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    • Myles Turner posts 30 points and 11 rebounds in win
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    Myles Turner posts 30 points and 11 rebounds in win

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    DALLAS – Myles Turner hasn’t said exactly what his in-season trips home to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex were like when he was a younger man with less responsibility. He only vaguely indicated that a certain development had taken place in his life. made them calmer.

    “I have a girlfriend now, so I’m just kicking it, me and my family,” Turner said.

    But the trips home for the 28-year-old Turner are still meaningful, even if they are quieter. The native of Bedford, Texas — about 20 minutes west of downtown Dallas and 16 minutes east of downtown Fort Worth — still makes appearances with American Airlines, representing his home state with his giant cowboy boots and an array of cowboy hats. His mother decorated the one he wore Monday with a collection of pins, including one with the Indiana Pacers logo, the outlines of the states of Texas and Indiana with state flags inside, and a 2015 NBA pin that commemorates the year he was born. chosen. He also gets to see dozens of friends from home: family, ex-teammates, ex-opponents and friends from high school and college who didn’t even play basketball.

    “I think there’s just a good atmosphere all around me,” Turner said. “I have a lot of people from Bedford, Texas and the Bedford area coming to support me. A lot of the guys I grew up playing against also play here in the area, so sometimes I have over 75 people that I have to go show your love. I don’t know, man, it’s just a good atmosphere.”

    Turner usually takes those good vibes and turns them into strong performances. Prior to Monday’s game, he was already averaging 17.4 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game in Dallas in eight games there in his career, shooting 55.7% from the floor and 44, Shot 4% from 3-point range. But Monday’s performance was perhaps his strongest and came at a time when the Pacers needed something to keep their young season from spiraling. The 2023-24 Eastern Conference finalists are now 3-4 and still under .500, but two of their wins have come against the two defending conference champions after a win over the Celtics on Wednesday.

    Turner scored 30 points — his career high at American Airlines Arena — on 10 of 17 shooting, including 5 of 8 from 3-point range with 11 rebounds in the Pacers’ bracing 134-127 victory over the defending Western Conference champion Mavericks. It was Turner’s third double-double in Dallas but only his first this season and he helped set the tone for the Pacers on both ends as they matched the Mavericks’ high-powered offense shot for shot and got just enough stops to to end. the play with the edge.

    “I just had to keep an aggressive mentality,” Turner said. “I think I’ve been kind of in the background the last few games. When I’m aggressive, good things happen. The other team has to make adjustments and other guys step up. I think I started going, aggressive started to be and from there things just went.”

    It was most important, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said, that Turner be more aggressive on the glass before he thought about being more aggressive on offense. While Turner is the Pacers’ all-time best shot blocker, his rebounding numbers have been much more modest throughout his career and have been slightly worse than that so far this season. Entering action on Monday, Turner was averaging a career-high 6.8 rebounds per game without producing a season in which he grabbed more than 7.5 per game. However, that figure had dropped to 5.8 per game in his first five games this year, and after recording a total of 16 in his first two games, he had not registered more than five in any of his last three games.

    Carlisle said he and head assistant coach Lloyd Pierce had a conversation with Turner yesterday about focusing on getting 10 rebounds per game as a goal. Turner took that to heart. He felt it was especially important considering what happened to the Pacers’ center position, with backups Isaiah Jackson and James Wiseman each tearing an Achilles tendon, sidelining both players for most if not all of the season will remain. For now, unless and until the Pacers sign a new center outside of the free agent market, they will need more minutes from Turner and will likely use power forward Obi Toppin as a backup center. Toppin has been very effective for the Pacers as a scorer, especially in transition, but he has never averaged 4.0 rebounds per game per season.

    “I can’t be a center and average five, six rebounds a game,” Turner said. “I know. I think that’s something I’ve gotten the most criticism for. It’s just focusing my attention on that and just being more intentional about getting on the right side of the glass, especially now that we have some guys .I have to I think it’s a mental issue.

    Turner had two rebounds in the first three minutes of the game, three by the end of the first quarter and seven by halftime. Ten of the eleven came on defense and he helped the Pacers win the rebounding battle 46-38. The Mavericks finished with just eight second-chance points on five offensive rebounds, categories that have been problematic for the Pacers this season. Dallas played without Dereck Lively II, who is dealing with a shoulder sprain, but centers Daniel Gafford and Dwight Powell finished with a combined four rebounds, while Turner and Toppin combined for 17.

    “Let’s be honest,” Carlisle said. “We were better than them and we won the game. We’ve beaten three teams in seven games and we’re 3-4. He set the tone. He had two big rebounds to start the game. … If If he doesn’t, concentrate on something else, except defensive coverages and details there, if he gets ten rebounds, that’s a game changer for us.”

    However, his offense also changed the game. He got a friendly rebound on a 3-pointer in the first quarter that gave the Pacers an 8–2 lead as part of a 15–2 run to start the game, and immediately afterward the Mavericks finally answered with a 3-pointer from All-NBA point guard Luka Doncic, Turner threw down a dunk over Doncic and was fouled, converting a 3-point play that made it 18–5.

    The Mavericks answered clearly and the two teams spent most of the game answering each other shot for shot, but Turner’s buckets were crucial in helping the Pacers edge ahead of Dallas most of the time. to stay. He scored 11 points in the first quarter on 3-of-5 shooting with a pair of 3-pointers and three free throws. He had 15 points at the break and then scored 13 on 5 of 7 shooting, including 3 of 4 three-pointers in the third quarter. That helped the Pacers maintain a lead even though the Mavericks scored 36 points in the period.

    When Turner is running the way he has been, he will allow the rest of the Pacers’ offense to function better. Because he can score from the three-point line, the halfway line and at the basket, he is a tough cover when setting a ball screen, as he can roll to the rim, short roll or shoot, or pop and drill 3s. The Mavericks had to draw some attention to him and that allowed point guard Tyrese Haliburton to go downhill more than he has all season with 25 points and 12 assists, with eight of his 10 field goals coming inside the arc and six in the paint .

    “He can really space the floor,” Haliburton said. “He’s one of the best shooters to ever play this game. He can really open up the floor for me in the pick-and-roll. I think it’s another threat for Dallas with two rim protectors who are used to being in the air to come.” Paint and continue building from there. Having Myles in a trail position and having them guard a little bit more opens things up for us.

    Around Turner, the piece came together Monday night in a way that hasn’t happened for most of this season so far. They surpassed the 130-point mark in regulation for the first time this season and the 120-point mark for the second time. Seven Pacers scored in double figures, outscoring the Mavericks 76-58 in the paint, while also knocking down 13 three-pointers on 32 attempts (40.6%). They shot a season-best 56.8% from the floor and posted their season-best efficiency rating at 1.25 points per possession. Both teams ran the distance, but the Pacers defeated the Mavericks on fast-break points 26-15.

    “We started getting into the flow of things, started making pictures that were big for us,” Haliburton said. “I think we are who we are. That’s the identity that I’ve helped shape since I put on a Pacers uniform. Everyone has kind of bought into that and built around it.”

    Turner is central to that identity on both sides, and the version of him that always shows up in Dallas is what they need to be the best version of themselves.

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