Hawks at Pacers

“For Thanksgiving? I’m having beans, greens, potatoes, tomatoes, lamb, rams, Hawks, dogs, chicken, turkeys, rabbit – YOU NAME IT!”

[DISCLAIMER: I’m on the road today! So I’m gonna make like my Hawks and half-*ss this one, mailing it in using the preview draft as I left it hours before last night’s tailfeather-whooping at the hands of the Pelicans. Bolded items were not verified following last night's drubbing. Feel free to correct any errors or provide updates on injury statuses. Cheers!]

The past meets the future tonight! Dennis Schröder visits former Atlanta Hawk Jeff Teague and his hometown Indiana Pacers (7:00 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, Fox Sports Indiana) at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, to see which point god rules the present. Onto the tidbits!

• Trading places! While Schröder struggles with his all-around efficiency (-2.3 Box Plus/Minus, as per Basketball-Reference, 4^th-lowest among regularly starting NBA PGs), Teague is doing his best to crawl out of the muck after a disappointing start out of the blocks. Jeff was passing well, but had a hard time finding the basket in his first ten games (37.1 FG%, 24.3 3FG%, 14.2 PPG, 6.4 APG). He bounced back in his next four (55.3 FG%, 46.2 3FG%, 20.5 PPG, 7.3 APG), keeping pace with the likes of Kyrie Irving and Russell Westbrook head-to-head as Indiana (7-8) stayed above the Eastern Conference’s playoff meniscus.

• Teague peaked with a season-high 30 points and 9 assists, plus a career-high 6 steals, as Indy outlasted the Russellaires in OKC in an overtime thriller this past Sunday. His reward? A rested Stephen Curry awaiting him back home the very next night.

• The Pacers had to go into Monday’s Warriors game without not only superstar Paul George (ankle) or backup swingman C.J. Miles (knee), but budding big man Myles Turner (15.0 PPG; NBA-best 7.0 Block%). A blowout was a foregone conclusion, and that was well before Teague’s hockey-stick leg suffered another ankle sprain midway through the third-quarter. He was benched for the rest of the contest while G-State was up by 29, but should be taped up and raring to go against his old club.

• Outside of Deutschland, nobody’s chomping at the bit to stuff All-Star ballots for Schröder in his first full season as an NBA starter. But it’s probably best to chart Dennis’ progress as a Hawk not relative to Jeff Teague 2015 (All-Star season), 2016, or 2017, but Teague 2012, Jeff’s first season as a starter following a postseason breakout in 2011.

• In the first 14 starts of that strike-shortened 2011-12 season, a 23-year-old Teague averaged 12.4 PPG, 5.9 APG, and 2.4 TOs per game, while shooting 45.1 FG%, 62.9 FT%, and 46.4 3FG% on 2.0 attempts per game. Atlanta’s record in that stretch? 10-4, including three wins in a row after losing Al Horford for the season on Indiana’s floor. While Teague 2012’s perimeter shooting would eventually fall back to Earth (34.2 3FG% in 2011-12), his season-long free throw accuracy (75.7 FT%) elevated to where Dennis is as of today.

• Today, the 23-year-old Schröder is more aggressive than Teague in driving inside, drawing more contact and foul calls (75.6 FT%) but turning over the ball far more (14.5 PPG, 5.8 APG and 3.3 TOs per game). Even with Horford out of the picture, Teague 2012 was relatively more reticent as a lead guard (career-low 19.1 usage%), deferential to not only Josh and the Johnsons (Joe and Ivan), but guys named Jerry and Jannero. Dennis’ 24.9 usage% currently leads the team, and he could certainly afford to have another ballhandler alongside him on the floor, something that Teague 2012 (Captain Kirk Hinrich) was afforded.

• Team exec Larry Bird is getting what he wanted from coach Nate McMillan, their Pacers currently ranking 10^th in the league for pace (3^rd in the East), their 100.6 possessions per-48 up slightly from 99 under Frank Vogel in 2015-16. Guards Monta Ellis, Aaron Brooks and Rodney Stuckey are always around to get shots up quickly for the Pacers offense. But the wear-and-tear is already showing on the interior for Indiana.

• The Pacers’ 73.8 D-Reb% ranks close to the bottom of the league. While George goes for strips, Turner aims for help blocks, and newcomer Thaddeus Young (team-high 1.8 O-Rebs per game) chases putbacks, there are few Pacers around to snare the defensive boards. Backup bigs Al Jefferson, Lavoy Allen, and Kevin Seraphin are too slow-of-foot to fit into McMillan’s higher-tempo rotations.

• Perhaps reflective of their struggles to sustain defensive cohesion over the course of halves, Indiana’s first quarter defensive efficiency (93.5, 3^rd-best in NBA) plummets to 115.6 (2^nd-worst in NBA) before halftime, and their third-quarter D-Rating of 104.7 slips to 110.7 (4^th-worst in NBA) during the final quarters of games. Look for D-League recall Rakeem Christmas to get more play on the Pacers’ front line tonight, particularly if Turner is a no-go.

• While they may be a bit lead-legged after last night’s game versus New Orleans, today’s contest could work in Atlanta’s favor early if Dwight Howard, Paul Millsap and Mike Muscala are able to run the full court, and if Schröder can get around the injury-slowed Teague to set up the bigs for shots in and around the restricted area. Indy is the fifth consecutive opponent to face Atlanta with at least one day off (same deal for the Hawks’ next five foes), and the Pacers could sure use it. But a superior show of energy on the floor would be enough to give the Hawks a (turkey?) leg up on the opposition tonight.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3