Pacers Notebook: Is All-Star break long enough? Just 29 games left.
The Pacers, especially Tyrese Haliburton, enjoyed a much-needed break. They resume action Thursday with a four-game homestand. Plus, HOF Finalists named, Clark Kellogg honored, new TV option and more.
Following a long weekend, the Pacers gathered together Tuesday afternoon for their first practice. It’s about time for basketball again — and now there’s real urgency felt.
Mentally, we all think the NBA’s All-Star break represents the midway point of the season when, in reality, it’s not even close. It’s about a month later.
I’d argue for the All-Star break to be moved up to earlier in the season and for it to be longer. At least a week. For All-Stars, they have just a couple days (at best) to decompress and, ideally, do nothing,
Now… the Pacers (30-23) have played 53 games and have 29 to go; that’s 65% of the season complete.
After winning 18 of 23 games, they limped into the All-Star break. The last few weeks of basketball was not good and should not simply be blamed on the dog days of the season or how they were looking ahead to the break.
They split four games on the west coast, developed an awful habit of falling behind big and then spending the rest of the game catching up, then trying to take the lead. Defense suffered, they were getting burnt in transition, and sometimes, it came down to attention to details.
After that big win streak, they dropped three of their final five games going into the break. It took an overtime session to pull out a win over the Wizards, the team with the league's worst record and a focus on a rebuild.
For the first time in a long while, the Pacers only had one participant at All-Star weekend: Pascal Siakam. No Rising Stars, nobody trying to win an event at All-Star Saturday night. It was just Siakam making his third appearance — his first as a Pacer — and playing time was limited in an entertainment event that included brief basketball games.
Everyone other than Siakam — who went to San Francisco and then snuck in a few days back home in Orlando — was able to kick back and relax. Most players go south — to escape the winter and enjoy some sunshine. Usual on a beach and at a resort.
“I think everybody came back with a nice, little tan and good to go,” Myles Turner, who often went to All-Stars with sponsors (but no longer) said at practice.
Nobody needed this break on the Pacers more than guard Tyrese Haliburton, who was an All-Star the past two seasons. He’s had limited free time over the last two years when factoring in his two stints with USA Basketball as well. Plus managing injuries. Multiple.
Haliburton is the player most poised to take off after a relaxing break and taking his mind off basketball. He’s a hooper and loves the game, but it’s good to put it to the side occasionally.
“I feel great,” he said, sporting an obvious tan. “It was the first time in a while I got to just kick my feet up. I got to go to Mexico with my girl and just kick my feet up and rest. I feel good coming back.”
The Pacers resume play with six of their next seven games at home, including four in a row out of the break. That begins Thursday as Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies make their annual visit.
The Pacers are also healthy coming out of break. Turner missed nearly four full games due to an inadvertent strike to his face by teammate Bennedict Mathurin while on their trip out west. He’s good to go, no longer even on the injury report.
“I got mad respect for UFC fighters, boxers, all this,” Turner joked. I think I got hit in the perfect spot, kind of like on my button or whatever you want to call it. I don't really think I lost consciousness or anything like that. I just kind of went limp for a second, just like shocked.”
It’s bad enough that the Pacers lost two backup centers within the first 10 days of the season. It’s the one position they cannot afford an injury to Turner. It required more from Thomas Bryant, and we’ll see how they choose to handle the third-string spot. In the short-term, they rewarded veteran Jahlil Okafor with a 10-day contract.
Okafor signed on Feb. 11 and 10-day contracts are good for at least three games, so he’ll be with them against the Grizzlies. Then, it’s TBD.
The coaching staff elected to move Aaron Nesmith back to his familiar position in the starting lineup and bring Mathurin off the bench. I first reported that planned move here. I expect for it to continue in an effort for better starts, balanced lineups, and leading with defense.
“I think the break was much needed and I felt like everybody came back with a great vibe, great energy, and it's a great mindset,” Mathurin added.
After a rocky start, primarily due to injuries and poor defense, the Pacers recovered and have risen up the conference standings. To fourth.
They’re behind the Cavs, Celtics, and Knicks.
That would be a good spot and give them home-court advantage for a series. Can they hold off the Bucks, Pistons, and prevent a losing streak?
“We are the four seed right now and we have a beautiful opportunity in front of us, being able to remain a top-four seed,” Mathurin said, confident as ever. “And, we're trying to be first, you know what I'm saying? But at the end of the day, just being top four is definitely going to help us a lot in the playoffs.”
To do that, they need to get back to playing like they did in January — leading to Rick Carlisle to be Eastern Conference Coach of the Month. They need better starts, better defense (both in transition and at the rim), and more — a lot more — from Haliburton.
His play has regressed in recent weeks. He's only averaging 14.9 points and 7.6 assists per game this month while shooting 41.8% from the field. He must be a bigger contributor and, and more than anything, more consistent.
“I feel like fatigue may have kicked in over the last six or seven games before the break,” Haliburton acknowledged, “so we've got to do a better job of running, getting up and down on both sides of the ball and rebounding. We've been awful on the glass since our West Coast trip.
“Take care of those couple of things, and we can get back to the success we had in January there.”
Interesting Stat…
was shared on Twitter by Evan Abrams of Action Network.
“Looking ahead to NBA Thursday, Grizzlies-Pacers have the highest O/U for any game this season (249.5)… In fact, we’ve had 25 games at 249+ last 30 yrs, Pacers have been in 14 of them.”
Naismith Hall of Fame Names Finalists
Each year at All-Star weekend, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame announces its finalists for its latest class. Last year, especially being in Indy, it was Pacers owner Herb Simon named among the finalists for the prestigious legacy award.
This will be another loaded class.
The North American Committee finalists: 2008 US Olympic Men’s Basketball Team: Carmelo Anthony, official Danny Crawford, Billy Donovan, Mark Few, Dwight Howard, Marques Johnson, Jerry Welsh, and Buck Williams.
The women’s committee is special too: Sue Bird, Maya Moore, Sylvia Fowles, and Jennifer Azzi. And there’s an owner for the second consecutive year: Micky Arison of the Miami Heat.
The full class is announced at men’s Final Four weekend, which this year will be held in San Antonio. Enshrinement weekend returns to its normal schedule, set for Friday, Sept. 5. It was held one month later this past fall due to the summer Olympics.
Clark Kellogg To Be Celebrated
Clark is one of the nicest people in basketball. And he’s going to be celebrated at Hall of Fame enshrinement weekend. He’ll be a Hall of Famer.
(Click here to watch his reaction to the news)
Kellogg is the recipient of one of four Curt Gowdy media awards, along with Fieldhouse Files subscriber Adrian Wojnarowski, Pistons’ TV play-by-play voice George Blaha, and journalist Michelle Smith.
Last year’s recipient’s were Fever TV analyst Debbie Antonelli and J.A. Adande.
The Pacers drafted the Ohio native with the 8th overall pick in the 1982 NBA Draft. He spent his entire career with the franchise, but then knee injuries forced him into an early retirement. He played for the team from 1982-1987 and was named to the All-Rookie First Team after he averaged 20.1 points and 10.6 rebounds per game.
You may not remember this, but CK worked for the Pacers in multiple capacities. CK then transitioned into being the radio analyst — briefly, before moving into TV — and was Mark Boyle’s first partner.
“(He) went out of his way to help me learns the ins and outs of the NBA,” Boyle tweeted. “It makes me feel good to see him recognized with an award that is the gold standard in our business.”
CK’s last role with the organization was the VP of Player Relations, which concluded after the 2013-14 season. He had been with the organization for 32 years.
Most know him for his work discussing men’s college basketball and the NCAA tournament on CBS.
CK was a guest on the podcast in 2016 after he was a co-recipient with Tamika Catchings of Indiana Sports Corporation’s annual Pathfinder Award.
From the Hall of Fame announcement:
Clark Kellogg is a renowned basketball analyst and former professional player, best known for his work as a college basketball analyst for CBS Sports. Kellogg joined CBS Sports in 1993 and has been a part of its NCAA Tournament coverage for more than three decades. He served as studio co-host for early-round tournament coverage from 1994-97 before joining CBS Sports full time in 1997 as both a studio and game analyst for college basketball regular-season games and March Madness. His deep knowledge of the game, signature enthusiasm, and coining of ‘spurtability’ - describing a team’s ability to go on a substantial scoring run - have made him a fan favorite. In 2008, Kellogg replaced Billy Packer as CBS’s lead college basketball analyst, calling the Final Four and National Championship games alongside Jim Nantz until he returned to the studio in 2014.
Kellogg began his career in broadcasting shortly after ending his NBA career, signing on with his former team, the Indiana Pacers, as a radio analyst before making his television debut with Cleveland State University. In 1988, he joined ESPN, providing analysis for college basketball games and contributing to the Big East Network and Prime Sports. That same year, he became a TV analyst for the Pacers, a role he held until 2012.
An aside: I’m still waiting for Donnie Walsh to get his due. Or be a finalist — at least.
Pacers Games Now Available On Prime Video
I’ve written a lot about the Pacers’ TV situation and how to watch games. The good news is there’s now another option as games resume on Thursday.
FanDuel Sports Network Indiana, formerly known as Bally Sports Indiana, is the primary home to their TV broadcasts. Now four months after the change in naming rights, the network is available on Amazon’s Prime Video as an add-on subscription.
This is meant for those whose TV streaming package doesn’t include the network (like YouTube TV), others who get cable but not the premium tier (like Comcast), and those who don’t pay for any TV.
It’s the same price ($19.99 per month) as subscribing directly from the TV network and streaming on their app, just a different delivery system. And there’s already a proof of concept given the success of NFL on Prime Video.
Options are good and here’s another one.
If you choose this route, please report back in a few weeks and share your experience.
Jaguars Breaks Ground On New Arena in Indy
IU Indy officially broke ground on the James T. Morris Athletics Center Wednsesday afternoon.
4,200 arena seats, 138,000 square feet, and office space.
Quinn Buckner, the longtime TV analyst of the Pacers, is the Board of Trustees chair.
“Like many projects and programs throughout our state, this facility would not have been possible without Jim Morris,” he said in a statement. “The James T. Morris Arena will help recognize his enduring legacy on sports, community and scholarship in our city and our state.”
Construction is expected to take nearly two years.
More on this, from the groundbreaking ceremony, coming Thursday.
Haliburton’s School Coming to Indiana
I immediately thought of Haliburton when Purdue men’s basketball announced an upcoming home-and-home with Iowa State University.
Purdue will host the Cyclones to Mackey Arena next season, then play at Hilton Coliseum during the 2026-27 season.
Haliburton is constantly watching basketball — doesn’t matter if it’s NBA, WNBA, college basketball, etc. He’s always keeping tabs on Iowa State, where he played two years of college ball (2018-20).
Haliburton will be celebrated at ISU on March 1. During a ceremony at halftime of their game against the University of Arizona, a banner will be unveiled in the rafters to celebrate his gold medal with USA Basketball in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Four Nations Face-Off
It’s been a big hit. Instead of a NHL All-Star game, four nations are squaring off.
To help generate interest in the event, Fanatics sent me and others a jersey ahead of the weeklong series of games. I’m not a big hockey guy, but it turned out well.
If you’re interested in a jersey or other sweet USA gear, get it here.
