Jarace Walker played sparingly during his rookie season for the Pacers after being selected with the No. 8 overall pick in last year’s draft. However, he showed Wednesday why he was a lottery selection just a year ago, contributing a career-high 17 points on perfect (7-of-7) shooting.
According to IndyStar’s Dustin Dopirak, that performance could cement Walker in the rotation even when forward Aaron Nesmith returns from injury.
“Jarace Walker tonight, this was certainly a tremendous performance by him,” head coach Rick Carlisle said. “He earned all the minutes. Shot-making was great. He rebounded and defended their best players. Had a big block at the end of one quarter that was a real momentum play. There’s nothing like heat-of-the-moment, big-time intensity to really learn what it’s all about and he really responded great.”
Wednesday’s game marked the third straight time Walker reached double-digit minutes. Some of his primary defensive assignments through that stretch included Luka Doncic, Brandon Ingram and Franz Wagner.
“I feel like [Wednesday] wasn’t my best defensive night but I feel like I’m just continuing to take leaps,” Walker said. “I’m watching a lot of film, continuing to grow on that side, but just continuing to focus on and work on pressing up on defense, pick-and-roll defense and obviously one-on-one. I feel like I’m continuing to grow on that side as well.”
We have more from the Central Division:
- Myles Turner continues to be a locker room staple and franchise cornerstone for the Pacers despite being included in trade rumors several times through his 10-year NBA career. In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda’s Grant Afseth, Turner discussed his connection with his teammates and his value to the Pacers. “I’ve battled through a lot, but it hasn’t broken me,” Turner said. “I want to stay ready and be an example for the next generation.“
- The Cavaliers are off to their best start in franchise history, beginning the year with a 9-0 record, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com details. Cleveland is playing tremendous team-oriented basketball, with Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley all playing at or around All-Star levels to begin the season. The Cavs rank first in the league in points and field goal percentage.
- Despite the Cavaliers‘ perfect record, Mitchell hasn’t been pleased with recent officiating, Fedor writes. “We’re playing against these teams that are getting tick-tack calls,” Mitchell said after Wednesday’s win over the Pelicans. “Tonight, I don’t even know when the first foul was called in the second half.” Cleveland shot 13 free throws to New Orleans’ 28 in that game.
- The Bucks are still not offering a timeline for the return to play for forward Khris Middleton, Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes. Head coach Doc Rivers said he didn’t know if he’d classify Middleton as dealing with more of a day-to-day or week-to-week injury. Rivers did say that the former All-Star could play in a live, five-on-five practice session on a game day if needed, Owczarski writes, meaning a lack of practice time for the team as a whole shouldn’t delay his return. “Everybody’s different,” Rivers said. “Khris has had a lot of injuries and surgical stuff, so it’s just not as fast as we thought it would be and there’s nothing wrong with that.“
- Milwaukee inserted Andre Jackson Jr. into the starting rotation and the Bucks ended up snapping a six-game losing streak. Veteran Bucks guard Damian Lillard was complimentary of how the second-year wing played, according to Gabe Stoltz of Brew Hoop (Twitter link). “Every good team has somebody that you can point to as like a disruptor, energy player that just brings that to a team and I think it was obvious with him out there,” Lillard said.
Mitchell is 100% correct about the FT differential. Cavs are 26th in the league in FTA, their opponents are 17th, which is close enough to average to be a rounding error. Very obvious they aren’t getting the calls they should. League Average is 23.6/G, Cavs have 19.6/G. Granted, the Thunder and Knicks also aren’t getting the calls they should (Charlotte and Detroit are also getting fewer, but bad teams tend to get fewer calls), but it’s still striking, and Knicks opponents have the fewest FTA/G in the league (17.6/g to 22.9/g average), so theirs might be by design.
Mitchell has nothing to cry about when Curry gets knocked down grabbed and slapped every game and still never gets to the FT line. Maybe Michell should take LeBron’s acting classes to get to the line.
GSW is averaging 24 FTA/G when they’re a team that doesn’t attack the rim as much as other teams, and Curry leads the team in FTA/G at 4.6. Mitchell averaging 3.6/G, second on the Cavs. Pure cap.
GSW is 17th in 2p attempts per game, Cavs 5th.
Warriors got 50 FT in one game and 12 in last 2 minutes of that game. Boston was fouling at the end of the last game knowing warriors are last in % made. Kuminga is the only reason they are getting to the line more.
The only outliers are the games Steph wasn’t available and the game against Utah where they never trailed. 34 vs the Wizards, 30 vs Blazers, 24 vs Boston, 22 vs Clippers, even aside from the 50 against the Rockets.
So no. This is false. Again. I get that you *think* that’s what’s happening, but the reality is different. Look up the games themselves. Cavs have only passed 30 one time, against the Wizards. They had *eight* attempts against the Lakers despite getting a lot of offense inside.
Portland has young defenders that foul a lot. Refs do not call fouls on Lakers. Watch how many times AD pushes off in the back on rebounds just like Gobert. Also big stats get away with more fouls. Always been that way.
None of that proves anything you said about Steph or Mitchell, nor disproves anything I said.
I seen Mitchell get away with many fouls. So that is why he shouldn’t talk.
Your lack of awareness of your own favored team is *incredible*. Insane homer blinders. But alright. Keep being wrong.
I said don’t sleep on Cavs, before the yr. Cavs still growing as a team. Young talent is also still getting better. Cavs still have upside. Watched a few of their gms. Garland looks like he is starting to peak. He has taken another step up.
Pretty sure I remember you saying they would suck…