'We're disappointed, but proud': How Pacers expect to reap benefits from IST finals run

LAS VEGAS -- Tyrese Haliburton shuffled toward the end of the bench with 70 seconds left in the inaugural In-Season Tournament wearing a towel emblazoned with the event's logo on his head. When the final buzzer sounded on Indiana's 123-109 defeat at the hands of the Lakers, the Pacers' All-Star point guard meandered through a sea of bodies and confetti to embrace LeBron James, his favorite basketball player since he was old enough to comprehend basketball and an elder statesman in the league who has always made the 23-year-old Haliburton feel welcome in the NBA's inner circle of stars.

Haliburton then turned toward the tunnel that would take him to the Pacers' locker room and walked briskly with his head still hanging underneath the towel. One man decided to stop him for a handshake and kind words before he could get off the floor --- the world's most famous hypeman, Flavor Flav of Public Enemy, wearing his signature clock around his neck.

The Pacers' final moments on the T-Mobile Arena floor captured the surreality of their five days in Las Vegas. Just less than a quarter of the way into the 2023-24 regular season, one of the most under-exposed teams in the NBA found itself at the center of the basketball universe. Their two games in Vegas were attended by celebrities and artists such as three-time Grammy winner Ne-Yo, who sang the National Anthem Saturday, and NBA legends such as Shaquille O'Neal and Julius Erving. Haliburton got to take his father John on Inside The NBA with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal.

Few expected the Pacers to be the last team standing in the Eastern Conference. They knocked out the two favorites to win this year's Eastern Conference title -- the Bucks and Celtics -- to do it. They fully embraced being something akin to an NCAA Tournament Cinderella. Carlisle referred to his team as "disruptors" and they played each game with that edge. The organization and city of Indianapolis got behind them. The Pacers held a watch party at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and filled the building.

So when all of the fanfare ended and the Lakers were the team on stage being showered with confetti, handed the newly-minted NBA Cup and preparing each of their bank accounts for a $500,000 deposit, the Pacers walked away feeling stung.

"That one hurts," forward Aaron Nesmith said. "I think everybody from my teammates, coaching staff, organization, we really wanted that one."

They didn't get it because the Lakers exposed weaknesses the Pacers were already fully aware they had. They have the most explosive and efficient offense in the NBA, but also one of the most permissive defenses and they have particular problems defending the paint, whether that means stopping driving guards and wings or big men on post-ups or put-backs. They allow a league-worst 62.5 points in the paint per game, one of just two NBA teams that 56 per game.

The Lakers are particularly well appointed to exploit such a weakness with not only the powerful James -- one of the best finishers at the rim who has ever walked the Earth -- but one of the league's most talented centers in Anthony Davis. The Lakers scored 86 points in the paint to the Pacers' 44. They physically overwhelmed the Pacers despite the fact that they hit just two 3-pointers.

Davis was simply unstoppable, and he humbled Pacers center Myles Turner, who had clearly been Indiana's second-best player behind Haliburton for most of the event. Turner couldn't keep Davis in front of him without fouling and fouled out in just 25 minutes of action, scoring just 10 points on 3 of 11 shooting including 1 of 5 from 3-point range. Davis meanwhile put together a monster performance with 41 points on 16 of 24 shooting while hitting 9 of his 13 free throws. He grabbed 20 rebounds, dished out five assists and even blocked four shots.

In spite of Nesmith's most dogged defensive efforts, James managed 24 points on 10 of 21 shooting to go with 11 rebounds. Wing Austin Reaves, renowned for his outside shooting, scored 28 points without hitting a single 3-pointer, making 9 of 15 field goals with eight coming in the paint.

And on offense, the Pacers weren't their usual explosive selves because they couldn't get a 3-pointer to fall and because the Lakers brought double-teams and length to Haliburton to make sure he couldn't get rolling. The Pacers made just 10 of 41 3-pointers. Haliburton was 2 of 8 himself. He made 8 of 14 field goals and finished with 20 points and 11 assists, but Lakers wing Jarred Vanderbilt and his 7-1 wingspan were difficult for Haliburton to get around and even when he did he usually met the 6-10 Davis on the other side of a switch.

All in all it was a reminder at the end of the joyride of the past week that the Pacers are still very much flawed and there is a formula to defeat them. Attack them at the rim and devote enough resources to taking Haliburton out of the game and they can very much be had.

"We're sick, frustrated," Haliburton said. "We just got outplayed tonight from the start of the game to the end of the game. … It’s frustrating."

Carlisle, however, was very much looking on the bright side when it was over. The game itself didn't actually count. Every other game that was part of the In-Season Tournament counted to the regular season standings. It scheduled fill-in games so everybody would still be at 82. However, it couldn't find a way to balance the title game, so it simply stands on its own. The Pacers are still 12-8, and none of the ugly statistics factor in to their yearly numbers.

"I just want to express such a high level of pride for our guys," Carlisle said. "The stats don't matter because this game really didn't happen. The result happened and they won the Cup, so congratulations to them. But our guys had an amazing run over whatever this was, five or six weeks. Brought a lot of attention to Pacer Nation. Brought a lot of attention to an exciting group of young players."

At first blush "attention" sounds like a meaningless priority for an NBA franchise as YouTube page views and Instagram likes certainly do not amount to wins. But television ratings and game attendance do help a team's bottom line and playing in a playoff-caliber environment against top competition with the entire basketball world's eyes upon them matters as well.

Several of the Pacers' top players -- including Haliburton, veteran wing Buddy Hield, second-year guards Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard and young center Isaiah Jackson -- have never experienced a playoff game. Others, including Nesmith, have been on playoff teams but not had major roles. This event gave all of them a taste of it, and in a win-or-go home environment.

"It's so important to have this experience, to feel the intensity, to feel the glare and the glow, and to find out what it means to be totally together in an effort to conquer it,” Carlisle said. “The feeling that you get this morning and this afternoon leading up to this game is something that every athlete, every coach should feel. There's a physiological change. … Feeling what that feeling is about and how to make it your friend is something that you don't learn unless you go through this."

Haliburton in particular saw his stage elevated. Though he had already reached an All-Star Game, played on Team USA in the FIBA World Cup and signed a max-contract that could pay him up to $260 million over five years starting next season, he hadn't even been on a TNT game prior to Monday and there were fans who just learned about his game this week.

By Saturday the idea that Haliburton could not just reach an All-NBA team but launch a legitimate MVP candidacy did not sound insane. He missed out on In-Season Tournament MVP honors, which James won, but he finished as the event's leader in total points (187) assists (93) and 3-pointers (31). He shot 52.4% from the floor, 42.5% from 3-point range and 86.7% from the free throw line and turned the ball over just 14 times in seven games. In those games he led the Pacers to wins over each of the Eastern Conference's top four seeds in the 2023 playoffs in the Bucks, Celtics, 76ers and Cavaliers.

"Obviously, Tyrese Haliburton is now a name that everyone knows," Carlisle said.

The attention Haliburton gets matters because it could bring the Pacers more exposure, especially as they get set to host February's All-Star Game. It could also be helpful at the February trade deadline and next July when free agency opens.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski said on NBA Countdown that Haliburton told him it was a "mission" of his to do for the Pacers what Giannis Antetokounmpo did for Haliburton's hometown Milwaukee Bucks, turning a small-to-mid market franchise in the midwest into a place everyone wants to play. Wojnarowski noted an expectation that president Kevin Pritchard could put together a significant package for a big two-way wing because the Pacers have cap space and future draft picks available. Haliburton would hope that if Pritchard could land such a player, Haliburton would give him a reason to stay past the end of his contract and sign an extension.

When asked about recruiting other stars Saturday, Haliburton wasn't shy about saying that it is his intention to show the rest of the league that the Pacers' uptempo style and his unselfishness are reasons other players should want to come to Indiana. The Pacers' In-Season Tournament games effectively serve as recruiting videos.

"Ultimately it's trust your eyes," Haliburton said. "I think people see how we play and how fun it looks and think I'm a player that people want to play with. If guys want to come play with Indy, I'm going to be here. I'm waiting whenever guys want to come. But we've got a great group of guys in our locker room as we speak and I'm focused on that right now."

The challenge now for the Pacers is to take that great group of guys and come down from the high of this week without crashing. They go from Las Vegas straight to Detroit, where they will meet a Pistons team Monday that is 2-20 and has lost 19 straight games.

After that they go to Milwaukee to face a Bucks team that will want revenge, then to Washington D.C. to face the 3-18 Wizard. The Pacers close out the four-game road swing at Minnesota against a Timberwolves team that currently holds the best record in the Western Conference before finally returning home on Dec. 18 to host the Clippers in what will be their first home game in two weeks.

“We’ve done some great things to get here, competed against some really good teams and battled, and you can't let that happen for no reason,” Haliburton said. “We’ve got a four-game road trip coming up here, you've got to take care of business."

They could very well stumble on this road trip, but even if they do, the Pacers expect the long-term dividends from their investment in this event to be worth it.

"It's an amazing experience, and we're thankful," Carlisle said. "We're disappointed but proud."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers vs. Lakers: IST run could help Tyrese Haliburton recruit