The Pacers used a bit of their own magic to complete the comeback win over Orlando Sunday night.
After being down 15 points on one occasion in the second quarter, Indiana sealed the win with a massive third quarter where they outscored the home team 39-21.
Indiana was led in scoring by Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam, who both contributed 20 points on six buckets and seven free throws made apiece. Haliburton neared a triple-double with a team-high eight assists and seven rebounds, while Siakam also contributed seven rebounds.
Obi Toppin and T.J. McConnell’s 17 points each helped to supplement Bennedict Mathurin’s absence. The Pacers were also supported by Aaron Nesmith’s 16 points and Myles Turner’s 12 points, eight rebounds and season-high six blocked shots.
Magic forward Franz Wagner recorded Orlando’s first three points, but a layup from Siakam in response put Indiana on the board directly after at 10:48, cutting the deficit to one-point, 3-2.
From there, Indiana’s offense turned ice cold as they missed their next six shots over the course of the following five minutes. Though Orlando’s offense was not at its best either, making just five shots on 13 attempts in the first six minutes of play, they jumped ahead to a 12-2 lead.
Coming out of a timeout, McConnell entered the game for the first time and got the Pacers rolling with a baseline jumper at 6:04 and a layup thirty seconds later. Orlando would soon extend its lead with two buckets from Joe Ingles, putting itself ahead 17-6.
During an Orlando possession directly following a Myles Turner layup, McConnell intercepted a pass, ran down the court and found Obi Toppin at the rim who dunked the lobbed pass, cutting the advantage to seven points, 17-10.
Indiana kept the game from getting away from them by holding Orlando to only four made buckets on 10 attempts in the final six minutes of the quarter. Two made free throws from Siakam and a jumper from McConnell, after having drawn an offensive foul the play before, put the Pacers within four points with 33 seconds remaining in the frame. Orlando gave themselves a six-point buffer with a Cole Anthony bucket as the quarter ended, while the Blue & Gold did not convert in their final possession.
Orlando took a 27-18 lead to start the second frame with the help of three made free throws, while Indiana missed its first four shot attempts. After two minutes of second-quarter play, Aaron Nesmith earned Indiana its first two points of the frame with a pair of free throws.
A 11-4 scoring run for Orlando propelled them to a 15-point lead, 35-20, at 9:23.
The tides soon turned for Indiana as a McConnell layup at 8:53 jumpstarted an eventual 20-8 Indiana scoring run. At 7:31, Haliburton earned himself a defensive rebound and passed the ball to Toppin, who had been sprinting the length of the court, for a layup. Almost a minute later, Haliburton made his first bucket of the night with a 3-pointer and soon after rattled off two free throws to quickly cut the deficit to six points at 6:13.
Indiana and Orlando went basket-for-basket over the next four minutes. At 1:41, Siakam made a layup that shrunk the deficit to three points; the last time the score had been that close was at 9:40 in the first quarter. However, Paolo Banchero quickly responded with a 3-pointer to put Orlando ahead by six.
After Haliburton knocked down a free throw from a technical foul, a hook shot from Siakam brought the deficit back down to three points with 44 seconds remaining in the half. A pair of free throws from Wagner was met with a bucket from Isaiah Jackson to allow the Pacers to head into the locker room trailing by three points, 50-47.
The Pacers tied the score at 50 with their first possession of the half after Haliburton dished out a pass to Nesmith who drained a 3-pointer. Orlando responded with three points, but two buckets from Haliburton earned Indiana its first lead of the game, 54-53, at the 10:44 mark of the third quarter.
While Orlando opened the second half 2-of-6 from the floor, Indiana opened 5-of-7 to propel them to a 60-55 lead at 9:08. Over the next roughly two minutes, each team added only one basket a piece, allowing Indiana to hold a lead of 63-59.
Haliburton drove to the hoop and hit a hook shot at 6:07 to give Indiana an eight-point lead, 67-59.
The final four minutes of the third quarter was where Indiana found its groove, completely reversing the momentum of the game. A 16-6 scoring run, fueled by eight points from Toppin on a 3-of-3 shooting clip from the field, allowed Indiana to take as much as a 15-point advantage.
Indiana shot 15-of-22 from the floor in the third frame while its defense held the Magic to just seven buckets on 21 attempts. The Blue and Gold outscored Orlando 39-21 in the third quarter with the help of nine points from Haliburton and eight points apiece from Nesmith and Toppin.
From down 15 points to up 15 points, Indiana entered the final quarter ahead, 86-71.
Orlando hit the ground running to start the fourth frame, going 5-of-6 from the floor to cut the deficit to ten points, 93-83. Anthony’s seven points played a large part in the offensive push.
Though the Magic made a run, the Pacers kept themselves a comfortable distance away. Indiana earned itself its largest lead of the game when McConnell picked up a deflected pass, ran down the court and handed the ball off to Toppin, who finished the play with a layup to put Indiana ahead, 96-83, with 7:46 to play.
Orlando’s only point for roughly three minutes came from a free throw. The Magic scored six unanswered points over the next two minutes to cut the deficit to single digits, 99-90, at 4:45. Orlando would continue to try to chip away at Indiana’s lead, cutting it to seven points with 2:02 to play, but the Blue & Gold held on by scoring seven unanswered points to close out the game.
For Orlando, Banchero led the Magic with 19 points, while Wendell Carter Jr. ended the night with 13 points and 15 rebounds. In addition, Anthony recorded 16 points and Wagner pitched in 13 points.
Inside the Numbers
Indiana had six players end the night in double figure scoring, with five of them scoring at least 16 points. Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam led the way with 20 points each.
T.J. McConnell and Obi Toppin led the Pacers reserves with 17 points apiece.
Myles Turner totaled a season-high six blocks.
Aaron Nesmith logged his 300th career 3-pointer in the third quarter.
Both teams had 46 rebounds.
Indiana held Orlando to 97 points, the lowest amount an opponent has scored against them all season.
Indiana scored 21 points off of Orlando’s 13 turnovers.
The victory in Orlando gave Indiana its 12th win this season when trailing by at least 10 points at one time in the game.
The Pacers dished out 20 assists. Haliburton led the team in assists with eight, while McConnell followed behind with six.
The Pacers outscored the Magic 39-21 in the third quarter, as they shot 15-of-22 (68.2 percent) from the floor to Orlando’s 7-of-21 (33.3 percent).
You Can Quote Me On That
“There just was a level of determination that we needed to have. Even in the first quarter when we were struggling to score, you know, we held them to 24 points. That’s a number you can work with even if you’re having trouble getting the ball in the basket. Everyone was committed to sitting down and trying to keep these guys off the rim, out of the paint as much as possible, and then I think our rebounding picked up in the second half.” – Head Coach Rick Carlisle on the comeback effort
“Where we are right now in the season, they’re all really important. So just taking it one game at a time and being locked in for the full 48 [minutes]. I mean that’s just the message that I’m trying to send across. And that’s the message we’re all sending to each other. Just to be locked in for the entirety of the game because at this point in the season all of [the games] are important, especially for where we are trying to go.” – McConnell on staying locked in for the rest of the regular season
“A lot of different guys contributed protecting the rim. I thought Myles was amazing protecting the rim. I thought he did a great job coming down helping rebound, but also blocking shots. The way they play is so rim oriented, so we just made a big focus on protecting the rim, having a tight paint, kinda spreading out just keeping guys in front.” – Haliburton on defense
“They’re one of the better teams that get in the paint and finish at the rim. We try to make an emphasis to try to cut that down some. They’re a physical team and they try to assert themselves, but I think we did a good job of taking on the challenge and getting things done.” – Turner on Orlando’s front court
“When we lock in defensively, that leads us to the thing that we’re most elite at, the transition. We were locked in on that end and got some steals and we were able to get out and run it. It opened the game for us in the third [quarter].” – McConnell on defense
“Because they had the lead we let them dictate the pace. And when we were able to get stops and get a lead in the third quarter, we then dictated the pace. When we’re dictating the pace of a basketball game, we’re really hard to play against. There’s not many teams out there that want to play our style of basketball, getting up and down that fast.” – Haliburton on offensive pace
“These are all playoff games. You need your best competitors in the game as early as possible […] We needed [T.J. McConnell] tonight, and truthfully it was hard getting him out of the game, he played so well. I’m a big believer in involving the bench early and we needed everyone tonight.” – Carlisle on bench players getting more minutes tonight
Stat of the Night
After trailing by 15 points in the second quarter, the Pacers used a massive third quarter to eventually take over the game and lead the Magic by 15 points at the end of the third frame. Nine points from Haliburton and eight points apiece from Nesmith and Toppin fueled the offensive effort in outscoring Orlando 39-21 in the third frame.
Noteworthy
With the win, the Pacers earned their first win over the Magic this season after falling to them in both previous matchups at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Indiana has now won six of its last seven games at the Kia Center.
Doug McDermott missed his sixth game while recovering from a right calf strain. The Pacers were also without Bennedict Mathurin for the first game since being announced that he will miss the remainder of the season to heal a torn labrum in his shoulder.
Orlando’s Jalen Suggs (right thigh contusion) and Markelle Fultz (left knee sparin) did not play tonight.
Tickets
The Pacers will be back at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to tip off a three-game homestand against DeMar DeRozan and the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday, March 13 at 7:00 PM ET.