Pacers use speed and depth to win their season opener -- and in spectacular fashion

The best transition team in the league last year showed what it's all about, racking up the most points in an opener since 1990. Bring your running shoes, folks.

Rick Carlisle emerged from the locker room, stepped into the media room and before he offered his appraisal of the Pacers’ 143-120 season-opening victory over the bedraggled Washington Wizards, he had something to share.

It had almost nothing to do with the game and everything to do with who these Indiana Pacers are this season.

“I had one of the most difficult conversations I’ve ever had with a player (T.J. McConnell) about the situation and the minutes,” said Carlisle, who received a well-deserved contract extension Thursday. “I was almost in tears talking to him about it. One of the reasons was, he was so great. He was just him. He said, `Listen, I’m disappointed (but) I’ll be ready. I’ll be professional; you know that. I’ll do everything I can to set an example.’

“This is one of the great competitors in the history of this franchise. There certainly are going to be opportunities for him to play, but heading into this game the minutes,  the plan didn’t shake out well for him, so we talked about it and that was tough.”

The point being, the Pacers are deep. Crazy deep. So deep that McConnell, a significant contributor off the bench over the years, was reduced – and will likely remain reduced – to life as a bit player on a team that’s loaded at point guard with Haliburton and Andrew Nemhard McConnell played six garbage time minutes Wednesday night at Gainbridge and, as always, he played with passion and energy. It’s why he’s a crowd favorite wherever he goes.

Of course, this column isn’t about McConnell specifically – no, it’s about Bruce Brown (24 points, career-high six 3’s) and Tyrese Haliburton (20 points, 11 assists), Jalen Smith (13 points, eight rebounds) and just about everybody else who saw the floor the other night – but in a way, it’s all about McConnell. This team isn’t just deep; it's professional and eminently likeable.

Because the Pacers, aside from being the best transition team in the league last year (18.1 points per game) are going to run a lot of teams off the floor this season, and they’re going to do it with speed and with their strength in numbers.

“It’s a testament to the roster that’s been built here,” Haliburton said.

Their 143 points were a franchise record for a season opener and just two points short of the scoring record for a Pacers home game. It was the most points a team has scored in an NBA opener since, get this, 1990. As fast and explosive as the Pacers were last year,  now imagine them with the additions of Brown and Obi Toppin, two of the best transition players in the NBA.

Oh yeah, Indiana had 32 transition points Wednesday.

After a clunky, defensively-challenged start when the Wizards put up 39 points on 63% shooting in the first quarter the Pacers returned to form, played an improved brand of defense the rest of the way and walked over Washington, a team that will certainly be a bottom-feeder this season.

“We just weren’t getting enough stops,” Haliburton said. “Not playing the right way. I felt like we were doing some things on offense that isn’t us…We just weren’t playing Pacer basketball the way we know how to offensively. It kind of carried over to defense and it just wasn’t working.”

And then the ball started popping, and we saw what the Pacers can look like when their speed, unselfishness and depth come together, and why they have a decent chance to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2020-21. Indiana had 38 assists on 56 field goals, and it was a beautiful thing to behold.

“Having guys on the team who know how to play basketball the right way really helps,” Haliburton said.

Haliburton was typical Haliburton, an All-Star, finishing with his usual double-double.

Bruce Brown, making his Pacers debut one night after watching his old Denver team receive their championship rings, made a monster impact, and we’re not just talking about the outfit he wore when he arrived at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. (We’re talking about dark yellow overalls – naked underneath, or so we’re told -- a black cowboy hat and ostrich-skin boots.) But more important, he finished with 24 points and looked completely comfortable sharing the backcourt with Haliburton.

They got a ton of help off the bench, the second unit coming in early and turning the tide. Smith was terrific on a night when Myles Turner had foul trouble and never really found his footing. And the defense improved, holding the Wizards to just 39% shooting in the last three quarters.

By the time the Pacers got rolling, the only drama involved the halftime show – called “Deadly Games” – in which a Mohawk-wearing loon throws knives at his fetching partner, who was holding balloons in her mouth as Mohawk Man took aim. Which got me asking myself, “How does one grow up and discover they have a special talent for throwing knives at people?”

But enough about that.

This was about running and jumping and playing a gorgeous brand of offensive basketball. Again, it’s hard to tell how good they really are; the Wizards, who moved Kristaps Porzingis and Bradley Beal this summer, are in full tank mode, and it showed after that first quarter. But good teams take the measure of teams they’re supposed to beat, and the Pacers, with eight players in double figures, passed the test easily.

Brown, in particular, looks like a seamless fit. A bench player in Denver, he averaged just 8.2 points for the defending NBA champions, but the Pacers see him in a far more significant role.

One night earlier, he was in front of his TV, watching his old Nuggets team receiving their championship rings. Brown will get his later this year when the Pacers visit the Nuggets. “My own little ceremony,” he said with a smile.

This has a chance to be a very nice marriage. Indy wanted a defensive-minded two-guard with a championship pedigree and Brown wanted a chance to grow his game and show the league he’s a starting-caliber player who can produce.

“It’s the offense, we play fast,” Brown said, explaining his productive night. “Myles got me an open three one time just because of his seal at the rim. The offense is so random, anybody can score the ball. It was just me tonight.”

Again, McConnell had no impact on this game and he wasn’t supposed to, but his situation tells you something important about these Pacers: Not only are they loaded with relentlessly professional people, they are deep enough that McConnell has a very hard time finding the floor. That’s a positive thing – unless you’re McConnell or his agent.

Eighty-one to go.

Bring oxygen.