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INDIANAPOLIS – Nate McMillan continues to have the number of a man who he will coach with on Team USA the next few summers.
On Wednesday night, McMillan’s team played like a group Gregg Popovich is used to coaching.
Indiana won their third straight over San Antonio, in a 116-96 road victory. The Pacers have now won in consecutive trips to San Antonio (2-2).
In back-to-back road losses to start the season, the Pacers (3-2) lacked the necessary ball movement to appease their head coach.
They achieved that on Wednesday, producing 34 assists on 46 made field goals. That led to a 17-of-32 night from behind the arc and running away from the Spurs in the second half.
“We’ve worked on it and we’ve been talking about it,” McMillan said of his team making the extra pass. “When we get good ball movement, first it starts with the defensive end of the floor. This is a good team (the Spurs). We know this is a tough building to play in and we had to establish our defense, and I thought we did that early. We were able to get stops and we got the ball movement that we’ve been talking about. Our goal each night is to get 25-plus assists. (Wednesday night) we had 34.
“When we’re moving the ball like that and sharing the ball, and no one cares who is scoring, everybody gets involved and it’s a beautiful game to watch. It’s a game that you feel good playing. I thought we did a nice job on both ends.”
Victor Oladipo led the Pacers with 21 points, on just 12 shots. Major bench contributions were back on Wednesday, with a total of 7 Pacers scoring in double figures, including 4 reserves.
How good was Indiana’s bench on Wednesday?
Domantas Sabonis, Cory Joseph and Tyreke Evans had plus/minuses of plus 33, 32 and 29, respectively.
Evans had 19 points, behind 5-of-7 from three-point range. Sabonis recorded yet another double-double (16 points and 10 rebounds). And Joseph hit 3 early three pointers, before finishing with 12 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists.
Outside of a stretch late in the second quarter and early in the third quarter, the Pacers did a really nice job in limiting the production of San Antonio leading scorer DeMar DeRozan. Coming into Wednesday, DeRozan was averaging 29 points per game. The Pacers held him to 18 points.
Like they’ve done in their other two victories this season, the Pacers won each quarter over the Spurs.
Three Pacers’ Takeaways:
–Ball Movement Clinic Wednesday was easily the best ball movement of the season for the Pacers. Indiana had 34 assists against the Spurs, a number they reached only once all last season. From the onset Wednesday, the Pacers were whipping the ball around in their half court offense. The first quarter saw them have 9 assists on 11 field goals made. The only two non-assisted baskets came on low post field goals from an isolated Myles Turner. Just take a look at the three-point numbers—17-of-32—for how smooth the ball movement was on Wednesday. Many of these looks were as wide open as you would see in an individual workout. That came from superb unselfishness in the half court.
–Balanced Effort: Would the bench travel on the road? That’s a question all teams have entering a season. Early on this year, it was a fair question to ask about the Pacers. The bench definitely traveled in full force on Wednesday. Look at what the big 4 reserves gave the Pacers off the bench: Domantas Sabonis provided a double-double (16 points and 10 rebounds). Tyreke Evans had 19 points (5-of-7 from behind the arc) and 5 assists in doing his best Victor Oladipo impression. Cory Joseph was huge early, stuffing the stat sheet with 12 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Doug McDermott added 10 points in just 13 minutes on the floor.
–Complete Oladipo: Honestly, Wednesday should be viewed as one of the more well-rounded performances we’ve seen from Oladipo. He had 21 points on just 12 shots (7-of-12 from the field and 3-of-6 from behind the arc). He also added 9 assists and 5 rebounds. The 9 assists are exactly what the Pacers wanted to see in Oladipo’s growth this season. Could the All-Star provide scoring punch, while making sure that others were getting involved with easy baskets? On Wednesday, Oladipo scored or assisted on 19 baskets, with only committing two turnovers. That’s an All-NBA type of performance.
Injury Notes:
-T.J. Leaf (left ankle): After missing the last 3 games, Leaf was back for action on Wednesday. Leaf was in the rotation on Wednesday night, but didn’t score in 13 minutes, going 0-for-5.
Pacers Upcoming Schedule
-at Cleveland (Saturday, 10/27)
-Portland (Monday, 10/29)
-at New York (Wednesday, 10/31)
-at Chicago (Friday, 11/2)
-Boston (Saturday, 11/3)
