Indiana Pacers beat New Orleans Pelicans 123-120 on the road on Wednesday, October 21, after falling far behind. The Pacers were down 10 at one quarter break and still finished 3 ahead.
The turnaround
The Pacers trailed by 10 after the second quarter. From there they outscored the Pelicans 67-54, a 13-point swing over the rest of the game.
The turning point was the fourth quarter, which the Pacers won 37-28.
What flipped it
The Pacers shot 57.2% on an effective basis to 48.3% for the Pelicans and the Pacers gave the ball away on 11.3% of their possessions while the Pelicans did so 13.4% of the time. Shot quality is the biggest of the four factors, and it was the clearest gap.
The Pelicans did win one battle, the free-throw line: FT rate of 38.2 against 22.2. The Pacers made up for it elsewhere.
The game played at about 105 possessions per team. The Pacers scored 117.1 points per 100 possessions and the Pelicans scored 114.3, a difference of 2.8.
Who carried the comeback
Tyrese Haliburton (IND) posted the best line of the night by Game Score (22.7): 23 pts, 2 reb, 12 ast on 8-15 shooting. The team was -4 in the minutes Tyrese played.
For the Pelicans, Yves Missi was the best of the rest at 21.8: 13 pts, 14 reb, 5 ast, 3 blk on 5-6 shooting.
Yves Missi (13 pts, 14 reb, 5 ast), Derik Queen (10 pts, 10 reb, 1 ast), and Ivica Zubac (16 pts, 14 reb, 0 ast) each recorded a double-double.
Game Score is a single number that weighs points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, shooting efficiency, fouls and turnovers. It is not an official stat, just a quick way to rank lines.
What it means
By our Win Meter this was an upset: The Pacers entered with about a 30% chance.
Across the last 5 meetings in our records, Indiana Pacers lead 3-2.
Written automatically by Tip Off Live software from box score data. Ratings and probabilities are our own model estimates.