The Indiana Pacers Are Slowing Solving One Of Their Biggest Problems: Slow Starts

The Indiana Pacers have a top-five net rating in the second and fourth quarters this season. They rank a poor but passable 23rd in third quarter net rating. Indiana has been a capable-to-good team for the final three quarters of action during games in the 2022-23 season.

First quarters, though, have been a different story. The blue and gold rank 29th in first quarter net rating, only topping the lowly San Antonio Spurs, at -14.0. They have the 30th ranked offense and 20th ranked defense in first quarters. While Indiana plays well during the final 36 minutes of action, they have really struggled to open games this season.

Through 36 games, the Pacers have been ahead after the first quarter just nine times. That’s jarring when considering the team has won 19 games this season. They’ve had to gain their advantages over the final three quarters more often than not.

That 30th ranked offense — turning in an offensive rating of 100.4 in first quarters — is stunning for a team that ranks 15th at 112.8 points per 100 possessions on the season. It takes a while for the Pacers to get going.

Some of that is a result of one of their biggest strengths. Between the coaching staff and the players, Indiana has several basketball minds (Rick Carlisle, Bennedict Mathurin, Tyrese Haliburton, T.J. McConnell, and Myles Turner to name a few) that are good at reading what another team is doing and adjusting to it. That takes time, though, and is hard to do in the opening quarter.

The Pacers also have solid depth, and the team is filled with like-size players. That setup allows head coach Rick Carlisle to mix and match lineups as the game progresses, which isn’t easy as rotations are more set in stone early in games.

Yet still, the blue and gold have struggled at times to get off on the right foot. Only three players — Turner, Haliburton, and Buddy Hield — have started each game they have played for the team this year. And the Pacers are +36 with that trio on the court this season. Most Indiana starting lineups have solid net ratings because they do well over the course of games. Just not during the first quarter.

Much like how the Pacers improve as a game progresses, they have been better to open games as the season has progressed. In the past eight games, the blue and gold have led after one quarter five times. That means over half of their leads after one quarter this season have come in the past 17 days. Indiana is figuring out what it takes to start games strong.

“I think we just got better, more close-knit, together. Understanding what we need to go on both sides of the ball from the jump,” Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard, who has started 22 times for the team this season, said recently. He was moved into the starting five after the Pacers original starters underwhelmed to open the year.

Carlisle doesn’t think who starts has anything to do with the Pacers slow starts, which the numbers support. He has shared more than once that he thinks teams start and finish games at a similar level, so the fact that his team has gotten better at opening games is no surprise.

“Just an evolving young team that’s figuring some things out.” Carlisle said of the Pacers being better at starting games recently. “Big problems are solved in small steps… We were so good later in the game that it didn’t make sense that we would continue to have such slow starts,” he added.

Familiarity, as Nembhard noted, has been a factor in the improved starts recently. Aaron Nesmith was moved into the starting five earlier in December, and while that hasn’t made the starting lineup significantly better or worse, it has balanced out the rotation in a way that puts every Pacer in a better position to succeed. Nesmith has been playing some of the best basketball of his career this month, and the player that moved to the bench to allow him to start, Jalen Smith, has been effective playing at center with the second unit.

The Pacers don’t really play a different style, or any unique lineups, in the first quarter. A part of having a team that is strong at mid-game adjustments is that they naturally won’t be as good opening games when there is nothing to adjust to. An unavoidable trade off could be that the Pacers are just a slow starting team.

Recently, they have been better at opening games, which suggests they could be on to something with their new game preparation and rotation. The success of late needs to continue if the Pacers want to improve and stop playing from behind.