Unlike their next opponent, the Indiana Pacers are on an offensive roll heading into Wednesday night’s game in Indianapolis against the Utah Jazz.
In their past three games, they’ve scored at least 121 points, including a 50-point quarter against the Hornets and a 152-point outburst against the Spurs.
Indiana’s most recent performance also gave Pacers coach Rick Carlisle his 900th career victory, including 245 wins in two different stints as the bench boss in Indianapolis. Carlisle’s milestone came against Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich, who has a whopping 1,369 wins and is the NBA’s all-time winningest coach.
“I told Pop after the game that I’m very grateful for him,” Carlisle said. “He was a mentor to me before I got a head coaching job.”
Popovich congratulated Carlisle after the Pacers tied a franchise record for points in a game in the blowout win. After pouring it on against San Antonio, the players took to pouring water on their coach in the locker room.
“I wouldn’t call it pouring,” Carlisle said. “It just came from every direction.”
Just like the offense, led by Tyrese Haliburton’s 23 points. Obi Toppin and Buddy Hield each added 19 points, and six Pacers finished with double figures.
“The ball was just moving well,” Haliburton said. “We were putting good energy in the ball. We were just playing the right way, getting enough stops, which allowed us to play in transition.”
Carlisle also won 555 games in 13 seasons with Dallas, where he claimed his only championship as a head coach in 2011. The 64-year-old also won 100 games in Detroit.
Meanwhile, the road-weary Jazz are limping into the third game of their four-game trip. They were blown out in the first two games of this journey, falling 123-95 at Minnesota on Saturday and 130-113 in Chicago on Monday.
Overall, the Jazz have lost five of six games and have only two victories in eight contests this season.
“Nobody’s gonna feel sorry for us,” Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen said. “So just look at the film, get better, and we really need to grind one out to kind of break out of this.
“We should be frustrated and a little pissed after we lose a game, but once we leave this locker room, we’ve got to focus on the next one.”
Markkanen provided the highlights in a rough outing in Chicago. Along with scoring a game-high 29 points, including five 3-pointers, the Finnish big man made the play of the game in the first half.
With the ball bouncing away from the Jazz basket near midcourt, Markkanen hustled to grab the ball and heaved it behind him over the shoulder about 50 feet toward the hoop. Teammate Kelly Olynyk happened to be in the right place, catching the ball and laying it in.
“Right on target. That was not a turnover,” Markkanen said. “So I threw it to the rim. But I think it was a good pass.”
The Jazz hope to find more highlights and wins as they wrap up this road trip in Indiana and then Memphis on Friday night.
–Field Level Media