The Indiana Pacers, a team with a bottom-five defense, were always going to have their hands full with Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns on Friday night. The Pacers were already without Tyrese Haliburton, who continues to recover from a hamstring injury, and their perimeter defense isn't already the best in the first place. This perfect storm of factors allowed Booker to carve up Indiana's defense, scoring 29 points of his 62 total on the night in just the first quarter.
Nonetheless, as explosive of a scoring night as Booker had, it was the Pacers that had the last laugh. They ratcheted up the defense, thanks to head coach Rick Carlisle's adjustments, and it paid off — they held the Suns to just 17 points in the fourth quarter on 8-26 shooting from the field as they came roaring back to take a 133-131 victory thanks to an Obi Toppin game-winning layup.
In the end, it may have taken the Pacers the entire game to figure things out and come out with a win in a heated affair amid Devin Booker's stellar performance, but Carlisle knows that games are marathons, not sprints.
“Pacers basketball is 48 minutes. Not 36,” Carlisle said in his postgame presser, per James Boyd of The Athletic.
Indeed, for the first 36 minutes of play, the Pacers were on the backfoot. Thanks to Devin Booker's amazing efforts in the first quarter, the Suns kept a comfortable distance from the Pacers for most of the game. But that's when Rick Carlisle implored his team to play a more frenetic brand of defense.
As Kevin Durant put it, the Pacers looked to speed up the game. They were trying to crowd the ballhandler in an effort to get the ball out of the Suns stars' hands or to force turnovers. The gambit worked because Phoenix went cold from the field in the fourth quarter — a credit to the Pacers' ability to execute the gameplan Carlisle had to win their second in a row against streaking opponents.
It looks like the Pacers may have to add another stout perimeter defender to bolster the team as they try to make a deep playoff run. Nonetheless, as it stands, however, expect Indiana to compete for every second of the 48 minutes they have on the game clock each and every game.
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