Basketball, She Wrote

Putting Tyrese Haliburton's immaculate exception into perspective

This low turnover thing is kind of one-of-one, to quote Rick Carlisle 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Few players maximize resources while minimizing waste quite like Tyrese Haliburton. In addition to making use of every inch of the court, whether horizontally, vertically, and yes, oftentimes even aerially, he also plays as though he doesn't have a second to spare. Midway through the first quarter of w...

Explain One Play: How Bennedict Mathurin takes up residence in "Omaha"

Who needs March Madness when you have the Pacers, amirite?

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

It appears that 2025-03-22 00:16:45 +0000 UTC View Post

Why the Pacers continue to be pure cinema

By the numbers 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Turns out, sequels can be just as good -- or at least as much fun -- as the original. In standing still from his "lucky spot" above the break against the Dallas Mavericks, Andrew Nembhard didn't follow in the literal footsteps of Tyrese Haliburton and Obi Toppin. He wasn't rushing to the left corner out of a football-style play, as Haliburton did against th...

From woe to whoa, how much do the Pacers have in reserve?

Taking stock of the bench headed into the playoffs

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

On Saturday, the reserves for the Pacers had nothing for the Bucks, as they were outscored 35-18 in bench points with Bennedict Mathurin and T.J. McConnell both finishing minus-34 on the court even though they each played less than 20 minutes. Granted, that's not an individual stat and single-game plus/minus can be noisy, but ...

How the Pacers did better in giving the Bucks their best shot(s)

My work at Basketball, She Wrote is typically paywalled. This article, as an in-depth breakdown of why it arguably was a miracle that the Pacers needed a miracle, is available as a free trial. If you're new here and want to support independent writing about actual basketball, please consider subscribing and/or sharing it around. Alright, on to the words about the Pacers.

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Finding a highlight for the Pacers in a mess of hijinks

On a detail that shouldn't get swept under the rug just because the Hawks swept the two-game miniseries 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

After the Pacers pulled ahead to take a 107-106 lead on a gutsy, pull-up three from Bennedict Mathurin with 5:50 to play in the second of two-straight road games against the Atlanta Hawks, a lot proceeded to go haywire during the crunch-time that manifested despite get...

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 enca...

How Aaron Nesmith stayed hot without feeling the "burn"

On the player who, in just being there, can generally be counted on to be there 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

When Aaron Nesmith made his first of three three-pointers in less than a minute against the Chicago Bulls, he didn't just heat up in a hurry for the Pacers, darting here and driving there while shaping up around the inverse gravity of his All-Star teammate, he also provided a flashbulb exampl...

Should the Pacers double their trouble against mismatches?

On whether to hit the switch 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

When Austin Reaves amassed a career high of 45 points in a win over the Pacers at the start of February, he was sitting on 22 points in 24 minutes played when this possession occurred.

Without either of LeBron James or Luka Doncic available, Re...

Mailbag: Catching up with the Pacers after the All-Star Break

Assessing the new (old) starting lineup, gauging concerns about the offense of the team's best defender, and looking ahead to the playoffs

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

There's never a good time to get sick, but it certainly would've been preferable to get sick during or right before the All-Star Break, rather than after the All-Star Break -- when the Pacers have won three of their last four games and jus...

Pacers take "liberties" with opening set

Another example of WNBA influence in the NBA, along with other observations from a win that didn't see the Pacers sleepwalking against Memphis

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Back on the first day of December, when the Pacers played the Memphis Grizzlies on the road, Tyrese Haliburton was inconspicuously present, operating almost like an invisible string that existed only to pull and tug at the geometry...

On Tyrese Haliburton's flair for flare screens

How the player who is still working to regain his All-Star form enhances the star in others with off-ball actions (that actually really do exist in today's NBA)

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Despite the fact that this past weekend was All-Star Weekend, neither the All-Stars nor the All-Star Game were exactly the center of attention. Instead, there was a very strange cognitive dissonance between asking the p...

On Bennedict Mathurin, choosing his own adventure

In running a maze, the third-year guard also ran through the finish line

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

When Bennedict Mathurin was a sophomore at Arizona, it was easy to picture how the brash 20-year-old would overlay into Rick Carlisle's playbook. Tommy Lloyd's Wildcats ran plenty of NBA-like actions, some of which were even identical to those that were currently in play for the Pacers. On one night, he wo...

Finding a fast fix for the Pacers' slow starts

Examining why the Pacers keep getting down big in the first quarter 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Despite posting a 2-2 record, while digging out of double-digit deficits in wins over both the Jazz and Clippers, the Pacers got outscored 145-86 in the first quarter of the four games they played out west, trailing by at least 10 points in each of the four opening frames. As can probably be inferred from...

Explain One Play: How the Pacers put Pascal Siakam in "line" to fire

Yes, this is another article about Pascal Siakam's shooting development, because there needs to be another article about Pascal Siakam's shooting development 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

It could've been mistaken for a comedy set, only Los Angeles Clippers head coach Ty Lue certainly wasn't laughing. Toward the end of the second quarter, LA committed six turnovers in a row, with each seemingly becomi...

Aaron Nesmith is coming up clutch again

Why the high-motor wing is closing the gap on closing time

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Turns out, the Pacers are clutch again. Not just because Tyrese Haliburton hit a go-ahead three-pointer to put Indiana up 108-106 over the Utah Jazz with a minute left to play. Or, because Pascal Siakam (quite literally) sea...

On Pascal Siakam's changing star chart

And the shooting progression that underscores his third All-Star selection 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

The adjustment was understandable enough. After Myles Turner tied his career high for made threes in a game on January 16, going 8-of-11 from deep with Detroit big man Jalen Duren repeatedly losing track of him on the perimeter as his primary assignment, the Pistons decided to make a change. Two we...

Pacers Mailbag: A trade deadline preview that isn't really a trade deadline preview

Who stays and who goes? (just kidding) 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

As you all likely know by now, I will always say no to questions of the "who says no?" variety when it comes to fake trades. I never get the itch to dust off the trade machine, and I prefer to spotlight what is happening with the Pacers on the court, while experiencing the here and now, rather than speculating about wh...

On the tres bien set that epitomized the Pacers' turnaround in Paris

Breaking down a specific change that led to a specific breakdown for San Antonio in Part Deux of the miniseries

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

In a game that saw the Pacers score a season high of 136 points while holding San Antonio to just 96.1 points per 100 possessions, Tyrese Haliburton finally had his moment of stardom in Paris that never materialized during the Olympics. Wearing red, white, and blue ...

How the Pacers can avoid déjà vu in Paris

 Déjà vu, loosely translated, means the dominance of Victor Wembanyama 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

After being on the wrong side of a hero's welcome for Victor Wembanyama, who finished with 30 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, and five blocks to go with innumerable "heck no's" and "what the heck's" in what was a 140-110 beatdown win for the San Antonio Spurs, the Pacers have another chance at...

What the flexibility of the closing lineup says about the Pacers

A commentary about Ben Sheppard that isn't really about Ben Sheppard 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

When it comes to big, late-game shot-making, the Pacers aren't clutch anymore. Not because the lights are too bright, but rather because they've been so lights out that they've rarely even been in the position to take big, late-game shots of late. In fact, since the dreadful loss to Charlotte on December...

How the Pacers leveled up w/ The Dunker Spot

Talking into a microphone about the basketball played by the Pacers

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

With the Pacers on a roll at the midway point of the season, Steve Jones and Nekias Duncan were kind enough to extend me an invitation to come talk about what ...

The Pacers are still figuring it out

On the adjustments from Round 2 of Cavs-Pacers and what it might mean for a potential Round 3

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

When asked what he likes about playing two-game, home-and-home miniseries, Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson told reporters during pregame media availability on Tuesday, "It...

Six wins in a row! Why the Pacers are playing hotter than ever

Breaking down a road win over the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Entering into Sunday's marquee match-up between two of the hottest teams in the NBA, the Cleveland Cavaliers were 20-1 at home and had yet to be held below 100 points in any game this seaso...

Andrew Nembhard fixed the Pacers

The written work at Basketball, She Wrote is typically paywalled. This article from Samson Folk, as an explainer of Andrew Nembhard's quiet importance to the Pacers that is slowly becoming much louder, is available as a free trial. If you're new here and want to support independent writing about actual basketball, please consider subscribing and/or sharing it around. Alrig...