When it rains, it pours.
The Indiana Pacers embarrassed and lowered the boom on the Washington Wizards on Thursday night, putting up an NBA season-high 162 points in a 53-point demolition job (162-109) that was the third-largest margin of victory this season, trailing only the Los Angeles Clippers’ 62-point win over the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics’ 54-point win over the Toronto Raptors.
On top of that, the 162 points outburst by the Pacers is the most by an NBA team in a non-overtime game since 2008, when the Denver Nuggets beat the Seattle Super Sonics ahead of their move to Oklahoma City, 168-116, on March 16. Playing on the second night of a back-to-back after losing to the Lakers on a LeBron James buzzer-beating tip-in at home on Wednesday night, Indiana bounced back, setting a franchise record with 27 3-pointers while sharing the ball incredibly, recording 48 assists on 59 made baskets, also the league’s water mark this season.
“It’s obviously fun to watch when you’re coaching the team making all the shots,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said. “But there was a spirit of unselfishness which is really what Indiana’s about.”
All of the following statics register as season highs for the Pacers, who have been one of the hottest teams in the league since the turn of the calendar and have opened up a two-game lead on the Detroit Pistons for the East’s No. 4 seed.
Field-goal percentage: .641
Bench points: 85
First-half points: 83
First-quarter points 45
Third-quarter points: 42
The Pacers could have done even more damage but started taking shot-clock violations with about a minute and a half remaining. Honestly, they could have basically stopped scoring after the third quarter with a commanding 37-point lead.
It was certainly a team effort, in which there was plenty of playing time to go around. Tyrese Haliburton has played out of his mind for the last month after coming back from injury, He has been distributing the ball beautifully, recording 109 assists against nine turnovers over nine games in March, leading the way with 29 points and seven 3-pointers. At the end of the massacre eight Pacers scored in double figures. Myles Turner scored 17, Jarace Walker went for 16 and Obi Toppin pitched in 15. Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell had eight assists apiece.
“They don’t ever, ever get talked about enough nationally,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of the Pacers after Los Angeles nail-biting win over Indiana on Wednesday. “They’re a phenomenal basketball team.”
Again, only four teams have won more games since January 1 than the Pacers, and all of them, the Thunder, Cavs, Celtics and Nuggets, are title contenders. Nobody that covers the league on a daily basis is going to go out on a limb and put the Pacers in that tier, but the conference finals appearance they made last season has been plenty validated.
This team is for real, not because of a blowout like this against a tanking Wizards team, but because of the way Haliburton can control the tempo and everything offensively and the consistency of a lockdown defense that is quietly ranked in the top 10 over the last three months.
