Pacers Notebook: Haliburton surging, Mathurin sidelined, Walker shines in G League game, award season, and more
My latest Pacers notebook touches on Tyrese Haliburton's sizzling play, Bennedict Mathurin missing time and Jarace Walker playing a game for the Mad Ants. Plus, several news items.
Now that the trade deadline and All-Star break have passed, we’re into March and it’s now a push to the playoffs over the next five weeks. Every one of these games seems to mean more, even if it’s still just one win or one loss.
The Pacers used a remarkable 20-6 run over the final eight minutes to fend off the Houston Rockets Tuesday night for another win, 115-102. That run was also incredibly important given that the Rockets had first went on a 21-5 run themselves. (Also, it’s not very often we’ve seen a flopping technical like we did on Alperen Sengun.)
It was interesting to see how the Rockets chose to play it when also having a game the night before in Oklahoma City. They elected to instead sit key players in OKC, and they lost by nine in a high-scoring game.
Then, they arrived to Indy around 2 a.m. due to a late start. It was a good thing, however, for the Pacers that most key players were available because they play up (and down) to their opponent.
These teams were much different than their first meeting in Houston. One month into the season, the Rockets won by 17. The Pacers’ best player on this night? Two-way guard Quenton Jackson, who started in place of Tyrese Haliburton and finished with 24 points.
The win pushed them to 10 games above .500 for the first time this season, now 35-25. And they’re tied in the standings with the Milwaukee Bucks, who they’ll play two more times this season.
They’ve now won two in a row, three of four, and six of their past eight games.