Houston, the Pacers have a lot fewer problems

What a difference three months makes 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Three months ago, when the Pacers had a 6-9 record and ranked among the bottom-half of the league in both offense and defense, there was a 19-second sequence against the Houston Rockets that perfectly encapsulated everything that was holding back what appeared to be a beleaguered team.

First, there was Bennedict Mathurin rejecting a screen from starting shooting guard Quenton Jackson, who was being defended by Houston big man Alperen Sengun. Meanwhile, on the periphery, when an open Myles Turner didn't receive the ball at the top of the key, despite the fact that Tyrese Haliburton was pointing at him from the corner like a flashing, neon sign, Indiana's starting center could be seen holding his hands up, almost in a state of disbelief.

When the two teams changed ends of the floor, a scrappy Quenton Jackson managed to come up with the loose ball as cover for how frequently Haliburton looked labored in changing ends of the floor.

Finally, in what should be viewed as the piece de self-resistance, a 3-on-2 advantage, with Pascal Siakam streaking to the basket, turned into Haliburton turning his back to the basket, pirouetting with eyes in the back of his head for an offensive reset rather than eyeing the rim.

In summary: key players were missing from the rotation, what players were available weren't exactly jelling, and the team's most important player, as far as raising the franchise's ceiling, looked as though he was too limited to punch the ball into open space, let alone reinforce what was all too often becoming a highly rickety floor.

Now, following a 115-102 win over that very nearly the same Rockets team that saw the Pacers move to 10 games above .500 for the first time this season, that stretch almost seems like a relic of the distant past, functioning like a time capsule that can be cracked open to reveal clear and recognizable differences about a squad that no longer seems quite as unrecognizable.

Put simply, when evaluating the Pacers through the lens of this match-up, it seems fitting to say, "Houston, they have a lot fewer problems."

Here's a look at what's changed.

Centers guarding centers

With all due respect to Quenton Jackson, who scored a career-high 24 points in his first career start against the Rockets in November, the offense doesn't run the same when a center is guarding a guard instead of a center (or at least another big operating like a center). Just look at the opening possession from that game. With Sengun playing off from Jackson at the elbow, not only is the passing angle to Mathurin out of the flex screen less readily accessible, but the Rockets are also switching on the actions between Haliburton and Turner.

Notably, when Turner attempts to dive against the mismatch, Sengun simply off-ball switches, kicking the smaller Fred VanVleet out to Jackson. To be fair, there were certainly possessions in which Sengun was no match for Jackson's speed out of the elbows; however, even then, the cross-match was still producing the effect of reorienting (and, sometimes, stalling) the offense around Jackson at the elbows.

That's quite a bit different from what occurred within the first two minutes of the most recent meeting, when Haliburton glided to the rim out of a double drag with his strong hand against Sengun in drop coverage.

Of course, from the opening tip, Sengun was guarding Turner -- not Jackson, let alone Nembhard or Nesmith. As such, when Jabari Smith switched on the first screen involving Nesmith, the second screen functioned not only to involve Sengun but also to force Smith to chase over as a big. For the game, Sengun defended 20 ball-screens with Turner as the screener, compared to just 11 in November.

And, here's the thing: Those are just the screens involving Turner.

When Turner got into early foul trouble, Haliburton continued to toy with Sengun in drop with Thomas Bryant as the screener, whether pulling up from deep, playing the cat-and-mouse game out of empty side actions, or attacking downhill with Nesmith causing confusion as the shallow cutter.

Prior to halftime, when the Rockets tried to mix things up with Sengun in the middle of the zone, Haliburton simply let the ball fly from 28-feet as the top-line defenders over-reacted to what was typically a set that would be run against man. After halftime, when the Rockets adjusted yet again, trying to blitz with Sengun, Haliburton continued to pick apart the coverage, stringing out the trap to force Houston's big man to cover more ground in recovery to Indiana's big men.

Altogether, the Pacers scored 1.276 points per chance with Sengun guarding a center as the screener defender. To put that massive number into context, Indiana has scored 1.025 points per chance out of ball screens this season, which ranks fourth in the league. In essence, rather than adjusting to the fact that a center was purposefully ceding space to a guard, the Pacers forced repeated adjustments from the Rockets in response to the reality that, with Haliburton at the controls, Sengun more often had to defend in space -- as a center, opposite from stretch-shooting centers, with few other options but to actually guard.

Playing to score (and get fouled)

In November, when Haliburton turned to look for trailers rather than looking at the rim, he effectively stopped himself from finding out who, if anyone, would stop him.

In a game that saw him appearing stiff and lacking in burst as well as gumption, he wasn't exactly playing to score or get fouled, as he finished with just four points while attempting two shots inside the arc and only one free throw.

With that in mind, this is quite the transformation.

For background, Houston had just taken out Sengun for the final defensive possession of the half. With a foul to give, Amen Thompson wrapped up Haliburton near to half-court when he wasn't shooting -- a tactic which quickly backfired when Haliburton proceeded to lure Jabari Smith into committing a foul when he was shooting. Putting aside any thoughts on the merits of that strategy from Houston's standpoint, consider that the very same player who turned away from the basket in November, neither playing to score or get fouled, can be seen moving toward the basket, intentionally trying to bait a foul -- even against a small-ball lineup that was switching with the intention of baiting him to stay on the perimeter.

Game of Zones

Compared to the prior meeting, when the Rockets never played a single possession of zone, Indiana faced 29 possessions of the alternate form of coverage in this match-up, while also playing 20 possessions of zone themselves. As has been a recurrent trend this season, the offense started to sputter against the zone in the second half -- especially without Haliburton on the floor, as Houston sapped some of the movement and numbers advantages from various zone busters by ducking under screens against T.J. McConnell.

That said, after Houston went on a 15-0 run and eventually took a 96-95 lead with 8:45 to play, Indiana responded with a 13-0 run, largely on the back of Myles Turner quarterbacking the middle of their zone. For the quarter, the Rockets shot just 1-of-8 in the paint with Turner as the contester. Granted, the switch to zone seemingly made the Pacers more vulnerable on the glass against a team that finished with 24 offensive rebounds, but Turner was relentless, altering multiple shots within the same possession while also batting back Sengun as the lynchpin of a strategy that, in taking away his passing outlets, was effectively daring him to beat them.

After starting the game with 25 points and seven assists, Sengun was held scoreless with zero assists and two turnovers over his final 5:10 of action. In that way, just as the Rockets adjusted to the Pacers by playing him in zone, the Pacers also adjusted to him, and in effect, reduced the volume of zone they were seeing, enabling Haliburton to make two big, late-game shots with Houston in man-to-man, by playing zone and manufacturing stops against the All-Star big man.

All of which is to say that, from keeping opponents off the glass to scoring more consistently to avoid giving up leads against zone, the Pacers still have problems to solve; however, in regaining this version of Haliburton while proving more capable of banding together to string together multiple timely stops, they've not only shown that they have fewer problems in this match-up but also that they might have more potential answers for all the others.