Pacers final score: Hornets storm back against Pacers 115-109

Indiana blew a 21-point lead, dropping them on the road against Charlotte. Myles Turner and Buddy Hield each scored 20 points.

Despite putting together one of their best starts of the season, the Indiana Pacers still found themselves in the loss column tonight after a frustrating collapse against the Charlotte Hornets. The Pacers led by 21 points early in the second quarter, but turnovers and poor defensive effort allowed the Hornets to come all the way back, closing things out in the final minutes after it looked like Indiana had regained composure.

Charlotte took the lead for good on a 13-0 run in the fourth, a far cry from the beginning of the night when Indiana took charge early, taking a 15-5 lead, led by Myles Turner, who had eight points in that stretch. The Pacers were dominant in the first quarter, shooting 12-16 and getting a total of 15 points from Turner, shooting a perfect 9-9 from the free throw line.

T.J. McConnell notched a 40-point quarter for Indiana, leading by 18 after one. Their ability to get to the free throw line continued early in the second, with Oshae Brissett and Isaiah Jackson each pushing Indiana’s lead out to 21. Jackson in particular played exceptionally well as a rebounder, pulling in four offensive boards in the first half, giving Indiana a 54-33 lead on a putback dunk.

Though the Pacers were outplaying Charlotte throughout these first 17 minutes or so, they were still a bit loose with the ball, a problem that became a large problem in the latter stages of the first half. They had six turnovers in the final six minutes of the second quarter, not only taking away shot attempts from a team making shots but ramping up opportunities for the Hornets to chip away, outscoring the Pacers 25-12 down the stretch to suddenly make it a single digit game at halftime.

Terry Rozier and Kelly Oubre Jr. made a dangerous combo for the Hornets tonight, continuing their positive play into the third as Nick Richards tied the game midway through the third and gave the Hornets their first lead with 2:50 remaining in the third. The Pacers responded with six straight, using that to take an 88-85 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Hornets again tied things up early in the fourth at 94-94, but McConnell would find Jordan Nwora and Buddy Hield twice in the corner to push the lead back out to six. A second Hield three a minute or so later and the Pacers would appear to be in firm control with a 105-96 lead midway through the fourth.

Unfortunately, Indiana’s offense would grind to a halt at that point, leading to eight straight misses from that point, including a pair of turnovers as Charlotte again took advantage, running off 13 straight points to take a 109-105 lead. Aaron Nesmith would cut the lead to two on a layup with a minute remaining, but Gordon Hayward completed an and-one on the following possession, slamming the door shut on the Pacers.

The Pacers shot just 6-23 in the fourth quarter, a stretch of play that could’ve been manageable given how well they’d shot the ball to that point, but their turnovers haunted them throughout the back half of the game. On the night, the Pacers committed 22 turnovers while forcing just 11. Over half of those turnovers were live ball turnovers, giving the Hornets plenty of chances to stage a comeback, outscoring the Pacers 35-8 in points off turnovers, the deciding factor in the game.

It was a total team effort in blowing the lead, with nine of the 10 rotation players committing at least one turnover and four of the five starters committing three each. McConnell led the team with four, offsetting a positive assist night with eight as he struggled with his shooting, going 2-9.

It was a bad combination with Andrew Nembhard again falling back into shooting struggles, going just 1-6 himself. Turner led the way on the night with 20 points, but posted just five points after the first quarter, taking just two free throws after a phenomenal first quarter showing. He also had seven rebounds and five assists.

Hield also scored 20, but struggled in terms of consistency, needing 18 shots to get there, including 4-12 from three. Bennedict Mathurin returned to action tonight, scoring 18 points in his seventh start, shooting 7-10, but it felt as if he was feeling his way back into the game most of the night.

Off the bench, Indiana went extra large by pairing Jackson with Jalen Smith and Brissett early in the second quarter, a stretch that worked well, with the trio scoring well. Jackson led the bench with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Smith meanwhile had 10 points and six rebounds, the pair blocking four shots as well and combined for nine of Indiana’s 13 offensive rebounds. Brissett had eight points and four rebounds and Nwora finished with seven points and six rebounds.

The Pacers got production all night from guys, but just weren’t able to limit their mistakes and force enough stops, dropping them to 32-40 on the year, taking them 2.5 games out of the play-in spot after a thrilling win for Chicago tonight. That’s probably just as well for a Pacers team that has now lost to five of the six teams below them in the standings.

With 10 games remaining, there’s still a lot of different ways this season can conceivably go, especially should Tyrese Haliburton return to action soon, though the schedule will remain rather difficult with or without him as the four game road trip continues on Wednesday with a trip to Canada to face the Toronto Raptors.