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From woe to whoa, how much do the Pacers have in reserve?
🕑 Added 2025-03-18 20:06:30 +0000 UTCTaking stock of the bench headed into the playoffs
By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper
On Saturday, the reserves for the Pacers had nothing for the Bucks, as they were outscored 35-18 in bench points with Bennedict Mathurin and T.J. McConnell both finishing minus-34 on the court even though they each played less than 20 minutes. Granted, that's not an individual stat and single-game plus/minus can be noisy, but the blaring, minus-34 siren wasn't exactly sending a false alarm as to how much that group struggled. McConnell lacked his usual zip, coming up short around the basket while also looking too short in his defensive assignment against Kevin Porter Junior. Mathurin barely resembled Mathurin, as he only attempted a total of three shots, while appearing unusually deferential. Ben Sheppard's only shot was an air ball, and Thomas Bryant's lack of friction leveling up at the level of the screen ultimately resulted in Obi Toppin closing the game at the five after only logging five minutes of action against the Bucks in the prior match-up on Tuesday.
Following the game, according to the Indy Star's Dustin Dopirak, McConnell referred to the second unit's performance, starting with him, as "pitiful."
So, naturally, with four starters out due to personal reasons and various maladies, that same group snapped Minnesota's eight-game win streak in overtime on the road. Andrew Nembhard got ejected during the third quarter, Bennedict Mathurin fouled out prior to the end of regulation, and Jarace Walker came up gimpy at the start of the extra period. And yet, with McConnell feeding a red-hot version of Obi Toppin, who amassed 34 points and 10 rebounds while going 7-of-10 from three, including a perfect 4-of-4 during overtime, the Pacers found a way, at least for this game, to heal what had been going sideways for the bench while also giving the starters time to heal up on the sidelines.
With such a dramatic turnaround from woe to whoa, Samson Folk joins to discuss what led to the polar opposite performances while also taking stock of how much the Pacers have in reserve, going reserve-by-reserve, headed into the playoffs.
Here are the relevant timestamps, with breakdowns on each player:
0:00 - Introductions
3:24 - T.J. McConnell's burst, featuring Ben Sheppard as a wheel greaser
13:21 - Bennedict Mathurin playing out of reads versus sets
19:36 - Brief aside on an interesting defensive wrinkle: rotating with the sink defender instead of the low-man (or inverting the traditional crack back)
25:01 - The highs and lows of Mathurin doing Mathurin things
32:00 - The difficulty of projecting feel
35:21 - Thomas Bryant defending at the level vs. Lillard and Edwards
42:03 - Obi Toppin's wild week -- from barely playing to closing at back-up five against Milwaukee to not being able to miss in Minnesota
51:13 - Jarace Walker's variability + why Caitlin and Samson both think there would've been value in seeing him play against Milwaukee
1:06:07 - Big picture outlook for the bench headed into the playoffs: woe or whoa?
1:08:14 - Thank you and Goodbye (Subscribe to Basketball, She Wrote!)
Comments
Caitlin Cooper
Sources are saying...
Norma
Good discussion
Lifenthusiast
Are we getting a Benn article from Sampson?? "He varies wildly" is the understatement of the year. From game to game, heck, minute to minute...
