Cutting down on turnovers will be vital for the visiting Indiana Pacers if they are to snap their four-game losing streak at the expense of the Chicago Bulls on Friday.
The Pacers committed 12 first-half turnovers — and 16 overall — to fall in a hole and ultimately crash to a 99-90 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday in New York. That came after Indiana gave the ball away 21 times in a 122-111 defeat to the host Toronto Raptors the previous night.
A repeat of that recklessness likely would be a huge problem against the high-octane offense of the Bulls, who thrive in the open floor.
“Turnovers have been a problem for us,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “We have real clean quarters and then we have real dirty quarters with turnovers.
“It bit us again. … Those are controllable things. We’ve got to keep working on it. Really no excuses for it.”
The Pacers’ problems perhaps are partly down to a difficult itinerary.
“We’re back-to-back — it’s a lousy travel situation,” Carlisle said of the consecutive games at Toronto and Brooklyn. “It’s hell getting out in and out of New York, we got to the hotel at 2:30 (Wednesday morning). That contributes a little bit to it, but our guys kept fighting.”
Tyrese Haliburton scored 17 points in Brooklyn, while T.J. McConnell added 14 off of what has been a productive bench, despite Indiana’s ills.
Both will be key players in the Pacers’ backcourt against Chicago, with Andrew Nembhard in some doubt after sitting out the Wednesday loss to manage his left knee tendinitis.
The Bulls, chasing their third consecutive victory, will be completing the second leg of their own back-to-back set. They cruised to a 139-124 road triumph over the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday.
Ayo Dosunmu had 27 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists for his first career triple-double, while center Nikola Vucevic took advantage of Victor Wembanyama’s absence to amass 39 points on 16-of-22 shooting.
Vucevic’s season-best haul boosted his scoring average across 2024-25 to 21.7 points, the second highest of his 15-year career.
“He has been great all year and he played a great game tonight,” Chicago coach Billy Donovan said. “With Wembanyama being out, they (Spurs) didn’t have the same kind of length at the rim.
“They tried to do some things to switch some of his pick-and-rolls, but he’s such a smart player, he can figure out where mismatches are. (He can) post up, he shot threes, he played in the pocket — I thought overall his game was great.”
The Bulls never trailed at any stage in Texas, their offense rolling from the moment Zach LaVine stroked a 3-pointer in the opening possession.
Chicago’s 73-point first half equaled its best effort of the season, while the team’s final total was the Bulls’ highest since December 2022.
–Field Level Media