The Pacers’ starting small forward, Aaron Nesmith, is still playing through a right ankle sprain suffered during Game 3 against the Knicks, and Game 5 proved more difficult than Game 4 in that regard, writes Dustin Dopirak of the Indy Star. However, he’s not letting himself off the hook for a 16-minute, three-point performance.
“It hurts, but it’s no excuse. Gotta be better. I was able to play Game 4. I could play today. There was no excuse,” he said.
While Dopirak points to a first-quarter collision with Knicks’ center Mitchell Robinson in Game 5 as a potential reason for the extra pain, Nesmith rebuked that idea.
“It wasn’t a play today that made it worse,” he said.
While Nesmith has taken the bulk of responsibility guarding Knicks’ star Jalen Brunson throughout the series, head coach Rick Carlisle turned to other wing options after Nesmith struggled out of the gate.
“He got off to a bit of a slow start. I wasn’t sure if maybe he was slowed a little bit by the ankle. I put [Ben] Sheppard in there right away and then [Bennedict] Mathurin got a game going. That dug into Aaron’s minutes some. But everyone’s just gonna have to be ready for Game 6,” explained Carlisle.
Here’s more from Indiana:
- In more Pacers’ injury news, backup center Tony Bradley is being listed as questionable for Saturday’s Game 6 with a left hip flexor strain, reports Scott Agness of the Fieldhouse Files (via Twitter). Bradley landed awkwardly after Robinson fouled him on a layup attempt in the third quarter. After receiving sporadic minutes throughout the postseason, Bradley had played an average of 11 minutes per game in the three contests leading up to Game 5, as incumbent backup Thomas Bryant‘s minutes declined. With Robinson’s insertion into the Knicks’ starting lineup, the Pacers have leaned into smaller lineups featuring Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin without a traditional center.
- Following a dominant Game 4 in which he contributed 32 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds, and 4 steals with 0 turnovers, Tyrese Haliburton was uncharacteristically quiet in Game 5, scoring just 8 points on 7 shots in 31 minutes. It was a head-scratcher of a performance, writes The Athletic’s Joe Vardon (subscriber link), and Haliburton knows it. “I got to be better, set the tone, get downhill. I feel like I can do a great job of that, but I’ll watch the film,” he said. However, Carlisle said it’s not all on the star point guard. “As a team, we have to be aggressive and have a level of balance… There’s more things I’m gonna have to do to help him. I’ll take responsibility for that, and we’ll see what we can improve.” Vardon draws a parallel to Haliburton’s Game 3 against the Cavaliers, in which he scored just 4 points over 30 minutes in a loss. The team went on to win the next two contests by an average of 14.5 points as they closed out the series in five games.
- The Pacers committed turnovers on each of their first two possessions of Game 5, a harbinger of things to come for a team that draws strength from rarely making mistakes, writes Agness. Indiana opened the second half with a turnover on their first possession as well, and ended with a playoff-high 20 turnovers in the game, compared to New York’s 15. Losing the turnover battle, as well as the rebounding battle, allowed the Knicks to accumulate 89 total shots while the Pacers only managed 74.