The Pacers ended their slide against the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday evening. Since the Siakam trade, the Pacers have struggled to consistently put a winning product on the court. While the roster shakeup undoubtedly led to some growing pains, the main culprit has been health.

I don't want the lack of results to overshadow the absolute coup Kevin Pritchard and Co. pulled off in acquiring Siakam. He's the type of player the Pacers have needed for a long time. His combination of size and skill is simply rare. Offensively, he can score one-on-one, he can finish as a cutter/roll man, he's a good passer and rebounder. Defensively, he can guard big wings on the perimeter and also defend the rim.

He's a bit like if you put Mathurin in Jalen Smith's body, but added court vision and perimeter defense. In Rick Carlisle's words, "Pascal always seems to flow into his scoring opportunities." There was a stretch against the Hornets where he exemplified that description. All four of the clips below are one-on-one, isolation buckets. Even so, he attacks so quickly and decisively – so in the flow of the offense – that even if had decided to abort, the offense would have carried on uninterrupted.

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As this team gets healthy and learns to play with each other, the dimension that Siakam adds could make the Pacers scary good. According to Rick that process is well underway: "They're starting to get real synergy... It's a group that's starting to really feel each other, how to play with each other. Pascal is getting more immersed in what we're doing."

The next step, obviously, is getting Tyrese Haliburton back to full-health. The good news is that everyone expects that he will start playing more minutes going forward.

The Pacers should need more than 20 minutes of Haliburton tonight against a tough Rockets team. Though they are only 3-4 over the past two weeks, they actually possess a top ten points-per-possession differential. Always a stout defense, they've put up some big offensive performances in their three wins, scoring 135 against the Raptors and Lakers and 138 against Charlotte. It seems the key to beating Houston is preventing them from getting easy buckets in transition. As we all know, getting stops is not the Pacers' forte (though they are coming off their first game holding an opponent under 100 points). Therefore having Hali in the driver's seat for a fast paced game will be key to coming out of tonight with a win.

Injuries

How to Watch

Tipoff is at 7:00 PM ET.

TV: Bally Sports Indiana, NBA League Pass

Radio: 93.5/107.5 The Fan

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