Myles Turner reveals big reason behind Pacers’ defensive success

Under head coach Rick Carlisle, defense has never been the biggest priority for the Indiana Pacers. Part of it is due to the personnel they have, but their system that is predicated on pace and space prioritizes having the best offensive players on the court. But on Tuesday night, it was the Pacers’ defense that allowed them to hold the Houston Rockets at bay, earning their 35th win of the season in 60 tries with a 115-102 victory.

The Rockets aren’t the most polished offensive team in the league, that much is certain. But credit must go to the Pacers for holding them to 40.8 percent shooting on the night, forcing them to take tough, ill-advised shots on plenty of occasions. Indiana’s game plan on the night simply worked, with Myles Turner crediting the coaching staff’s strategic defensive choice for the Rockets’ suboptimal shot selection.

“The zone helped us a bit… we put a lot of work in on it,” Turner said, per Tony East of Sports Illustrated.

For the uninitiated, teams deploy a 2-3 zone when they want the opposing team to hoist up plenty of shots from beyond the arc. Having three defenders near the shaded lane forces the ball out to the perimeter, and this Pacers gambit forced the Rockets, a team that loves attacking the paint, into a 9-30 night from beyond the arc. That is not a recipe for success.

Of course, a 2-3 zone only works if a team has a fearsome paint protector manning the middle. And luckily for the Pacers, Turner was on his game on Tuesday night. He recorded four blocks and deterred many other shots from the Rockets, and in spurts, the Pacers can deploy this strategy if their man to man defense ends up being too overwhelmed.

Pacers’ defense has been forced to improve, and it has