4 Takeaways From Pacers’ 108-104 Loss to Hawks

The Indiana Pacers had six players available Monday night and lost 108-104 to the Atlanta Hawks at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Three of the six, Braden Smith, Kobe Brown, and Jalen Slawson, hold Indiana's two-way contracts.

Pascal Siakam rested on the second night of a back-to-back. Ivica Zubac, Andrew Nembhard, and Aaron Nesmith were held out of uniform, and Kelly Oubre Jr. was a late scratch. T.J. McConnell, Tyrese Haliburton, Johnny Furphy, Ben Sheppard, and Larry Nance Jr. were on the inactive list.

The Pacers went 27-of-41 in the paint for 54 points. Against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, they scored 26 there on 13-of-27.

Everywhere else on the floor, Indiana was 11-of-39. That included 8-of-34 from 3-point range.

Smith said Jay Huff spreads the floor and can shoot, so breaking the line and pulling Huff's man in leaves a pass to him open.

"Our goal is to always break the line, so get below the free throw line," Smith said. "So if you draw it out from sideline to sideline, break it, get under that, and good things happen. And obviously we're going off percentages, and I think we were like 1.4 points per possession on breaking the line and then zero on not doing it."

"So I think it just makes it harder for the defense," Smith continued. "I'm able to get around or people are cutting, getting in the paint because then people collapse and you have to kick out threes or whatever the case is. So I think that that was our goal is to break that and then obviously good things happen."

Smith shot 8-of-13. Huff went 8-of-14, and Brown was 6-of-11.

Indiana also scored 14 fast-break points on 7-of-8 shooting. Atlanta had 10 fast-break points.

Quenton Jackson wanted no part of settling for jumpers.

"We had to just break the free throw line, get the other team in rotation, give us opportunities to find advantage, disadvantage," Jackson said. "Didn't want to just settle on threes or just swinging the ball around the arc. So just try to be aggressive, try to be downhill. Everything we did, we tried to do it 100%. And it was a good fight."

The Hawks scored 26 points in the paint. After halftime, they had 10 there on 5-of-23.

In the fourth quarter alone, Atlanta went 2-of-12 in the paint and 7-of-27 overall.

Indiana blocked 9 shots. Slawson had 3 to go with 3 steals, and Huff and Jackson each had 2.

Inside the arc, Atlanta finished 17-of-52. Dyson Daniels shot 3-of-10, CJ McCollum 4-of-17, and Aaron Wiggins 3-of-12.

The defense did not look like a bullfight to Pacers coach Rick Carlisle. He said Indiana has had too much of that this season.

The Hawks still made 23 of their 51 3-point attempts. Nickeil Alexander-Walker went 9-of-15 from deep and scored 34.

Atlanta grabbed 17 offensive rebounds. Indiana had 5.

The Hawks turned those into 22 second-chance points, and the Pacers scored 5. Atlanta outrebounded Indiana 49-39 and took 103 shots to Indiana's 80.

Daniels had 6 of the Hawks' offensive rebounds. Seven of Atlanta's came in the fourth quarter, when the Hawks scored 7 second-chance points.

One of them came with 25 seconds left in a two-point game. McCollum missed a 25-foot 3-pointer, and Daniels got the rebound. The Hawks kept the ball again after Huff blocked Alexander-Walker with 12.9 seconds left, and Onyeka Okongwu scored 2.7 seconds later.

Turnovers went the other way. Indiana scored 19 points off 16 Atlanta turnovers, and the Hawks scored 16 off the Pacers' 19.

Smith played 42:13, Slawson 40:39, and Brown 37:51. That is 120 minutes and 43 seconds from the three two-way players, who scored 47 of Indiana's 104 points.

Smith started for the first time and put up 19 points and 10 assists. Brown scored 16 with 6 rebounds, and Slawson added 12 points and 7 rebounds.

A two-way deal lets a player spend up to 50 games with the NBA club. Smith signed his in August, two months after the Pacers acquired his draft rights, the 38th pick, from the Chicago Bulls.

All six players earned at least consideration for more minutes, Carlisle said afterward.

Jarace Walker played a team-high 44:41 and finished with 15 points and 7 rebounds. Jackson had 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals in 34:30.

Indiana is 2-6. Its next game is Wednesday night against the Memphis Grizzlies, with tip-off at 8 p.m. ET.