Pacers vs Hawks

INDIANAPOLIS -- The short-handed Pacers, missing starters Tyrese Haliburton, Myles Turner and Aaron Nesmith, fell 113-111 to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday ...

"This is what is important for the development of this team and the future of our franchise is to put these young guys in a position like this tonight, commit to it and say you guys are going to win or lose the game for us," Carlisle said. He finished 5 of 13 from the floor and turned the ball over four times, but left with a lot of reasons for confidence. On the first night of a back-to-back, that made for some heavy minute loads as all eight players were on the floor for at least 19 minutes and Mathurin led the group with 39. But with Turner out for a second straight game, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle elevated Jackson above Smith and put him in the starting lineup. Before Friday, Jackson had played in just seven of the Pacers' previous 17 games, taking a brief assignment with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants to get floor time. McConnell, but Mathurin got frequent work in ball screen actions and he used those to drive the ball hard, get downhill and finish through contact at the rim. He was 0 of 6 with zero points and zero assists in the period. After posting 31 points and 13 assists in a win over the Warriors the last time Haliburton was out, Nembhard posted just six points on 2 of 16 shooting on Friday night, making just 1 of 6 3-point attempts. Wing Dejounte Murray grabbed the rebound just inside of the foul-line and missed a short jumper that also could have got the Hawks the lead, but the ball then ended up in the hands of Collins after he slipped around Pacers forward Oshae Brissett's box-out and he and got it out of his hands just in time to give the Hawks the lead with less than a second left. Trae Young and DeAndre Hunter each hit a pair of massive 3s in the fourth including a deep 3 by Young with 32 seconds to go that gave the Hawks a 111-109 lead. ... When he was taking those shots and making them in the Golden State game, no one was asking me those questions. They had just three field goals in the game's final five minutes -- a driving layup by Brissett with 4:53 left, a putback by forward Jalen Smith with 3:59 to go, and a floater by rookie Bennedict Mathurin that turned into a three-point play with 59 seconds left.