Pascal Siakam pops in Indiana Pacers debut, Tyrese Haliburton return in L vs Portland Trail Blazers

Pascal Siakam pops in Indiana Pacers debut, Tyrese Haliburton return in L vs Portland Trail Blazers

Pascal cakam debuts Tyrese halberton returns they both go crazy in Portland and the Pacers lose to the Blazers we have so much to talk about yak’s nice game Halton his back the starters were awesome the bench was terrible lock on Pacers we covering it all today let’s go

You are locked on Pacers your daily Indiana Pacers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day happy Saturday y’all hope you’re having a great weekend and welcome into another edition of the lock down Pacers podcast where are we of course talk about the

Indiana Pacers as always my name’s Tony East I cover the team for Forbes and Si and today man oh man is this different than I thought it could be Pascal sakam debuted in Portland Tyres halberton returned to the lineup those two together were awesome the Pacer starters

Were unreal and they lost the reason I didn’t expect to be talking like this is if you told me before the game seak looked very comfortable it made buddy heeld and Miles Turner better tyres Halbert and returned I would not have expected to be talking about a loss and

Yet here we are we have to dive into all of it the SE yakum debut the fit of the starters what the heck happened to the bench and the Pacers loss in general won’t be as long today because it’s a bonus weekend show and then we’ll be back tomorrow SL Monday covering the

Suns game and the Pacers at the halfway point this game was set up Friday night to be the perfect storyline game and I’m a sucker for a story I do right as well and it was perfect the Pacers had played exactly 41 games so they were starting

The second half of the Season that by default is a new chapter Pascal sakam playing his first game for the blue and gold that by default a new chapter tyres Halbert was back from injury he hadn’t played since January 8th had missed five games he was in the lineup a new chapter

Aron E Smith was also back so they had a lot of their starting five and played what some would consider the starting five they should have even when fully healthy and that group was fantastic but the Pacers lost it ruined the story it would have been perfect for writing and

Stories had they beaten the Blazers had they looked awesome in doing so and where we start is the stuff that did look awesome which is to be fair to the results of the game the more important part of this right pass yakum we start with him the Pacers new star forward

Started at the four next to Miles Turner he has thought Sam M reported this that Miles Turner is a perfect fit next to him in the front court or one of in the NBA because of his floor spacing because of his Rim protection and he was very

Excited about that nine for 14 for Pascal cakam what a start in the first quarter his first stint he has seven points one rebound one assist one steal three for three shooting his first bucket was exactly what Pascal seak does right him and tyres halberton in the

Slot halberton swings it to seak seak dribbles towards halberton to initiate some action and howbert starts pointing no no go around a screen dude score you’re Pascal seak seak dribbles around a Miles Turner screen drills a mid-range shot beautiful play right his first in was fantastic outside of fouls that was

His one knock in this game he had an assist to Miles Turner in that stretch he hit a three he looked great he was slowing Jeremy Grant which no one else on the Pacers had a prayer of in this game halberton was back he splashed along through on the first

Possession right he looked solid Miles Turner looked good that continued throughout the game foul trouble kind of janked up the rotation a bit but zakum finished in his debut doesn’t know the offense very well doesn’t know where shots are going to come from first game with all these teammates 21 points six

Rebounds three assists and a steal five fouls being the knock on his night plus 17 in a three-point loss and he played 34 and a half minutes that was the highest plus minus on the Pacers roster you already can see how his value is going to help this team one because he’s

Good right without knowing how to play with halberton yet without knowing where his shots are going to come from without a lick of knowledge of you know there’s new terminology there’s new everything he got to his spots he found ways to score he put the ball in the basket and

Need a lot of space to do it that’s great he slowed Jeremy Grant for the mere moments that he was allowed to guard Jeremy Grant um again foul trouble gunked that up a lot of stuff gunked that up still no matchup data in from the NBA stuff but I promise you despite

Jeremy Grant having 37 points zakum defended him better than anyone else on the Pacers you also saw the push of what his gravity does for the rest of the Pacers Miles Turner first game with seak of course hitting threes helps he was six for 10 from Deep 29 Points 12

Rebounds five blocks for Turner SE yakum talked I forget who exactly talked about this miles talked about it in Sacramento like he can’t be guarded by Smalls anymore they can’t put a smaller guy on Turner and a big on Jaylen Smith or Obi toppen now they can’t do that they have

To put a center on Turner so it’s easier for him to have space and put the ball on the floor and be faster and that works out well for the rest of the Pacers because Turner is now screening with potentially a worse Defender guarding him so that makes his life

Easier you saw that you would see possessions in this game where shakum would start to drive and the Blazers would try to form a wall to cut it off right keep him out of the paint make him pass and then buddy heel would have a wide open three as a result buddy heel

In this game 6 for 11 from Deep for 18 points one of his best games in a while same thing happened to Ain E Smith who hit three threes like not only did sakam himself play well the guys around him were immediately boosted by his presence halton’s first game with yakum had 17

Assists we’ll talk about Tyrese halberton in a second every like not to just wax poetic after one game he’s going to have bad games with the Pacers but you saw how not only Pascal seak is great and can fit with the Pacers but how he can make life easier for

Everybody else on the roster and what a natural starting five with a one and a two and a three and a four and a five playing those exact positions that made life easy defensively I think siakam’s debut was awesome and the lineups he was primarily a part of were fantastic and that’s what

Makes the loss so bizarre we’ll get to the bad stuff in a second but to keep going on seak he played with tyres halberton for 26 minutes in this game reminder the Pacers lost by three in 26 minutes with halberton and sakam on the floor the Pacers were plus

27 that’s insane like they just dominated with those two guys on the court halberton was coming back from injury and they still played him 35 minutes Andy was grimacing sometimes seakan played 34 minutes with five fouls so imagine what that could have been with like a minute or two more for them

They could have won the game but it is what it is they were fantastic the new look starting five in this game we’ll see if nart starts when he returns that was my prediction others have predicted heal we’ll see uh I get the merits of both 19 minutes and 25 seconds for

Halbert and heeld yakam N M Turner plus 22 64 points on 43 possessions that’s insane that is an insane number that is a 148.8kg quarter but they did well on tues as well 56.25% they were moving the ball extremely well that lineup was great right and I think that is a key takeaway

From this game is SE yakum was good lineups involving him were good and his pairing with halberton still looked fantastic we’ll need more of a sample to really dive into what his impact on the Pacers is going to be when they come home this week and they may have a

Chance to practice as I’m recording this I think the team is in Tucson Arizona for Benedict Maan reduction into Arizona’s Ring of Honor um but once they get home from this road trip they play the Suns tomorrow and they come home for three games if they can get in even a

Light practice not even like an official practice just like a you know a day where they can all come in and work together on terminology and plays and stuff then I think will’ll be able to really assess his impact but I think it was a great start for sakam and what he

Can do it was a great start for the Pacers with him on the floor tyres Halbert was back we’ll talk about that in a second and yet they still lost the game they ruined the story book and the bench was the cause of it no doubt at

All we’ll talk about the bench we’ll talk about halberton playing we have so much more to talk about here on locked on Pacers but first have to talk to you guys about the lovely people over at eBay Motors passion drive and patience what brings home the winning trophy in a race is

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Listen and if you’re tuning in on the weekend big thanks for making me a part of your day uh check out lockon Blazers when Mike richman’s next episode goes up they don’t win that often this year but when Malcolm Brockton plays the Pacers he looks good when Jeremy Grant plays it

All he looks pretty good at Mike Richmond of Blacktown Blazers will have more on the team team that beat the Pacers on Friday Tyrus halberton returned and not going to spend a ton of time on this he did mention earlier in the week Tuesday he went he went to um

Iowa State played BYU that was the day after the Pacers played the Jazz and he went on the ESPN plus broadcast of the game right talking about Iowa State they were like within three he was cheering at the time it was really fun he was asked about his injury and he said he

Was progressing a little faster right at that time he said he could return on the road trip I thought that was very interesting then he was listed questionable for the Kings game didn’t play um but acknowledge that you know it’s he’s progressing faster he could play Then he returns to the lineup

Friday five game options from the hamstring strand how about that three and two for the Pacers without him if you include the Heat game and the two games from earlier in the season they are now four and four without hurn this year huge improvement over last year

That’s also pakum that doesn’t count the games he actually got injured and they won that Celtics game he got hurt in for example that’s a win for the Pacers certainly and a part of them having 24 wins right now uh he returned to action on one hand 35 minutes suggests good

He’s ready to go he can play he can get the minutes he can get the action that’s great the other hand clearly some grimacing moments although they were usually after contact right so I wasn’t sure if it was the hamstring that was causing him to Grimace or if he banged

Up something else during the game I’m not going to speculate too much on injuries but he’s able to play 35 minutes that’s a good sign he’s driving to the rim a ton in the second half he certainly figured out how to break down that Portland defense in the first half

We’ll talk about this in a second I mean the points in the paint was all Portland right that was a big adjustment for the Pacers anyway halberton in this game four for seven on twos that was pretty good got to the rim took nine free throws right clearly was attacking to

Some extent could not get the threes to fall that was a big problem for him had he gone three of seven from Deep this game goes to OT for example but he couldn’t hit him two of seven himself either way 21 points 17 assists no turnovers it’s just just crazy how

Normal he makes these stat lines look he drew a bunch of attention he was a plus 16 so clearly him and sanum were not the reasons the Pacers lost this game halberton back halberton playing 35 minutes he had 17 assists five of them almost a third or 2-1 Pascal sakam his

New star teammate I have no doubt that that duo was going to work that was the first question um from Dustin oper to Rick Carlile after the game in The Press Room duh that should be the first question and Rick Carlile said uh if I could find the quote quick enough

Apparently I don’t know how to read um things he said they’re going to work well both guys played well here offensively they both were significant pluses in the game all that’s going to work halton’s defense not awesome in this game not surprising given his injury situation but still uh but his

Offense was fantastic they dominated his minutes they dominated Pascal siakam’s minutes Aaron n Smith had 12 points and was three for four from Deep on was plus 15 miles Turner had 292 and five on was plus six buddy healed had 18 points six rebound rebounds seven assists and was

Plus 11 yeah that group was fantastic that starting five could stick it would make sense to me I still think gend Mard should be the fifth starter but that is not a debate for today that’s a debate for the healthy Pacers whenever that happens perhaps they’re

Next game when they play in Phoenix as I finish rambling there the Pacers lost they did not win this game what the heck how does that happen how does a team with that dominant of a starting five with a plus 27 pairing in 26 minutes lose well because this was by far not

Even close eons the worst game from the Pacers bench all season they have the best scoring bench in the NBA most points per game Off the Bench from any team in the league their depths been strength all year right they’re shooting percentage with their bench best of any

Team in the league the only team in the NBA whose bench shoots better than 50% this season from the floor is the Indiana Pacers the same bench that got them a win over the Hu one week ago before this Portland game primarily that bench the same bench that the night

Before the Portland game were all awesome in a win over the Kings a very inspiring performance a surprising results they were all great and then this night when all they to do is be bad to steal Caitlin Cooper’s phrasing all they do is be bad and they were terrible

Terrible terrible terrible let’s just run through some negative stats first of all Jaylen Smith was okay right he was the best bench player to me he had seven points and three boards he was only air quotes minus n while the rest of them were all way worse than that he did okay

Right I thought Jaylen Smith had a fine game Ben Shepard was active again but wasn’t making shots those two get the smaller pass to me they don’t have one and Shephard’s kiss there’s not a lot to compare it to obviously he needs to make his open Corner threes but I mean he

He’s just run when he’s out there man he is moving uh and in Smith’s case he actually played decently the three guys that really were were different here were McConnell maen and toen McConnell the stat I typed out was he had two assists in a game he played more than 10

Minutes this season he’s only had two assists or fewer once now once before this now obviously if his teammates aren’t making shots he’s not going to get assists but in general you could see his Effectiveness was not as much and the Blazers were doing a really good job

In this game especially in the first half of cutting off the paint keeping the Pacers out of the lane and they were dominating the pain points against Sacramento man were they the opposite of that in this game against the Blazers they could not get into the pain at all

Again we’ll talk more about that in a second but McConnell that’s his thing that’s where he’s at his best that’s where he makes the Pacers bench at their best when he’s not doing that and when that impact isn’t there it really hurts and on top of that he went one for four

So he had two points on four shots two assists uh and two fouls minus 19 right they couldn’t rely on him as much as they did literally the day before when he had 20 and 10 against Sacramento right if he goes two for four or has four assists they might win this game

Not good Benedict Maan 0 for eight from the field 0 for five from Deep three turnovers one foul three rebounds minus 21 no he’ll tell you I feel bad saying this because he’s getting honored today but he’ll tell you too easily his worst game of the season

No contest no competitor the first game of the season he had did not make a shot so that alone puts it in some sort of category right he made two free throws so he wasn’t scoreless but 0 for eight his first zero for game every other game

Of the season he shot at least 20 % so that’s 20 percentage points worse than any other game he’s had this season and the three turnovers that should your leading stat being turnovers just says everything right so horrible Ben maing game his defense wasn’t very good either

I mean it just it wasn’t working for him one day after he had 25 points in Sacramento on one free throw attempt his first 25-point game with one or fewer free throw attempts was awesome had nothing in this game Obi toppen 0 for three all threes two assists no rebounds two turnovers two

Fouls minus 16 that was Obi toppins a first game with zero points this season and B first game with no M chance this season pairing it with like Ma and his leading stat being turnovers and assists but still turnovers tied for his leading stat McConnell Maan and toppen have all

Been wonderful of late toppen was their only consistent contributor in their games last weekend between Atlanta and Denver he’s been awesome I’m not blasting these guys because they’ve been bad all year this was such an anomaly right worst of the Season level games for all three of those guys and that’s

Why the Pacers lost SE yakum was awesome halberton was good to to Great probably great enough for them to win certainly um and the bench was just awful and for comparison sake so so the total numbers here the bench for the piters was four for 24 with 14 points and eight

Turnovers out of the Pacers 13 eight were the bench right that’s just Gastly numbers the Blazers bench which is not a very good unit in this game it was tumani Kamar scoot Henderson Chris Murray du upath they were eight for1 from the field total that’s it they took

10 shots the only two misses were both Kamar that group had 22 points on eight for 10 shooting that’s it and that was enough to be way better than the Pacers bench 22 total shots and that few total points was enough that’s what cost the Pacers in this game some stylistic stuff

I thought was interesting about the paint points I want to talk about and a couple more sakam related thoughts to close out today’s locked on Pacers a game they should have won but didn’t but first I have to tell you guys about the wonderful people over at game time you

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Talked with Shawn Woodley yesterday we talked a little bit about Bruce Brown’s first game against the Bulls if you want to hear more about Jordan War Kyra Lewis and Bruce Brown in Toronto Shawn Woodley unlocked on Raptors is the way for you to go he is pro team keep Bruce Brown in

Toronto couple other things from this game that were either stand outy noteworthy or just stuff stuff to monitor stuff to monitor going forward and then I will opine for a second I’m gonna try to dig up the halftime stat either via my tweet or my story about uh

The game last night uh but I believe at halftime of blazers Pacers the points in the paint battle was 40-2 40 to 12 in favor of Portland uh it was just crazy how difference it was uh it was 40 to 12 that’s exactly right it was 64 53 on the scoreboard Blazers had

40 points in the paint Pacers had 12 it was ridiculous they would get scoot Henderson was cooking people getting in the lane he didn’t miss a shot and he would make a little dump off past eight or he would just score himself Brogden who learned how to finish with a guy on

His hip in Indiana in that last year he got way better at that right ironically with Carlile as his coach he was awesome they could not guard him right nobody could n Smith had a couple good possessions on him but in general they could not guard brogon he got to the rim

He scored Jeremy Grant just shot over dudes like it was ridiculous how easily they were scoring in the lane everybody could have been better at both guarding their man and keeping the out of the paint or being under the basket and being more threatening as a player under

There they had a new player in the mix right that’s going to make defending and communicating and rotating harder uh but not that much harder where it’s that brutal in the second half it was so the 40 was obviously bad the 12 was just as alarming right they weren’t getting in

The pain at all the Pacers would have been down 25 was what I tweeted that was a madeup number but around there at half time if they weren’t on fire from deep in the first half the end totals was 26 to 66 in points in the paint so that

Means the Pacers got it all the way up to 14 paint points in the second half they did hold the Blazers to just 26 but it was ridiculous a how bad the Pacers defense was at keeping them out of there and B how poor they were at getting there

That’s where they’re best right they call it painted great for a reason that was a big story of this game I think with one more seaka reps to Iron Out communication rotations Etc that will help some but I mean that was brutal on the perimeter

And that would be where I want to go next an argument I think for n hard starting right they did not have enough perimeter defensive pressure in the starting five a big halftime adjustment was moving n Smith on to Brogden but he wasn’t on in the first half right so

They had to figure out something else because of that if n hard starting matchups become a little easier there even if you’re offensive potency drops a lot and Buddy heeld looked great right he had open threes he made them in this game he was passing and rebounding well

Again right so that of of course heal plays his best with halberton and will pair very well with yakum I think think he should be the sixth man if he doesn’t start to me but I think nard starting makes a lot of sense and I like HEI with

That bench group man I always have because the mine shot it well this year but the maen McConnell Duo I think needs a shooter with them and he’s been awesome in that role and they have you know with with zakum with that group that’s not a lot of shooting too if they

If he gets staggered with halberton which I think they should do so I would still start nard but I get I one get the argument for starting healed and two the proof of concept that we got uh certainly suggests that buddy heeld starting makes a lot of sense but nar’s

Defense could have been valuable uh and keeping the Blazers out of the paint so I I think the key takeaway would still be positive process-wise for the Pacers which is so weird to say they lost to the Blazers they got swept by the Blazers someone tweeted at me during the

Game and said will anyone else get swept by the Blazers this season finally enough the Brooklyn Nets already have so the answer is yes but I mean that just shows like that should not happen they had 11 wins entering the night they’re not a good team but they swept the

Pacers right they swept the Pacers and they deserved it they the Pacers were sloppy both times they played Portland and they were again on Friday but the process takeaways where I was going with this SE yakum was really good and it didn’t require much for him to do it the

Rest of the Pacers playing around him used his abilities and talents to play off of him and play well and have a nice game tyes halberton was back and was awesome and I think the big number that they should and will point to going forward would be either the starting

Lineups plus minus or the halberton plus the yakam duo plus minus just ridiculous how good the Pacers were with both of them on the floor all they need is one bench player to have a good game and they win and I think they’ll hope that happens going forward much tougher

Competition upcoming Suns Sunday uh so ktie Booker Beal and then the defending Champion nuggets in Indy a team that just beat the short albe at short-handed Pacers uh earlier this week and then the Sixers the former MVP in India on Thursday and then that becomes a back

Toback where they play the Suns right after so uh even if the process is good they could have trouble in these next four games we’ll see before finally that is the end of to me their totally brutal stretch of schedule it’s still hard in late January into into the trade

Deadline but it’s much much easier once that Phoenix game ends there’s some winnable games finally after that so doing well in these games showing off that Improvement will be very vital and winning any of those I think will be important for the sakam era Indiana Pacers that’s all weekend show I got for

You on the Blazers game on siakam’s debut on halton’s return let me know what you thought either on Twitter at Tony R East or at lockdown Pacers or if you’re watching on YouTube Down Below in the comments that is generally a good place to go we’ll see where this Pacers

Team goes we’ll see what n hard being back could mean for them but if the bench is better they will be better till then everybody till the next time I see you I guess everybody have a wonderful day

The Indiana Pacers saw Tyrese Haliburton return to the lineup and Pascal Siakam debut on Friday night. How did they look? What kind of promise did they show? And why did the Pacers lose to the Portland Trail Blazers? Host Tony East breaks it all down.

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