How Indiana Pacers pulled off 16-point comeback summer league W, Quenton Jackson + RayJ Dennis shine

How Indiana Pacers pulled off 16-point comeback summer league W, Quenton Jackson + RayJ Dennis shine

About time the Pacers showed a comeback win. It’s been a whole month. They win their summer league debut game with a 16 point comeback against the Cavs. Quinton Jackson was terrific. Ray Jay Dennis was awesome pre-injjury. Johnny Fury showed some stuff. So much to get to on today’s Locked On Pacers podcast. You are Locked on Pacers, your daily Indiana Pacers podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. What’s up everybody? Happy Friday. Congrats. You made it through the week. And welcome in to another edition of the Locked On Pacers podcast where we of course talk about the Indiana Pacers. As always, my name’s Tony East. I covered the team for Forbes and today so much to get to from another crazy Pacers comeback. They waited a full four weeks this time between them. I mean, it just keeps happening. 16 points down in the first half against the Cavs. They come back to win again, beating Cleveland to open summer league. Summer League is not about the results, although of course, of course, they came back and won, right? Of course, the Pacers did. Uh, it’s more about the individuals. And there was a lot of stuff to talk about there, too. Quinton Jackson right after signing a two-way was just absolutely sublime approaching too good for summer league territory. Ray Jay Dennis looked great. One of his best games I’ve seen Fury was doing some stuff before he got hurt. Lots of good things to talk about from individuals for the Pacers on a fun night for them, right? Isaac Jacob, their head coach. Um, you know, good relationship with Tyrese Halburn. Obviously, they came from Sacramento. Both uh got drenched with the water after the win. It was his first win. Quinton Jackson’s leading the charge on that. So, he’s doing postgame media just completely soaked uh for for a very excited Pacers team. But Quinton Jackson, who led that part of things, the he’s the vet of this team, right? He’s almost 27. Uh this is his third fourth summer league or something like that, just signed his third two-way with the Pacers, right? He’s like a leader for this team and and I wondered how he would start summer league because last year he was quite bad in the first game and was good the rest of them. And when you look at this team, they need him to be a score initiator type. And I just wondered, you know, what that would look like playing with other guards like Cam Jones is playing, RJ Dennis is playing, other ball handlers hit the floor in this game. Buddy Beheim played, Stephen Ashworth played quite well in his nine minutes, right? Like they needed I wondered of what they would need from Quinton Jackson. And he was just absolutely sensational in every single way, right? He’s not like young. He’s not in this developing talent pool for the Pacers when you look at their summer league group. But what I talked about with him earlier in the week, something I wonder, and I’m going to expand on that a little here, is if they sign him to a 2-way, thinking he could be their third point guard this season, but just fill in when there’s an injury to McConnell and Mhard and they might only need him for 50 games on that 2A. I should also say this, like it’s possible that they just keep Freeman and Dennis and Peter on a 2-way and then just convert Quinton Jackson to a standard deal at some point. like he’s still playing for something in theory. He is just under contract with the team now. Uh which is deserved. He’s very good. And you can see in these games just what the appeal is of him. The same it’s always been, right? This guy is just so fast with the ball and in these summer league settings where the defender the team defense isn’t quite as as tight and you know the individual defenders aren’t quite as good, he can just get by anybody and he can get into the lane and create a shot that he likes or that his team likes. And so it wasn’t like a slow start necessarily. It just wasn’t quite, you know, as loud in the first half for Quinton Jackson. But he just took off in the third quarter and ended up having what I would consider and I think anybody who watched the game would consider the best performance by any Pacer in this game by a healthy amount and was so so good by the end of the night, right? Uh 24 points his final tally in this one on eight for 10 from the field, three assists as well. All seven of his free throws dropped and really came alive after halftime in the first half. Quinton Jackson uh took three shots and he had eight points. Like it was fine. He was two for three. He made all four of his foul shots. But you know, a little quieter. 16 point second half on six for seven from the field. Made all three of his foul shots. All three of his assists came in that second half. In the third quarter specifically was 12 of those points. He made all five of his shots in the third quarter. Like it was a team level comeback. a lot of like I don’t even think Quinn was on the floor for one particular stretch where their defense really ratcheted up but he was often on the floor for their best offensive stretches of the second half really brought the team to life and showed why he is a veteran player playing summer league that he should be one of the best players in the floor right a guy with his experience level should be awesome and he was just terrific for the Pacers in this game and in ways that you’d hope he is if you’re the Pacers right you want his best skills to be so so so much better than anyone else on the floor. And you know, and and I watched a lot of other games. I was at the first half of Pelicans Timberwolves. I was at the Flag Bronny game. I saw some of Nuggets Bucks. Like I could argue that on the first day of summer league in Vegas, Quinton Jackson was one of the best five players like in any game in any game that was played, he was that good. And he should be at his experience level. But it was I think it was great for the Pacers to see that, especially right after he signed a deal. And then he leads with the vibes and you know they they were joking about calling him LA because he’s just got this LA vibe that everybody likes his spirit. Brad their son in a 2A. Great day for him and the way my credentiing works. I can just share interview stuff uh on this podcast. So here is Ray J Dennis and then Quinton Jackson talking about Quinton’s performance and him signing a two-way. He signed a two-way a couple days ago. What did you learn from him? Both of the Mads Pacers last year. Um I mean being around him all the time you just like his personality bigger than life, right? So, you just naturally going to have a ton of energy. You’re going to bring energy to practice, games, everything like that. And then just being a dog. Like, I mean, obviously I see the way he plays and when you’re around that type of stuff, it’s contagious. What did that mean to you to sign a 2A again, be back for another year? Oh, man. That’s that’s nothing short of a blessing. Uh, a lot of work has went into it, but um I can’t, you know, just put all of it on me. A lot uh comes from the trust of my teammates, the coaching staff, front office, all of that. So, you know, I’m forever grateful. Um, you know, like I said, nothing short of a blessing. very revealing. Uh Quinton Jackson just does have an infectious personality and that bleeds into the way he plays, right? Led by example in so many ways as a scorer in this one. Really, really fantastic night. Uh eight for 10 from the field and 24 points on 10 shots is just menacing menacing. Really efficient game from him. Made his only three. Did a just did a ton of stuff really well. And my I think he my favorite play from him in the game was he was defending I can’t remember who it was that was posting him up on the Cavs. might have been Ncoan Tomlin. I might just be saying that because Tomlin was so good in general, but somebody was posting up Quinton Jackson and he really battled in the post on defense and he kept fighting and fighting and the guy got off the ball. He couldn’t get low enough to get a shot up and Quinton Jackson was so psyched about his post defense and he started flexing and like celebrating the stop under the basket. Play is still happening like the Cavs are still running offense and his teammates are still defending and he’s just standing there flexing under the basket and the Pacers did get a stop. It was very funny. He was absolutely sensational. A+ start to summer league for Quinton Jackson. And you know, you you shouldn’t be expected to be this good, but it’s it’s what you want to see as the Pacers and Quinton Jackson that he looked like the best player on the floor when he has more experience than everybody else. And it’s kind of in a leadership role in some ways for the first time. Like this is the first time league he’s played where he’s expected to be the best player on the team and he no doubt about it was in this one. He was joined in the back court by a player that I don’t think people didn’t expect to be good because he has one year of experience under his belt and is literally under contract with the Pacers, but I don’t I don’t think people think of Ray Jay Dennis as some like offensive monster scorer. He was in this game, right? Ray Jay Dennis, I don’t know if if many listeners know a lot about him because he sign he signed with the Pacers mid-season and, you know, didn’t play as much for them last year because of that because he was on his two-way, couldn’t play in their magical playoff run, right? But they brought him in and they liked him right after they waved Tristan Newton on their 2A in early January of this year and he came in and like everybody I talked to about him who had dealt with him prior to him coming to the Pacers like was like, “Oh, I love this kid.” Like love this kid. And they all said he makes his teammates better and that you know he really is all about that passing stuff. And he had nine assists in this game, right? That was on display. He is a good table setting point guard. He’s just so active, right? That’s what impresses me is like, yeah, he obviously has the stats to have a nice night. There’s so many things he did really well, but he was just everywhere. He got an offensive rebound, gets on a drive, drawing a bunch of fouls early in this game. Like, he took seven free throws. This was a crazy foul game. Crazy foul game. 62 fouls between both teams. But his activity was really high. And so to to to not only see passing from a guy that’s been described to me as a really good passer and making his teammates better in that way, Ray Jay Dennis was awesome as a scorer in this game. You know, he has I don’t know if it’s a signature shot when you’re a secondyear player, but like his thing to me that I think of when I think of him scoring the ball is this floater that he gets to a lot. Like he gets a couple like a half step on his defender, gets in the paint and he puts that up. He was making those. He was nailing sticking some like tougher threes in this game. He took eight threes and made four of them. Obviously, your game’s going to look good. When you make that many shots, but he also made four twos, made six free throws. Just a really really impressive allaround Ray J Dennis game. And I don’t I don’t know that fans have really seen one of those from him. He had some slash many with the Mads, but he hadn’t had like a you know, Enrique Freeman was playing in real games for the Pacers last year. I given their center situation. Quinton Jackson played in many real games for the Pacers last year. I don’t know if AJ Dennis played in a game where they were like they needed him in the rotation. Maybe one or two, but he didn’t have that kind of lasting impression. So, a lot of people, this is the first like major real minutes they saw from him. And I have not like I’ve seen him be a good scoreer before. I’ve seen 20 point games from him in in Madden’s games before. I’ve never seen that level. Uh and that’s kind of something I wanted to ask you about after the game is like where did that part of it come from for him? because um you know I think of him as that guy the guy who makes everybody else better and is that offensive engine. He was looking to score in this game and he just talked about you know that when the game needs that that’s what he’ll bring the aggression’s there and he was really good. I also asked uh head coach Isaac Jacob about him because I thought that that was a big part of this as well. I wanted to hear the head coach on Ray Dennis and he said something about him being quite good leading up to this game. Ray had a lot of successful plays as well. What did you like about what he was able to do out there? Yeah, Ray coming in his second summer league like all camp he’s been one of our better players. Um, you know, can’t get sped up, you know, almost a, you know, veteran in some ways of summer league and and I thought he took a step another step in his, uh, development. So many players were good, were good. We’ll talk about more of them, but the story of this game, the point guards, the guards leading the way. So much more to get to from Pacers summer league game one, the comeback, the fury, the good and the bad, the rest of it. So much more still to come here on Lockdown Pacers. Before we get to any of it, we got to talk about game time. Have you decided last minute you want to go to the ball game with friends or family? Maybe it’s game day. You suddenly realize you want to be in the stands. That’s where game time comes in. It’s the easiest way to grab last minute tickets without the stress. With the money you save on tickets, you can splurge on food, on drinks, merch, or even invite a bigger group to come with you. 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We’re back here on Lockown Pacers. Thanks for making it your first listen today and every single day. Lock on Cavs your second listen so you can hear Danny Cunningham talk about the other side of this game. I’m sure the Cavs had some deja vu, the comeback loss against the Pacers, but the the players they would hope to be good. Jaylen Tyson was pretty good in this game. Naqucoin Tomlin on two for them last year was quite good. Craig Porter Jr. barely played and was like, “Yep, got it. Good player plus nine in his six and a half minutes.” Uh Tyrus Proctor got to make more shots than he did. Danny Cunningham will have more on knockdown Cavs. Okay, other stuff from this game that was fun or interesting or made me go hm. Johnny Fury, great somes and bad some things. The bad something is that he got hurt. Uh apparently the broadcast called it a non-cont injury and that freaked a lot of people out. It was not a non-cont injury at all. He got elbowed in the face so bad right in the eye I think and he left the court right in front of me like they walked they have to walk right past our media seats to get to their little locker room in the back and he was walking like he he he was with a trainer but he was walking he’s his muscles and are fine. I was told there was a non-s serious injury. Isaac Jacob confirmed that afterwards. No long-term concerns but he got blasted in the eye. So he only played nine minutes in the game. It was very funny because the way the the setup works, they have like these curtained off locker rooms for the teams that are like actually lockers and so the Pacers ones off to the side and I wasn’t even looking but I could like see movement out of the corner of my eye right before halftime under the bleachers. It was Johnny Furfeed leaning back to try to see the scoreboard around the curtain back there. Um, so I think the the long-term prognosis is fine there. It does it did stink because I said and still think that he is the most interesting and important player for the Pacers in this summer experience learning what he can be, how he can grow, what else does he bring to the table because he did a lot of stuff that was interesting last season, but the shotmaking wasn’t quite there in this game. Two threes good on three attempts, made his only two-point shot uh on a on a lovely drive and he was driving early very impressively. He had a drive and finish for the Pacers literal first points of the game. And then a couple of sessions later had a drive where he actually drew defenders and kicked it out and hit Ray Jay Dennis for a three. Like he so he was showing real growth and he added these 20 pounds and he doesn’t like look more like way more filled out or anything. He doesn’t look scrawny or anything like he did last year at times, but you can tell the way that a year of experience and actual bodily growth has like helped him read the game better. Like there was a play he had where the ball was thrown his way and his man tried to gamble to steal the ball and he caught it and turned and just boom, he’s going to the cup and like I I think Fury was pretty good last year in summer league. Like he was dunking and doing all this stuff, but I I I didn’t think of his like reads of the game as so fast and sharp. Like that stuff was better. The rim pressure was there. And he’s always been more physical than his stature looks. He’s always been pretty good on the glass. He didn’t have any rebounds in this game, but just the nose for the ball kind of stuff. The three turnovers, I want to have that back. like he had some sloppy handle stuff to have it on the floor. But I thought in general it’s a very nice start to summer league for him in terms of showing off better play, better use of his body, just the stuff that he hopes he can do this season. Even if it was only nine minutes and those nine minutes went terrible for the Pacers. Their defense early in this game, especially their team transition defense, we’ll talk about this more later, was dreadful. That makes a lot of guys numbers look worse and they really were. But offensively a really, really solid start for Johnny Fury. driving early, driving often, and driving very well despite uh some rough defense going around. Uh but I I will hope sl for for for me to watch him play in person again, but I think the Pacers will hope that he can play on Saturday when they play the Thunder. Johnny Fury versus the Thunder, revenge on the mind. But he was quite good uh to start this game. Another player who was quite good, metastas exceeded expectations. There were a lot of guys on my list here. Um, who for that or it’s not that long of a list, but uh, Philip Wheeler. So, you guys might not know who this is. I did mention him for like two milliseconds in the leadup to summer league podcast. Not that I thought he’d be like some impact player or anything, but uh, he played for the Sixers last year for five games. He had a 10day with them. They were like cycling through 10 days late in the season and he shot 14% from the field. Like didn’t do a whole ton. But but I I only mention that to say like this guy does have NBA experience, right? He’s 23 and so he he he knows how to play. Like he might not be in the long-term future for the Pacers. Who knows? But he started at the four for them and he was really effective like energy cut really well timed cuts like fit their system pretty well. Two blocks on defense that were kind of nice. They won his minutes by four. He had 15 points. a crucial finish late to give the Pacers a lead as, you know, the game went back and forth in the final minutes. If you’re talking about meeting or exceeding expectations, Philip Wheeler is not a guy that you’re like thinking about as like, okay, run through everybody who matters short and long term for the Pacers. He ends up hitting the shot that gives the Pacers a lead at 24 seconds to go. Um, but he played really well and he was totally above expectation to me in a game where like some guys were, but but not everybody was. So, Philip Wheeler, welcome to the like, oh, interesting list for the Pacers in this game. I thought he was quite good. Uh, the other player of significance beyond the draft pick, so I want to close this out with as as well as talking about the comeback is Enrique Freeman. Uh, still 2A qualifying offer hanging out there. He could be in the mix for a 2A this season. Really interesting game in that he ends the night with great stats, right? 19 points, well earned. 12 free throw attempts that he earned by battling inside. The effort is just there, right? It’s going to be there all the time. Every second Enrique plays ever, it’s going to be there. Uh, five for nine from the field’s fine. He missed both of his threes, but was five for seven on twos. Seven boards is great. Three assists is solid for a bean. Three assists, actually the second most of any pacer, right? Some some defensive plays, three stocks. Like you look back and it’s statistically awesome. It took till the fourth quarter for it to like really pop for him in this game, right? I did when I made the list of like here’s the guys that I feel like were playing at a level you’d be happy with as the Pacers. I didn’t put him on there and late he was great. He hit the two free throws that won in the game uh which was great for the Pacers and great for me because no one wants summer league overtime. Uh and and statistically did a lot of the stuff he did well but it didn’t feel like an awesome game for him until very late. Uh he just he the hustle was always there though. And the play that really like made me be like that is the Enrique Freeman play is he’s battling for a board, his shoe falls off and he jumps up with one shoe, gets a rebound with two two defenders, kicks it out to somebody else and doesn’t even go for a shoe. Like every player naturally goes for their shoe while the play develops. He immediately like hits a man to try to set a screen and all this stuff. Like that is the stuff that makes Enrique Freeman somebody that’s like, “Okay, I get it.” You know, TJ McConnell always says playing hard is a skill. Freeman certainly does that. And and again, he ends like what am I saying? I watched the game and he was really good in the fourth quarter. really great in the fourth quarter. I should just pull up his fourth quarter stats, but you didn’t feel him pop till late in the game. In the fourth quarter, he Yeah, he only had four one and two blocks. Like, that doesn’t seem awesome, but he end he had he produced uh and the effort was there and he he’d spread it out for some threes. Like, maybe I’m really overstating this, but it just, you know, you didn’t feel like a ton of new stuff from him, even though the the effort was great and the stats were great. So, what I I I have trouble walking away with a huge takeaway there in that he did very Enrique Freeman stuff and it was just so spread out across the game. I don’t know. This feels overly critical because the numbers were awesome, right? They won his minutes by eight points, but it didn’t feel like he played as well as those numbers suggest is what I’m trying to say. Um, but the two-way crew did produce numbers wise. Their top three scorers were their guys on two-ways to close last season. And then Wheeler, who was in the NBA last year, was their only other double digit score. I think Fury would have got there if he kept playing. Let’s talk about the comeback and the two draft picks, Tenon Peter, uh, and Cam Jones to close out the first game of summer league for the Pacers. Back here on Locked on Pacers, thanks for making a short first listen today and every single day. Your second listen, locked on Lakers or Locked on Mavs. I was the last game I stayed at the arena for. Bronnie versus Cooper Flag. Stuff was popping. It was loud. I sat up high high. I was way up in the arena. Um, I sat low for like two seconds of game time and then went way up high. Adam Mars and I uh sat together which was a hoop. So, okay, the comeback was very impressive for the Pacers. Their their team defense early in this game was just atrocious. I mean, they had some they had some real issues with transition defense as the Cavs scored 63 in the first half. They really turned around the second half. That third quarter, they only gave up 23 points. That’s what allowed them to kind of claw back in. And I think that’s what the Pacers will hope to work on to the extent that they have like a lot of practice time out here. They don’t, but that they were really really struggling defensively, team defense in the first half of this game, right? 18 turnovers. They were just giving the Cavs a lot of chances. And the offensive glass was killer in this game. 29 to 23 the final rebounding margin. Naquin Tomlin kept getting put backs. Nor Chad Omier kept getting put backs. Nang off the bench for the Cavs had up a couple. like they just were really swallowing up the Pacers in that way. So, some easy stuff in in some ways to clean up and that transition defense and and rebounding were so obviously bad that it’s like two clear areas of focus, but it’s not like with a team that’s put together, you know, to play for three weeks and a team that doesn’t really have a lot of size. The centers in this game uh were, you know, Enrique Freeman’s on the shorter side, Wheeler’s definitely a four. Robert Baker was a bench center for the Pacers in this game. He did not play well at all, right? They might have some rebounding struggles against some bigger teams, but they did find some spirit defensively in the second half, like forcing the Cavs to be more reactive with aggressive defense. The Pacers did force a good amount of steals. They had 10 steals in this game of the Cavs 18 turnovers. That was very good. And so once they got their defense a little more in line, they still had rebounding struggles for much of the night. Like right after the Pacers first layer of comeback, they came back from down 16, took the lead, then went back down 10 and had to erase that deficit. Uh the second layer featured a lot of those Cavs putbacks that really made things tough for the Pacers. So, a lot to clean up. Uh before we talk about the rookies, here’s what uh Isaac Jacob and then Quinton Jackson said about the Pacers coming back. Isaac, take me through the comeback, what you felt like was key in you guys turning that one around after that first. Yeah. Uh I mean, earlier in camp, I talked about how, you know, we’re trying to implement what we do with the Pacers to the summer league team. Same stuff. I didn’t know we were going to come back from 16 and be a dramatic Pacer win. Um but no, definitely. I mean, the guys stuck together. I mean, credit to everyone that fought back. Q, Ray. I mean, credit to Ashworth, Steven Ashworth came in. I thought it changed the game um for us with picking up, you know, another ball handler. They they did a great job of pressuring us the whole game. I thought in the first half, we’re on our heels reacting, letting them be the aggressor. And then, uh starting the second half, third quarter, we had stints in the first half, but mainly the third and fourth, I thought we, you know, changed the tide and were on our toes and they’re on their heels. That third quarter especially turned it around for you guys and you. what what went right for you in that quarter and how did you guys come back after that slower start? Uh I think we just turned up the intensity. Um for the most of the first half they they had the intensity, you know, they had the edge, they had that that dog in them and uh I think we just kind of I don’t know eased into the game a little bit too um too slow. So I think coming out of halftime uh the message was just kind of you know match energy come out play with that that attitude that we know we have. And so there’s your story of the game and now let’s talk about the rookies. Cam Jones, he did play uh questions about his availability after Kevin Pritchard dropped that he was dealing with a hamstring thing. I still think slash heard they’re monitoring his minutes out there. He did only play 20 and a half of them in this game, right? They really spread out their guard minutes. Like obviously a ton for Ray J Dennis, but Quinton Jackson in his awesome night like only played 26 minutes. Tayen Peter’s going to be playing at the wing guard spots. Buddy Beheim got time. Hunter Maladando got time. Steven Ashworth got time. And a lot of those bench guys I just said at the end like were pretty good, you know. Um Hunter made two shots including a big three. Steven Ashworth was like very solid out there, right? He had some turnover issues, but I like those guys were important. So anyway, they spread the guards. Cam Jones. So this was very much like Marquette in that the stuff you saw that he can do is he’s going to get in the paint, right? He is very lefty dominant. Very lefty dominant. He’s going to get in the paint. uh he’s he’s able to get by a man or like at least keep a defender on his side or him to create some sort of advantage and then from there it was really interesting to see his decision-making, right? Like he had a beautiful shuffling like underhand pass to get the ball to Enrique Freeman for a dunk, right? Huge play there. Um but then he had like a turnover where he was trying to throw it like across the lane left-handed where like a right-hand dump off pass would have been perfect and he like didn’t do it. You know, two for four from the field, not a lot of volume there. Three assists is fine. He only had two turnovers. like he he played a fine game, but he wasn’t that involved. He took the fewest shots of any starter. Didn’t take any threes. I think it would be more fun to see him try to self create a little bit more, even create for others a little bit more in this game because he had some smooth drives in Atlanta where was like, “Oh, okay. Clearly something’s there. He can finish. He He goes for that floater every so often.” Like that’s good. That’s what you want to see. Um but it wasn’t always there all the time. And I think a little bit more from him in terms of reps would be nice because the Pacers are trying to figure out what he is, but they’re also again there’s a hamstring thing going on here. So, uh, not a lot of low lightss or highlights for him in this game, but the smoothness in the lane, the ability to get into the paint all the time on a team with lots of guards, I think, stood out to me more than anything. Ton Peter really interesting like saw the athleticism with the dunks. I think he had two of them. One was a leak out in transition and one was on a cut. So, he was four for five from the field. only miss was a three. Like the three-point shot is something that made him such an interesting halfway and and and you know very endearing statistical prospect. Uh he only had one turnover, right? Three rebounds, two steals. The defense the defense of Tayen Peter was probably among the rookies the standout thing in this game. He was standing guys up. He had a really good defensive rep on Jaylen Tyson. And I don’t remember who his steal was against late that he leaked out and dunked on, but that was another one I was like, whoa, what a play. He led the team in plus minus. I don’t he was just happy to be on the floor for a lot of their best stretchers, but like he contributed a lot with his defensive play in this game. It it was frustrating to me as somebody who was so interested in his efficiency that he passed up a ton of open threes and we we talked to Quinn Jackson after the game and he was trying to tell us how he explained to the rookies that they need to, you know, just try to play their game and do the best they can and not be thinking so much. Like you could tell Tylen Peter was thinking a lot with how much he was just getting off the ball when he had openings and then he the only three he took was like kind of tough, you know? I would have liked to see him attempt more of those in rhythm threes that he had some chances to take. Um didn’t really do it alas. Uh but I thought he was overwhelmingly solid. Like he didn’t mess up a lot. He knew what he was doing defensively. Uh outside of those like one-on-one reps that went pretty well. you know, you could tell when he got hit by a screen or had to rotate like he had it was certainly, let’s say, a level up in talent from playing in Conference USA where, you know, his his ability to wiggle around a screen, his ability to find his way into the lane and and be a team defender were not quite there. Um, but overall, I thought he had a solid game. So, most of the players who the Pacers were hoping would be good or or solid in this game were right. most of their bad performers were not the players that you’d want uh you know have a long-term future or like or maybe they will but you know are are of critical note for the Pacers in this summer league game. Their defense again awful like there was a play in the skinn this game the Cavs ran a pick and roll and at the same time during this pick and roll a player cuts from the weak side slot and the Pacers defense both the Roman and the cutter were both wide open rolling through the lane like the Cavs could have had them just pass it back and forth a 100 times. It was like, man, they can’t keep anybody out of the paint. Their defense really had to pick stuff up uh in the second half. And they did. They got good play from their returnees. The the draft pick showed some stuff. There’s obviously quite a bit to work on for the Pacers, but 1 and0 is 1 and0. Off they go. Uh but some stuff clearly to work on. I’m still here for the second game on Saturday, so plenty more to come on the summer Pacers. Of course, we’ll break down every game here, but it’s more fun to be there when I can really see and hear guys and, you know, hear hear Ray J Dennis go, let’s go to to his teammates and all that this kind of stuff. You you just see who people are really well in these settings and learn a lot about the team. Uh, tomorrow we’ll see what Friday’s podcast is all about, but Miles Turner’s presser with the Bucks is on Friday and it’s actually here in Vegas, so I should be able to be there um giving you guys whatever. He said his aversion of events of his departure from the Pacers and any other things that may pop up Saturday of course the Pacers play at some point I presume given how the Pacers framed it. Isaiah Jackson will resign. Still a lot to come here on the Locked on Pacers podcast. Hope you guys enjoyed today’s show. You can find me on Blue Sky and Twitter at Tony R East. You can find this podcast at Lockdown Pacers on both Twitter and Instagram. Thank you all so much for listening. Back tomorrow talking more Pacers. Till then everybody have a wonderful day.

The Indiana Pacers started slow, then came back from down 16 to beat the Cavaliers to open summer league. How did they do it? Host Tony East breaks it all down, including terrific outings from Quenton Jackson and RayJ Dennis.

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