The Pacers' second unit had no answers for the New Orleans Pelicans in the first half Wednesday. With point guard Tyrese Haliburton and center Ivica Zubac on the bench to start the second quarter, it took the Pacers more than four minutes to score their first points of the period.
New Orleans ended up outscoring Indiana 35-18 in the second quarter to enter halftime with a 10-point lead. When the starters sat in the second half, it was a different story.
The absence of starting small forward Aaron Nesmith and backup point guard T.J. McConnell forced coach Rick Carlisle to dig deeper in Game 1. Kelly Oubre Jr. started in place of Nesmith (left hamstring strain), and guard Quenton Jackson solidified his spot in the rotation without McConnell (right hamstring strain).
Four of Jackson's five first-half minutes came during that woeful second-quarter stretch. The Pacers lost Jackson's second-quarter minutes 12-0.
Carlisle still needed something out of Jackson – who got his first fully guaranteed NBA contract this summer – in the second half. Jackson reentered the game with just 1:19 left in the third quarter and the Pacers trailing by seven points. On his first possession back in the game, Jackson stole the ball from Jordan Poole and scored a layup on the other end. On the next possession, he intercepted a Herb Jones pass and outleted the ball to Obi Toppin for a transition layup.
That 32-second span changed the course of the game. The back-to-back steals were McConnell-esque, which was Jackson's goal.
"I just try to come and be an extension of T.J. to some extent," Jackson said after practice Monday. "That way we can keep the flow, keep the pace. Obviously with T.J. out, it's a lot more ball-handling from other places. So, I just try to keep energy, keep the pace in the game."
Carlisle felt the Pacers' halftime deficit was a product of them not playing hard enough in the first 24 minutes. He said the team "had a pretty animated discusion at halftime," and the message was well-received by Jackson, who was a +7 in the team's 123-120 win.
"I thought the hero of the game was Quenton Jackson, who came in and immediately ... there was a four-point swing in the second half," Carlisle said. "And then he earned his way into crunch time. That's what we need. We just need guys playing their hearts out. Anything less isn't going to get us there."
While Jackson did the dirty work off the bench, the Pacers wouldn't have won without Toppin. Toppin scored 20 points while going 7-of-12 from the field and 4-of-9 on 3-pointers. (The Pacers' bench scored just 32 points.) After the game, Toppin said he wanted to get the win for Tyrese Haliburton, who had 23 points and 12 assists in his first game back from a torn Achilles.
"We definitely needed to get this win," Toppin said. "Not only for the team, but for (Haliburton) as well – his first game back in a very long time. He's put in a lot of work to be back to where he is now."
Toppin and Haliburton have developed a synergy on and off the court, which showed Wednesday. Toppin closed the game in place of Oubre during the team's fourth-quarter rally, and Carlisle elected to use Toppin as the Pacers' backup center in the second half after Larry Nance Jr. went scoreless and was -11 in five minutes in the second quarter.
Carlisle sat Haliburton to give him a breather following the point guard's technical foul in the fourth quarter, and the Pacers took the lead with Haliburton on the bench. The Pacers used three players – Toppin, Jackson and Oubre – who won't typically be starters in the nearly three minutes Haliburton sat, and they held the fort. When Haliburton came back in, he slammed the door shut with five points and two assists in the game's final 4:14.
"They really got some traction," Carlisle said of Indiana's bench players. "And then when Ty came back in, he had enough in the tank to finish, and it was spectacular."
The Pacers haven't revealed how long they expect Nesmith and McConnell to be out. For the time being, different players have to contribute in expanded roles, like Jackson and Toppin did in New Orleans.
"It's tricky right now with our rotation because we don't have McConnell, we don't have Nesmith," Carlisle said, "and so we're plugging and playing, mixing and matching with certain guys."
Following a 19-63 season, the Pacers have spent this offseason working to rebuild championship habits that had them one half away from their first NBA ring in 2025. Wednesday's game was by no means a championship performance, but several Pacers displayed the championship-level trait of performing when their number is called.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why Rick Carlisle called Quenton Jackson the 'hero of the game' in Pacers' season-opening win