Former Notre Dame guard [autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag] had the opportunity of a lifetime this past week. He traveled with the San Antonio Spurs to Paris to play two games against the Indiana Pacers. He appeared in both games, and while he failed to score in either one, he did have three assists and a steal in the first game.
Wesley also was the subject of a very prominent post we published this past week. We sat down for an interview with his parents Derrick and Leslie. Our thanks again to them for taking the time to do that.
Back in the U.S., [autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag], Notre Dame’s other active NBA player, got some playing time with the Milwaukee Bucks. He scored his only basket while also grabbing five rebounds and dishing out three assists Jan. 23 against the Miami Heat. He had one more rebound and two more assists Jan. 25 against the Los Angeles Clippers, bringing his weekly averages to 1.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists.
Here is a gallery of both players from the past week:
The latest beef involving the big man known for the nickname Beef Stew is not nearly dramatic as either incident described above, though. Instead, for this particular issue, he was caught making fun of Turner simply for his love of Legos.
He has made it clear, however, that he builds Legos. He does not play with them. So perhaps the use the word “play” may have rubbed Turner the wrong way.
Myles Turner cracking me up postgame…giving the stink eye to Beef Stew as he was jawing with someone before exiting the court. pic.twitter.com/M3PqWR1bYj
Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes
Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you’ve had a great week and have a fantastic weekend ahead of you.
There’s always a lot of talk around the All-Star voting. Sometimes, the results are a bit more interesting than the actual game.
We always talk about who deserves to be included and who the snubs are and how the rosters should expand and a bunch of other things we don’t mention ever again after February.
But one of the most fascinating stories from this year’s voting that I don’t see very many people talking about is the straight-up disappearance of Tyrese Haliburton.
The NBA released the latest vote count for the game and the only Tyrese listed for Eastern Conference guards is Maxey. Haliburton is just…not there.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokić continue to lead their respective conferences in the second fan returns of #NBAAllStar Voting presented by AT&T.
Fans account for 50% of the vote to decide All-Star starters. Players and a media panel account for 25% each.
Consider where we were last season when, not only did Haliburton have at least a million votes by this point, but he was an outright starter for the Eastern Conference with 3.4 million total votes. That was more than everyone not named Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum and Joel Embiid. Today, he’s straight up not included. It’s strange to see.
At least part of it can be explained by his down-season so far. He started the year extremely slow, shooting 37 percent from the field through the Pacers’ first 15 games. The Pacers started the season slow because of his slow start and expectations were high coming into this year. When that happens, you’re bound to see a dip in popularity.
This still has to be considered strange, though. Haliburton was an All-NBA player last season. He was an All-Star and an Olympian. He made a run to the Eastern Conference Finals with the Pacers. But here we are with names like Jordan Poole (260,825 votes) and Tyler Herro (223,479 votes) being included before Haliburton.
This isn’t to disparage those players in any way. They’re fine! Well, in Poole’s case, the Wizards are not fine. But at least he’s solid. I’m just pointing out how Tyrese Haliburton seems to be a bit forgotten these days.
If he is forgotten, though, he won’t be for long. The Pacers are climbing in the standings and have won four straight games. Haliburton is also playing much better these days. Since December 1, he’s averaging 19.8 points per game while shooting 47.8 percent from the floor and 38 percent from deep on nearly eight attempts per game. His assist-to-turnover ratio is a marvelous 9.2-to-1.7. That’s All-Star-worthy stuff.
At this point, he probably won’t make the game. But if the Pacers can make another surprisingly deep playoff run? I’m sure he won’t mind if we never talk about him again.
People were into this game. According to data from ESPN, Wednesday’s showdown between the two best teams in the NBA averaged 1.87 million viewers and peaked at 2.5 million viewers. Those numbers are up 20 percent from last season in that same time slot.
That’s good. Really good. It’s something the NBA hasn’t seen a ton of over these last few seasons. Interest in the regular season has continuously waned year after year since the peak of the LeBron vs. the Warriors matchups. This bump is a trend in the right direction.
Is it a bit anomalous? Sure, I think that would be fair to say. It’s not every year that two teams who on pace to potentially win 70 games will play each other. But I don’t think it needed to be exactly that for people to be interested in this game.
We’ll see how things go next Thursday when they play again in Oklahoma City.
Joe Abunassar, a name synonymous with elite basketball training, brings nearly three decades of expertise to the game. Over his 27-year career, Joe has trained over 300 NBA players, including Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett and Chauncey Billups. As the …
Joe Abunassar, a name synonymous with elite basketball training, brings nearly three decades of expertise to the game. Over his 27-year career, Joe has trained over 300 NBA players, including Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett and Chauncey Billups.
As the founder of Impact Basketball, Joe revolutionized the field by integrating on-court skills, strength, nutrition, and mental performance into one comprehensive system.
Abunassar sat down with HoopsHype reflecting on his journey, his approach to blending drills with game readiness, the importance of building trust with players, and his plans for the future of Impact Basketball.
“I’m more about the team. The way that we went out there, and lost, we need to take a couple more steps in the right direction as a team.”
In his first career NBA start, Texas A&M alumnus Quenton Jackson did not disappoint Indiana fans.
During a 130-113 loss at Houston on Wednesday, Jackson scored a career-high 24 points on an efficient 10-of-12 shooting. He added three assists and two steals.
“It feels good obviously from an individual standpoint. But I think for me, I’m more about the team,” Jackson said postgame. “The way that we went out there, played today and lost, we need to take a couple more steps in the right direction as a team. Individually, of course I’m proud of myself, but I think we still have more work to do.
“I felt it was a little disrespectful (to have Alpren Sengun defend me). But, at the end of the day, I am new to this league and everything about this is having to prove yourself. That’s how they felt and I just used it to my strength.”
Jackson and the Pacers play in Milwaukee against the Bucks on Friday night at 7 p.m.
Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Shaun on Twitter: @Shaun_Holkko.
The Indiana Pacers could once again blow past expectations this season, and they have the potential to emerge as a Top 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. GM Kevin Pritchard has assembled a talented group that has already shown what they’re capable …
The Indiana Pacers could once again blow past expectations this season, and they have the potential to emerge as a Top 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. GM Kevin Pritchard has assembled a talented group that has already shown what they’re capable of, especially after their surprising run to the Eastern Conference Finals last season.
The addition of Pascal Siakam in January solidified the Pacers’ core. Siakam’s stellar play, shooting a career-high 54.9 percent from the field and averaging 20-plus points per game for the fifth consecutive season, adds a critical piece to Indiana’s offense. Pairing Siakam with Myles Turner gives the Pacers the potential to turn their already elite offense into a more balanced team. If they can lift their defense into the Top 15 in defensive rating, they could be one of the most complete units in the league.
Tyrese Haliburton‘s health will be key, as he drives the engine of the offense, and with the depth the Pacers have their rotation is stacked. Obi Toppin, who played all 82 games last season and averaged a career-high 10.3 points, strengthens an already deep roster.
Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes
Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you’ve got an awesome weekend ahead of you .
NBA basketball is officially back. The league’s very first preseason games are being played today with the Nuggets and Celtics kicking things off in Abu Dhabi. If you’re tuned into games this preseason, you might feel like you’re watching a more physical brand of basketball with fewer free throws and a bit less free movement around the court.
That’s what we should be preparing ourselves for. At least, according to Rick Carlisle, anyway.
The Pacers head coach recently hopped on The Wake Up Call podcast to talk about this upcoming season for his team. The physicality in the game from the second half of last season was brought up. Carlisle said we should expect more of that this coming season.
Shoutout to Basketball, She Wrote’s Caitlin Cooper, who pointed this out. Carlisle said the league told coaches that last year’s physicality was here to stay. “Games are going to look a lot more like FIBA than the old, freedom-of-movement NBA,” he said.
This was all according to plan. The NBA sent out a memo on official points of emphasis at the end of last season. League officials were made to focus more on proper defensive positioning and less on contact. It led to a sharp dip in scoring around the NBA. The decline in free throws started in February and scoring dipped right along with it.
If the NBA continues to emphasize these previous points, we should expect a stark contrast between this season and the last few years. That’s probably a good thing.
Let’s put offense in perspective. According to Basketball Reference’s data, the 2016-17 Golden State Warriors had the greatest offense ever, with a 115.6 offensive rating. That’s the team with Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green all in their primes.
That offensive rating would’ve been just above league average (115.3) last season — and that’s with the NBA tightening things up in the second half of the year. Offensive efficiency records have been breaking yearly in the league, with no concessions to the league’s defenses.
We’re about to see a bit of a correction if what Carlisle says holds true. I’m here for it.
Wemby might just win DPOY, but don’t bet on it
(Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images)
Victor Wembanyama is probably going to be a pretty popular bet for Defensive Player of the Year this upcoming NBA season. Nobody can blame you for putting your money on him — he was the runner-up for the award last season despite playing on a 22-win team.
But Bryan Kalbrosky says that, at -250, it’s a pretty bad value pick for any bettors out there.
“That means an individual would have to bet $250 to win $100 if the Spurs star wins Defensive Player of the Year. The return just simply isn’t great!
Over the past ten seasons, no other preseason favorite has even approached that sort of expectation. The closest was when Draymond Green entered the year with +160 odds in 2017.
However, each winner since 2015 has had an average betting return of about 11-1.”
Plus, Kalbrosky writes, the Spurs likely won’t be very good anyway. While he’s elite, the rest of San Antonio’s defense isn’t quite up to snuff. Their defensive rating probably won’t be in the top half of the NBA’s rankings. And, if it’s not, history says Wemby won’t win the award.
Save your money. Or maybe just put it on someone else.
If Joe Mazzulla says the Pacers were THIS good, we should keep an eye on them.
With a sparkling 16-3 playoff record, it didn’t seem like the Boston Celtics faced much resistance en route to winning the 2024 NBA title. However, according to one-man quote machine Joe Mazzulla, you must read between the lines. Because while the series ended up being very short, Mazzulla said one team did push the Celtics more than they anticipated.
It was the Indiana Pacers, who the Celtics swept in the Eastern Conference Finals, but not without a big fight.
In a new interview with Boston Sports Journal’s John Karalis, Mazzulla claims that the Pacers made the Celtics sweat more than any other squad they faced in the postseason. In fact, he went as far as to say that the Celtics were lucky this series didn’t go seven against upstart Indiana.
“That Indiana series was by far the toughest series, and we swept them, but it should have went seven,” he said [Mazzulla]. “You have to have an understanding that we have to fight for the things that we can control, but there’s so much that goes on that you can’t control. We’re trying to foul up three and give (Aaron) Nesmith a wide-open corner 3. If he makes that and we go in the overtime on the road, it’s a completely different game.”
Mazzulla makes a great point. While I find it hard to believe the Pacers would’ve ever won that series with the Celtics — especially after Tyrese Haliburton missed most of it with a hamstring injury — they probably deserved a better outcome than an outright sweep. They wouldn’t have been blanked if not for a few unlucky bounces here and there. But that’s just how sports and basketball shake out sometimes.
For what it’s worth, Mazzulla claiming a team the Celtics swept gave them their toughest challenge has recent precedent for being a harbinger of what might come for a defending NBA champion.
After the Denver Nuggets won the 2023 NBA title, some Nuggets players, like key reserve guard Bruce Brown, said Anthony Edwards’ Minnesota Timberwolves pushed Denver the most in its championship run even though it won in a five-game first-round series. When the Nuggets and Timberwolves met up a year later in the second round, we saw many of the similar fits Minnesota gave Denver in 2023, which helped Edwards and Co. upend their rival in a climactic Game 7 on the road.
None of this is to say that the Pacers are necessarily the Celtics’ biggest challenger on paper. Far from it, in fact.
But the NBA is a lot more about matchups than some people like to think. The Celtics’ five-out offense, where everyone can shoot and a defense loaded with elite perimeter talent, is equipped to handle almost every opponent well. But the Pacers don’t really play into that. They almost always push the tempo and control the game on their terms, even in a way where the Celtics are uncomfortable — as we saw in these two teams’ first Conference Finals battle.
Perhaps most importantly, like the Timberwolves, this was only the young Pacers’ first experience with the playoffs. A safe assumption is that they will come back more prepared for the postseason pressure and gauntlet moving forward. That can only help them in another potential battle with Boston.
If the Celtics and Pacers match up in the playoffs again, I wouldn’t be surprised if Indiana takes Boston to its absolute limit and then some. And if you don’t believe me, you should definitely listen to Mazzulla.
Tyrese Haliburton knows how special Caitlin Clark is.
One Indiana basketball staple paid tribute to another at their shared stadium on Friday night.
Indiana Pacers superstar Tyrese Haliburton attended Friday night’s Indiana Fever game against the Phoenix Mercury, one where rookie phenomenon Caitlin Clarkhad one of her best starts of the season.
Haliburton wanted the world to know what he was seeing at Friday’s game, as he tweeted while he was in attendance: “Hope y’all seeing what 22 doin at Gainbridge.”
That is such a cool way for Haliburton to give Clark her flowers as the two try to forge a new era for excellent Indiana basketball in the NBA and WNBA.
Tominaga was chosen to represent the United, a team comprised of the top G League prospects, against Mega MIS, a program in the top professional league in Serbia. The two-game exhibition competition will take place Sept. 4-6 at the Kaiser Permanente Arena.
Joining Tominaga on the roster so far are Stockton Kings forward Deonte Burton and Isaiah Wong, who was with the Indiana Pacers last season. The complete roster will be announced at a later date.
Tominaga was named to the All-Big Ten second team last season after averaging 15.1 points and 2.3 rebounds on 37.6% shooting from 3-point range as a fifth-year senior. He produced eight 20-point games, including a season-high 31 points on Feb. 4.
The 6-foot-2 guard is expected to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Pacers after going undrafted this year. He skipped summer league to represent Japan in the 2024 Olympic Games and totaled two points and one steal in eight minutes with the team.
Tominaga and the United will also participate in the 2024 FIBA Intercontinental Cup, featuring teams from six countries. The competition will run Sept. 12-15 in Singapore.
