Pacers Defense Has Taken Step Forward Due to Selflessness Of One Player

Courtney Tate | 19 Hours Ago

Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

The Indiana Pacers are slowly turning things around, as they enter Monday's matchup against the Golden State Warriors on a four-game win streak. The Pacers have struggled this season remaining consistent on offense, and have really opened up areas of concern defensively.

In recent weeks, though, Indiana has demonstrated improvements in lots of areas, especially on the defensive side of the floor. The Pacers have endured significant injuries that have affected a number of the team’s primary defenders.

Early in the season, Indiana lost James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson to season-ending injuries, while Aaron Nesmith is sidelined with no clear timeline for a return.

Head coach Rick Carlisle has had to throw together unfamiliar rotations that heavily disrupted the flow of both the team’s offense and defense. Not only has Indiana struggled on the interior, having lost lots of depth in their post-game, but the team has also struggled to contain players on the perimeter, resulting in lots of mismatches and easy buckets from opponents.

Despite the challenges defensively, one player in particular has really stepped up in recent weeks to help his team see major improvements. Obi Toppin’s defensive efforts in the last eight games have been a tremendous success for both the Pacers and himself.

Not known for his defensive abilities whatsoever, Toppin naturally contributes a large load of production on the offensive side. He’s been extremely consistent as of late, averaging 15.4 points and 2.3 assists per game.

While the Pacers absolutely needed more contribution from the team’s supporting cast, where they really needed players to step up is defensively, and that’s exactly what Toppin made it his duty to do.

Over the last eight game stretch, Toppin has played some of the best defense of his career. He’s come up with steals during this stretch averaging 1.4 steals and 6.6 rebounds per game. He’s been doing a much better job with one-on-one matchups along with improving on his defensive awareness.

Toppin’s hard work was most evident against the Phoenix Suns, where he came up with a huge steal against arguably the best scorer of all time, Kevin Durant. Toppin credits his recent success to his decision to be unselfish and his trainers.

“I just try to accept every challenge, whether it's guarding guys like KD or whoever," Toppin said. "Jim and Jenny are always working on me on working on that so I can be a better player."

He mentions the work he put in to also improve on his rebounding efforts.

"I knew I always had to work on my rebounding," Toppin said. "It’s not something that I can’t do. It’s just an effort thing."

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