Indiana Pacers Need Win Vs Timberwolves To Be About Bench Improvement

MILWAUKEE – There have only been two instances in this NBA season of a player having less than 16.5 minutes of action in a game yet having a +/- below -30, and they both came over the weekend. Indiana Pacers reserves T.J. McConnell (16:17, -34) and Bennedict Mathurin (11:54, -34) both sparingly hit the hardwood in a loss vs the Milwaukee Bucks, yet those minutes were a disaster for the Pacers. In a seven-point loss, Indiana was crushed with those two on the floor.

The rest of the blue and gold’s second unit was largely poor as well, but they didn’t quite have the same statistical outlier nights. It was an important game for the Pacers, yet they lost despite a strong outing from their starting five. The bench minutes were costly.

“Just was a pitiful performance by our bench, starting with me. It’s not going to get it done,” McConnell said after the game.

Indiana’s starting lineup won their minutes by 10 points in that game against the Bucks. The opening five with Obi Toppin on the floor instead of Myles Turner was +16. Those two groups combined to play for over 28.5 minutes, yet the Pacers were -33 in the other 19.5 minutes. When the team mixed and matched starters with reserves, they were crushed by Milwaukee.

A five-man unit with All-Star forward Pascal Siakam and four reserves lost their shared playing time by 10. A different, yet similar, combination of players was -9. A lineup with three bench players alongside Turner and two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton was -7. These groups show a trend that hurt the Pacers – when they mixed and matched starters with reserves, they were dreadful in that game.

“It was a struggle,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlsile said of the second unit minutes that night.

What is going on with the Pacers bench?

That one outing was the culmination of a trend for the blue and gold. Their bench, which was a weapon down the stretch of the 2023-24 season and a useful group in the playoffs, has been struggling of late. The NBA’s top scoring second unit from last season is down to ninth this year, and their plus/minus has fallen from +0.8 per game to -1.3.

“We’ve hung our hat on how good our bench is and we know we can’t play well every night,” McConnell said after a game earlier this month. “It’s a little bit up and down.”

And yet, the team still has belief in their second unit. That paid off in a big way on Monday night during a victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves. With Turner, Siakam, Aaron Nesmith, Haliburton, Isaiah Jackson, and Johnny Furphy out that night, the Pacers found a way to beat the red-hot Timberwolves thanks to spirited play from their reserves. The only Indiana starter who suited up that night was Andrew Nembhard, and he was ejected in the third quarter. The Pacers still figured out how to win.

The same players that rolled in Minnesota struggled against the Bucks. And they’d been off for a while, too – Indiana has a +/- of -83 since January 1 with fewer than four starters on the floor. Their formerly-reliable bench has been a problem for months.

“Our second unit didn’t make as many shots as they typically do. That’s going to happen over the course of 82 games,” Haliburton said after the loss in Milwaukee. “There’s games where they’ve got to pick up the starter’s slack, and they do. When [the starters] are not playing well, they come in and play well, and we kind of follow their lead… So we’re not worried [about the bench].”

In Minneapolis, they shined. Minnesota had eight-straight wins, but their streak ended when a struggling Pacers bench group played like starters for 53 minutes – they needed an overtime period to get the victory.

Toppin was outstanding, scoring 34 points. That is his best mark as a Pacer, and it included a terrific game-winning three point shot in the extra frame. It was perhaps the best game Toppin has played for Indiana.

Mathurin had 22 points in that outing, including a crucial nine in a row at one point. McConnell added 11 with 13 assists, and he hit a shot to tie the game late in regulation. Those two, after rough nights in Milwaukee, stepped up in a major way.

Jarace Walker, 10-day contract signee Tony Bradley, Nembhard, and Quenton Jackson all chipped in with impressive games. It was a total team effort from the bench, and a needed one to earn a win with many starters out.

“What a game. So proud of that group of guys,” Carlisle said after the action.

It was a huge result, yet one that makes the rest of Indiana’s poor bench outings more perplexing. Even on top of that outing against the Bucks, the Pacers have seen other rough outings from their reserves this month. On March 6, for example, their backups scored just 22 points in Atlanta. The Hawks seconds unit, meanwhile, had 50. In a six-point defeat for Indiana, that was a major story postgame.

“We’ve had games like tonight where we kind of dropped the ball,” McConnell said that day. “So we’ve just got to minimize the games like tonight.”

As the Pacers try to figure out their bench struggles – they have the 21st-best net rating with three starters on the court this season and 25th-best with two – they’ll hope that their win over the Timberwolves can change things. That night, every reserve on the roster showed their best stuff. They played connected on both ends and earned a win. It was impressive.

But that was the exception for the Pacers this season. They have to figure out their bench struggles and capture some of their form from last season as they look to earn home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.