How the Pacers stunned the NBA’s best team without Tyrese Haliburton

Posted by author January 13, 2025 NBA

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CLEVELAND — Obi Toppin paused at his stall in the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse visitor’s locker room after the Pacers’ stunning 108-93 comeback win over the first place Cleveland Cavaliers with his eyes closed waiting for inspiration to come to him.

The Pacers’ high-flying forward said he received a suggestion from a member of the Pacers’ public relations staff that he start naming his dunks like late Philadelphia 76ers big man Darryl Dawkins. Toppin had been sent a web-page with a list of Dawkins’ greatest hits — “Rim-Wrecker,” “Look-Out Below”, “In Your Face Disgrace” and others. On Sunday night he produced a good enough dunk to start with — an explosive reverse windmill with about two minutes to go in the third quarter.

“I’m gonna call it ‘Aight, Bet,'” Toppin said first, but later he changed his mind.

“We’re gonna call that one the ‘Whoah, Whoah, Whoah,'” he said, referring to a hip-hop song by LiAngelo Ball — former professional player and the middle brother of NBA guards Lonzo and LaMelo — called “Tweaker.” “Shout out Gelo and Darryl Dawkins.”

The dunk itself gave the Pacers a significant boost, but what was more important and what helped explain how the Pacers managed to pull off one of the most surprising results in the NBA this season was how he got the dunk in the first place. After his own 3-pointer that put the Pacers up by five, Toppin jumped a slow, loopy pass from Cavs All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell to forward Georges Niang in the backcourt and there were no Cleveland defenders in front of him to stop him from doing a dunk he could name.

The full-court pressure approach Toppin was employing helped the Pacers — the team that allowed more points than all but three NBA teams last season and all but one the season before — to produce one of the most impressive defensive halves in the league this season and stun the NBA’s best team.

After falling behind 53-40 at halftime and then learning that All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton would not return due to left hamstring tightness, the Pacers suffocated a Cleveland team that entered Sunday with the NBA’s most efficient and second most prolific offense and outscored them 68-40 in the second half. The Pacers became the first team this season to hold the Cavaliers under 100 points. They turned eight Cavaliers second-half turnovers into 15 points and had 10 fast-break points to the Cavaliers’ zero after halftime.

The Pacers won their sixth straight game — their longest streak of the season — and 12th of their last 15 to improve to 22-18, putting them alone at fifth place in the Eastern Conference. It ended the Cavaliers’ 12-game winning streak. They still have the NBA’s best record at 33-5 but they lost for just the second time since Nov. 29.

Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson, a mid-season favorite for NBA Coach of the Year, said the Pacers’ change in defensive approach altered the game completely.

“Once Haliburton went out of the game, they just picked us up,” Atkinson said. “They got into us. It was like full-court press, which you don’t see a lot. Give Rick (Carlisle) credit. It was really good strategy, and we did not handle the press well.”

At the break, everything seemed to be trending toward the Pacers’ streak ending and Cleveland’s continuing. After winning the first quarter 21-19, the Pacers lost the second 34-19 to fall behind 53-40 at the break. Haliburton wasn’t dominant in the first half with just two points on 1 of 5 shooting, but he had five assists, and the loss of his ability to create for others and make 3-pointers seemed to take away the Pacers’ best bet for a comeback.

Instead, however, it created a new opportunity.

As good of an offensive player as Haliburton is — at least since breaking out of an early-season slump — he has his limitations on the defensive end. He’s good at reading passing lanes and getting his hand on the ball, but he doesn’t count among the Pacers’ best on-ball defenders.

Guard Andrew Nembhard, however, does, and his defense is a big part of the reason why the Pacers have had a dramatic turnaround in the past month since his return from knee tendinitis. So does wing Ben Sheppard. With Haliburton out, Nembhard moved to point guard, his more natural position, and Sheppard from the second unit to the first. With Bennedict Mathurin at small forward, Carlisle saw the Pacers’ best path to be turning up the dial on defense and hope the youthful energy of their remaining players was enough to get them back in it.

And it was.

“We picked up our level of aggression and force in the second half and we were really tied together,” Carlisle said. “They missed some open shots, they missed some open shots, but so did we. Our calling card has got to be our aggression and our depth. In the second half, we played the way we need to play to be competitive in a game like this.”

After a three-point play by All-Star forward Pascal Siakam, the Pacers established that Sheppard would be following All-Star point guard Darius Garland everywhere he went and Nembhard would be doing the same with Mitchell.

But the Cavs found out later in the third quarter that it wouldn’t be limited to those two and they wouldn’t be able to escape pressure by letting a forward or center bring the ball up. Out of a timeout with 7:15 to go, the Cavs inbounded the ball to wing Max Strus. Siakam locked on to him harassed him until he lost his dribble at the edge of the halfcourt logo. Siakam turned the steal into a fastbreak layup.

That was one of six Pacers steals in the second half, three came in the backcourt.

“Full-court pressure man,” center Myles Turner said. “I mean, you got guys like Pascal who is 6-9 picking up full court. You don’t see that every day. I think that was the emphasis, just to pressure them as much as possible, make them make plays.”

The pressure seemed to make an impact even when the Cavaliers did get the ball down the floor because of the time on the shot clock and the energy expended. After making 14 of 23 field goals including 6 of 13 3-pointers in the second quarter, they were 4 of 20 from the floor including 0 of 6 in the third for just 0.60 points per possession in the period.

Three of the Cavaliers’ four field goals in the third came in the first 2:20 of the period. At the 9:50 mark, Cleveland went up 60-45 on a three-point play by Evan Mobley. After that the Cavs didn’t get another field goal until the 57-second mark of the period. The Pacers went on a 13-0 run which then grew into 27-5 spurt ending with Toppin’s dunk and a 32-7 run by the time the Cavaliers got another field goal. The Pacers were up 77-67 at that point and the Cavaliers were never closer than four points after that, falling behind by as many as 18 in the fourth quarter. Cleveland made 7 of 19 fourth-quarter shots and 2 of 11 3s in the period to finish the half 11 of 39 from the floor (28.2%) and 2 of 17 from beyond the arc.

“We ramped up the physicality,” Nembhard said. “We picked them up full court a little bit better than we did in the first half. I think that run to start the second half gave us a lot of confidence the rest of the game to make plays on both sides of the floor.”

The Pacers’ defensive focus led to easier buckets both in transition and otherwise. After making just 7 of 23 field goals in the second quarter, the Pacers were 16 of 25 in the third and 11 of 19 in the fourth, shooting 27 of 44 (61.4%) in the second half.

Nembhard scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half. Siakam shook off a 2-of-11, four-point first half with a 6-of-10, 14-point second half. Mathurin scored just two points on 1 of 4 shooting in the first half, but had 10 important second-half points. Second-year forward Jarace Walker had five of his eight points in the second half but more importantly had eight of his 12 rebounds, helping the Pacers win the battle on the glass 50-44. Carlisle called Walker’s performance his best in his two seasons with the Pacers.

“Whenever you have someone go down like Ty, one of your better players, it’s up to someone to step up,” Turner said. “Everybody did.”