’re you’re gonna look at a stat line and not think it was enormous 18 points five rebounds

But got to the line a bunch and got 18 points on nine shots he was really fantastic had a lot of big plays and his defense was really good in this game only two blocks but if you watch the game you could feel it he was detering

Guys around the rim playing really good basketball in the defensive he was really good Jaylen Smith had an off night but still did good stuff on the glass and defensively n Smith had an on night he had half of his shots and was good defensively as well so the new

Starters did awesome all of them had good had positive plus minuses 15 and 17 for hurn and N Smith respectively really stand out credit to those guys for playing well because the bench was not particularly good uh nine deep and they had some accurate Nights two accurate

Nights on the bench but uh they didn’t defend well and then two guys who played a lot with starters or did a little bit better stuff but didn’t make their shots right Ben Maan was three for n he shot well from deep but wasn’t passing particularly well his defense was me he

Was minus six he was fine uh and then buddy heeld we have a lot of interesting stuff to talk about with budy heeld in this rotation so I think it’s good that you know they get a shooter with the bench I talked about that a lot that

Their bench group without buddy heeld is much worse because they don’t have the shooting I think that’s a key part of why halberton stays later in quarters with these Ben groups right you can see it if you look at the game chart of this game’s lead the Pacers are winning in

The first quarter they go to Halbert and plus bench their lead goes away a little bit they take Calton out their lead goes away the Rockets Take the Lead until the Pacer starters come back in and they slowly get the lead back until the middle of the third quarter the bench

Comes back in and the lead goes away and halber has to come in early you can see the second the Rockets cut the lead to four early in the fourth quarter halber pops up off the bench he knows he’s got to come back in right they wanted the

Win and they got it but the bench was not good in this game they needed more shooting out there so healed with them makes some sense but he wasn’t shooting well in this game he missed a bunch of open looks three for 11 at at some point

I will say maybe he’s not as good of a shooter right when he keeps missing these open threes I just there’s such a years and years and years and years long track record of Buddy heel being a good shooter that evidence that’s slapping me in the face and saying maybe he’s just

Not as like a third maybe he’s a 40% guy instead of a 43% guy maybe he’s a 38% guy now I don’t know he another off night if he continues to have them at some point I’ll have to say Okay I have to adjust what I think of Buddy heeld as

I just think eventually they’re going to go in I don’t know why um but they didn’t go in in this game he did make the game saving play to his credit um an awful second half shooting the ball and then with under a minute to go I talked

About their clutch play earlier under a minute to go in the game they’re up 120 to 117 the Pacers get a mitch from shenon a and they come up the floor and 10 seconds after their rebound they could have cut the clock from 54 to about 30 with 43 seconds left Aaron n

Smith rips a three from the right wing for some reason they had a lot more time they could have killed and he missed it and Buddy heeld comes in with two rockets Defenders around him and gets a huge rebound they’re trapping him he’s in trouble and he calls a timeout

Massive play and Andrew NIMH hard scores out of the timeout they go up five rockets never had a chance again so heads up rebound and timeout from Buddy heeld to save the game late despite very crummy game in general from him Obi toppen shot it well uh in this game he

Was well shot it well on his limited attempts he was two for three and made a three um filled up the staty other Wass three assists U but defense his defense has to be better I think that’s part of the reason he’s with the bench now in

Fact if you’re going to bench hope be top in defense is certainly a factor and Isaiah Jackson continues to just be absolutely wonderful he was not the reason the bench stunk he was so good in the second half miles Turner got in foul trouble they had to turn to Isaiah

Jackson he was just unbelievable in this game three for three from the field didn’t miss a free throw eight points excuse me 11 points eight rebounds three blocks and a steel my oh my is he good and one advantage of what they’re doing by starting Jaylen Smith of the four is

Now there’s obvious path to minutes for Isaiah Jackson if they keep rolling the two bigs great you can play Isaiah Jackson Every Game and he’s earned that he’s been good he’s been better than some guys that are still playing for them so credit to the Pacers for this

New rotation it works the first night they go to it it allows six players to have really solid nights that eight guys in double figures and if it allows Halton to play amazing it is totally a change worth making we will see as this continues we’ll have more as the week

Progresses but for now the Pacers back over 500 much needed win and they’re back looking a little at least a little on track from their last couple games we’ll have more as the week progresses tomorrow with guest TBD talking big questions for the Pacers Thursday uh excuse me Friday talking Bulls whatever

Happens in that game in more and then next Monday looking back on 2023 and ahead at the Bucks that’ll be fun thank you all for listening today this should be the last day with the travel setup with the different background three different ones in three days and the travel mic

Because it fits in my backpack and the one at my house does not so expect better audio and video quality again starting tomorrow hope you all had a fun holiday and thanks for tuning in today if you’re going back to work hope you had a good time off if you’re still

Enjoying some time off at home congrats to you that sounds very fun thank you’all for listening have a fantastic day we’ll see you soon

The Indiana Pacers got a much-needed nice win on Tuesday over the Houston Rockets. How did they get it done? And why did they change their starting lineup? Host Tony East breaks it down, including Tyrese Haliburton’s great night, the look of a new rotation, Smith’s start, and more.

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