Walker, Peter, and Wiseman intrigue as Pacers beat Thunder

And so they meet again (before they meet again in the regular-season opener)

By: Samson Folk I @samfolkk

The last time I watched a Pacers versus Thunder game it was about as good a representation of elite basketball that I had ever seen. Star-studded, guard-driven, high-octane basketball. This time around I was looking at a hodge-podge of Pacers against a hodge-podge of… Thunders (?). Say goodbye to the MVP of the league, say goodbye to Pascal Siakam, say goodbye to virtually every player that factored into The Finals - say hello to an Obi Toppin post fade to break the ice after a couple scoreless minutes. 

So, I glued my eyes to the likes of Jarace Walker, Bennedict Mathurin, and Isaiah Jackson. Make a little time for Johnny Furphy and Jay Huff. 

However, in the same way that he did at Summer League, Taelon Peter grabbed my attention early on. Composed in the bring-up-ball-handling. Crisp in the off-ball cutting. Maybe most importantly, on point jogging into a motion triple. The Pacers are a team in the in-between when it comes to their backup point guard – having just brought in Cameron Payne to test the waters – and while it’s hard to say from a preseason game bereft of much NBA starting talent, Peter looks good. And even if he’s not good enough for backup point guard duties in the short term, I’m sure the Pacers like having him in the organization. 

It was that composure of Peter’s by the way that allowed him to move the ball on to Furphy for an electric poster on Malevy Leons. Furphy’s knuckles almost scraped heaven on his tomahawk. Wow. Peter also managed to swipe the ball on the next trip down from the Thunder and floated a hit ahead into the hands of Quenton Jackson who punched in a dunk of his own. A really fun sequence of plays for the Pacers. 

It was a fairly high scoring first quarter, and one that saw the Pacers up by 1 (30-29) at the end of it. The Thunder were fueled by tremendous, slick driving from Ajay Mitchell, who was timing up the Pacers defense and reading the seams ahead of him. The Pacers were linking motion together and finding seams in their own way. Toppin and Jackson were particularly impressive scoring the ball. Mathurin was really quiet. My expectation was that he’d take the reins of the offense and run with it, but that wasn’t the case. Even the late clock resets that I assumed would fall into his hands went elsewhere. 

Walker had a particularly Siakam-esque drive to the bucket at the front end of the second quarter. A size up, a sweeping cross, and a spin move across his defender’s body as he read the momentum correctly - and a pretty soft touch to finish it all off. A couple minutes later, a bully drive that cratered the Thunder defense towards him and opened up a gap for Mathurin to cut into for a bucket. He was playing with a bit more force than I’m used to seeing. An abundance of force would be an extremely meaningful addition to Walker’s game. It’s something that would make me reassess his ceiling and floor. He was 1-5 at this point, and it was largely because he wasn’t hitting his threes, but I expect him to hit those. I really liked the other stuff. Even the way he was high-pointing rebounds. 

As the different Pacers took turns commandeering the offense, the other side of the floor was fairly underwhelming. Point of attack defenders lost contact often. Bigs didn’t exactly do a lot to contain the Thunder ball handlers. Collapses were hit and miss in terms of how they moved the ball out of drivers hands – there’s good defensive releases and bad – it was all very meh. It’s what allowed the Thunder to take a comfortable lead. In terms of the Jackson/Huff dynamic, I found Jackson to be more consistent in what he was offering early on. However, it’s pretty easy to see how Huff could provide a good deal more on offense, especially when it comes to screen craft and how he sees the floor. He’s a funky player. He and the Pacers probably just have to find the same rhythm. I think he represents the highest ceiling at the center position for Indiana.

Also, the passivity that Mathurin was showcasing in the first quarter wasn’t at all present in the second. Rumbling, bumbling drives for free throws, a pin-down for a triple, and a lot of ball handling was what the Pacers needed from him to erase the deficit, and it’s what they got. Also, Toppin was still pretty dynamic and provided a spot of shot making whenever the Pacers required it. The hit-aheads and lobs were still finding him. Something familiar for Pacers fans who hadn’t tuned in the past few months.

A four-point lead at the half, and they earned it through relying on their middle of the rotation players. 

There was a lot of Jarace early in the second half, and a lot of good Jarace. Pressuring the rim himself for points and then turning that into opportunities for others in short order. Hello again, Mr. Peter, you’re looking fantastic. Peter caught a lob, then cashed a triple. I was staring at Peter’s 12 points on 5 shots and making sense of his leading the NCAA in true shooting (.724%!). Furphy knifed to the lane a couple times - he’s quite good at the knifing, loves the finger roll – to allow the Pacers to keep building up their lead. Unfortunately, Furphy left the game with a sprained ankle.

I was loving - LOVING - the process from Peter and Walker. A couple really great high-low passes from Walker to Huff for buckets. It’s not even that there was a high skill requirement for the passes, I just liked the recognition from Walker, and given his size, he can really be a tremendous option to feed the post like that. Maybe it's important that he spent so much time with Siakam this summer. 

I’m sure Caitlin has written something about this…

The good guys ran their lead up to 16 by the end of the third quarter. 

FOURTH QUARTER!!! WISEMAN MINUTES!!!! SOUND THE ALARM!!!

A bit of roll gravity for Wiseman as he sprinted up for a screen and back toward the bucket as the ball pinged around the perimeter and found Walker for a triple. Walker rewarded Wiseman’s motion a little bit more tangibly the next time down as he lobbed him in the dunker spot. Great playmaking game from Walker. Next time down Wiseman got called for a 3-second violation. An offensive rebound and a trip to the line. A dunk after Dennis found him in the paint. A layup after banging down low for space. He was crushing the smaller Thunder. A very active, very big man. Every time he’s on the floor the scales tip and the plays find him. Maybe some of it is designated from on high: “look for Jimmy”, but also, a big, moving target attracts a lot of attention. He changes ends of the floor with the fervor of a firefighter - first in. 

Also, to highlight Walker’s playmaking once again, he flashed middle against the Thunder zone for an in-air tip pass from free throw line to the corner. Really good stuff. Processing the floor so well.

Dennis was really strong to finish the game. Not only in that he was the guy locating and identifying Wiseman quite often, but his shot making pop was impressive. Got to his spot a couple times, but also provided the punch at the end of someone else’s creation. Quality guard minutes. And that was mostly what the end of the game was about. 

The Pacers were leaning on several advantages all at once. They were hitting their shots. They were very comfortably keeping the Thunder at arms length. It’s also worth pointing out that the defensive intensity had waned significantly. It was a laissez-faire event by the end of things. 

A tidy little preseason win for the Pacers. The impressive stuff in this game was mostly a result of Walker and Peter, in my mind. I’m pretty interested to see if Wiseman will get run in the first half of one of these things. Let’s see that activity and production against some players higher on the other teams totem pole. 

Have a blessed day.