The Indiana Pacers’ offense has looked middling, and the paint-touch numbers only tell part of the story.
On the surface, 26.4 paint touches per game sounds solid. That figure would rank 10th in the NBA, which makes it easy to assume Indiana is doing enough work downhill. But that number doesn’t really capture how the Pacers have played since Tyrese Haliburton went down, or how much the offense has changed without him.
The bigger issue is that Indiana no longer has the same engine driving its transition game. Without that constant push, the Pacers are getting forced into jump shots and half-court possessions that don’t fit nearly as well without their lead orchestrator. That has helped drag down an offense that has been more disappointing than even its mediocre defense.
There are plenty of places to assign blame. Individual struggles matter, especially Ivica Zubac, who has not been good in a vacuum, let alone at the price Indiana paid for him. But the scheme itself is also running into limits.
The paint-touch ranking is misleading because Indiana is also first in total offensive touches per game. The Minnesota Timberwolves, for comparison, are at 26.6 paint touches on 377.4 total offensive touches per contest. The Pacers are at 26.4 on more than 410 total touches.
That context matters. Minnesota is built around off-the-dribble shooting, so a lower downhill volume fits.
Indiana is supposed to be different. The Pacers want to play fast, live in transition, and find easy layups.
A better measuring stick might be the Boston Celtics, who also want to play fast and score at the rim or from deep. Even there, the gap is telling. The Celtics spend over 2% more of their time on the ball in the paint than the Pacers do.
That may not sound like much, but in this offense, it is a major difference. Indiana cannot keep avoiding the paint at this rate.
If that doesn’t change, the offense is going to be unplayable. And for a team that is supposed to be defined by its offense, that is the real problem.
It’s fair to say Haliburton would help a lot. He would lift this group considerably.
But it should not fall entirely on him to get a roster with two fringe All-Stars at power forward and center to score in the paint. That is a bigger issue, and one Indiana has to solve.
In Other News...
Rick Carlisle Rips Officiating After Brutal Pacers Loss Without Haliburton
The Pacers had a real chance to steal one from Dallas, even with the Mavericks playing the second night of a back-to-back, but a tight finish turned into another frustrating postgame conversation. Indiana stayed within striking distance deep into the fourth quarter, and the closing sequence left Rick Carlisle focused less on the loss itself than on what he believed should have been a whistle.
Carlisle took aim at the officiating after Pascal Siakam was involved in a late collision he felt clearly warranted a foul call, describing it as a "football caliber collision." The missed call denied Indiana what could have been a final chance to tie the game, and with Tyrese Haliburton already out, the Pacers were left to wonder how different the ending might have been if that one play had gone their way. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Blew Another Winnable Game And The Questions Are Growing
The Pacers had another one in hand for long stretches, only to watch it slip away in the second half as the Mavericks rallied for a 125-122 win and completed the season sweep. Indiana actually did a lot of the little things well, shooting it efficiently and taking care of the ball, but it still could not finish the job against a Dallas team that got big answers from Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving when the game tightened.
For a team trying to settle in early this season, the result only adds to the unease around a 3-8 start. The Pacers have shown enough in stretches to suggest they can hang with quality opponents, but the growing issue is what happens once the game turns late and the margin shrinks. Those are the moments that keep turning close, winnable nights into losses, and they are starting to pile up. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Are Learning How Much They Need Tyrese Haliburton
Tyrese Haliburtons left hamstring strain has put the Pacers in an early-season test of just how much their offense depends on him. Indiana was 2-1 with Haliburton healthy, but since the injury the team has dropped seven of its last eight, a stretch that has made the point hard to miss: when the Pacers lose their primary creator, they lose a lot of the rhythm that was carrying them.
Andrew Nembhard has taken over lead-guard duties and has done his part in the playmaking department, averaging 8.5 assists in six of the eight games since Haliburton went down. Still, the Pacers have not been able to turn that into the kind of sustained success they had hoped for, and the broader season picture has only grown shakier at 3-8 overall. [Read more 🡒]