The Indiana Pacers lowered the boom on the Washington Wizards on Thursday night, putting up an NBA season-high 162 points in a 53-point win that qualifies as the third-largest margin of victory this season, trailing only the Clippers‘ 62-point win over Brooklyn and Boston’s 54-point win over the Raptors.
On top of that, the 162 points scored by the Pacers is the most by an NBA team in a non-overtime game since 2008. Playing a back-to-back after losing to the Lakers on a LeBron James buzzer-beating tip-in Wednesday night, Indiana set a franchise record with 27 3-pointers while recording an astonishing 48 assists, also the league’s high mark this season.
All of the following numbers register as season highs for the Pacers — who have been one of the best teams in the league since the turn of the calendar and have opened up a two-game lead on the Pistons for the East’s No. 4 seed.
- Field-goal percentage: .641
- Bench points: 85
- First-half points: 83
- First-quarter points 45
- Third-quarter points: 42
The Pacers could’ve scored even more but started taking shot-clock violations with about a minute and a half remaining. Honestly, they could’ve basically stopped scoring after the third quarter with a 37-point lead.
Tyrese Haliburton, who has been on a tear for the last month (he’s recorded 109 assists against nine turnovers over nine games in March), led the way with 29 points and seven 3-pointers. All told, eight Pacers scored in double figures. Myles Turner had 17, Jarace Walker went for 16 and Obi Toppin pitched in 15.
“They don’t ever, ever get talked about enough nationally,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said of the Pacers after L.A.’s aforementioned win over Indiana on Wednesday. “They’re a phenomenal basketball team.”
Again, only four teams have won more games since Jan. 1 than the Pacers, and all of them — the Thunder, Cavs, Celtics and Nuggets — are title contenders. Nobody is going to go so far as to put the Pacers in that tier, but the conference finals appearance they made last season has been plenty validated.
This team is for real, not because of a blowout like this against a tanking Wizards team, but because of the way Haliburton can control everything offensively and the consistency of a defense that’s quietly ranked in the top 10 over the last three months.
