Center Rienk Mast posted 16 points and 11 rebounds and swingman Taevion Kinsey added 16 points to lead the Pacers to a 99-93 win over the Cavaliers at the Pavilion in Las Vegas on Friday in the first NBA Summer League game of the season for both teams.
Forward Jalen Slawson added 15 points, six rebounds, five assists and five blocks for the Pacers. Guard Taelon Peter scored 13 points and forward Keion Brooks Jr. added 11. Guard Meleek Thomas and forward Nae’Qwan Tomlin led the Cavaliers with 20 points each. Guard Malakhi Branham added 15 points.
Braden Smith, Yuki Kawamura combination helped Pacers get in gear
The Pacers and Cavs both had a brutal first quarter with evident jitters as both struggled to make shots and take care of the basketball. Cleveland led 14-11 after the first quarter as the Pacers got a few buckets from center Rienk Mast but little else.
But the the Pacers combined for 64 points in the middle two quarters, outscoring Cleveland 32-15 in the third to take a sizable lead heading into the fourth. A big part of what sparked the revival was the play of point guards Braden Smith and Yuki Kawamura, and the fact that the Pacers didn’t have a problem putting both on the floor at the same time. That obviously made them small in the backcourt as Smith is just 5 foot 10 and Kawamura is 5-7, but they’re both so good at passing the ball and getting it ahead that they made the pace of the game work for them.
Smith finished with just five points on 1 of 8 shooting including 1 of 5 from 3 but he had eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. Kawamura had eight points on 3 of 5 shooting and four assists, but their impacts went beyond just the counting stats as they raised the level for everyone else on the floor. As assistant coach Johnny Carpenter said about Kawamura before leaving for his job in Milwaukee, Kawamura and Smith both force everyone around them to move more when they’re on the floor and them being around got everyone else organized and also running hard up and down the floor looking for opportunities. Kawamura was plus-4 in his time on the floor though Smith was minus-5.
Rienk Mast was the Pacers’ sturdiest player
Mast, who spent his last two college seasons at Nebraska, didn’t get a lot of hype heading into Summer League on a team that wasn’t hyped to start with. He noted in his post-game interview after the Pacers’ win that he wasn’t drafted and he isn’t trying to take the spotlight from the players who were. That being said, Mast ended up the most dependable player on the roster for the Pacers, getting them going when they started slow and helping the Pacers close things out when the Cavaliers attacked back in the fourth quarter.
Mast scored the Pacers’ first five points in the game and seven of their first 11 and finished with 16 points on 6 of 12 shooting. He hit a 3 early and though he ended up 1 of 6 from 3-point range he missed just one shot from the arc. He was a game-changer on the glass on both ends with 11 rebounds including seven on the offensive end that helped keep possessions alive when the Pacers were making shots.
When the Cavs got within one point with 2:19 to go, Mast drew a foul while cutting to the basket when Kawamura found him with a pass. He hit a free throw (still worth two points in that case due to the Summer League rules) to make it a three-point game. Then on the following possession Mast made a layup through contact, drew a foul and hit the free throw to put the Pacers back up six points. A Peter 3-pointer with 52 seconds to go provided the dagger, but the Cavaliers were never closer than four points after Mast’s bucket.
Jalen Slawson was all over the place, literally and figuratively
Slawson is arguably playing with the most pressure of any player on the Pacers’ Summer League squad. He finished last season on a two-way contract, but is a restricted free agent with a qualifying offer. However, the Pacers signed forward Kobe Brown, on a standard contract last season, to a two-way deal. Smith agreed to a two-way deal according to league source and guards Peter and Ethan Thompson are still under two-way contract as well. The Pacers can waive two-way players at any point, but just three of those five players can actually have two-way contracts when the season starts.
So Slawson is trying to remind the Pacers and anyone else who might be interested in his services that he can be an impact player on both sides of the floor. He did that on Friday, but it also seemed like his nerves made an impact on his game and he struggled with handling and shooting the basketball. Still, The Pacers wouldn’t have won game one without his contributions.
There was a first-quarter sequence when Slawson badly missed a 3-point attempt but recovered got back on defense and swatted a fast-break dunk attempt. That was a microcosm for his whole game. He was just 4 of 15 from the floor including 2 of 9 from 3-point range and he turned the ball over three times and committed six fouls. (There’s no fouling out in Summer League.) However, he hit four free throws to finish with 15 points and grabbed six rebounds and dished out five assists. He also recorded a steal and a remarkable five blocks including an emphatic one to end the game. He has a lot to work on when he has the ball in his hand on offense but he’s so good at getting the ball in his hand on defense that his contributions are hard to pass up. He was first-team all-defense in the G League last season with the Boom and he hasn’t become any less dynamic on that end.
Dustin Dopirak covers the Pacers all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Pacers Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 3 things that stood out from Pacers win in Summer League debut, led by unlikely hero
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