Ben Sheppard leads Pacers to comeback win but will he be in the rotation?

INDIANAPOLIS -- Ben Sheppard listened to the question about his four-point play that tied Thursday's preseason game against the Hornets, flashed the smile of a man who has a secret he just can't keep in, dropped his head, picked it up and spilled that secret.

The Pacers' second-year guard is not so sure he deserved the free throw that came after the 3-pointer he hit with 3.9 seconds to go in regulation. Charlotte wing K.J. Simpson was scrambling for the ball and slipped and fell at Sheppard's feet, but even Sheppard was surprised officials called a foul.

"I don't know if I got touched for real," Sheppard said. "Let's say that I did."

Perhaps it was a lucky break, but it was one that Sheppard had earned by dragging the Pacers back from a deficit as great as 16 points and refusing to allow them to pack it in during the fourth quarter of their last preseason game. Sheppard scored 11 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter, helping the Pacers outscore the Hornets by 12 in the period. That four-point play with 3.9 seconds left sent the game to overtime where they won 121-116 to finish the preseason 2-2.

The 3-pointer itself was a product of Sheppard simply never giving in, staying driven even in a game that doesn't count. The Pacers were down four when they inbounded the ball from the baseline with 8.6 seconds to go in regulation, seemingly needing a miracle to tie the game. Guard Quenton Jackson took a bounce pass from guard Tristen Newton, but lost control of it and his feet, falling over as the ball rolled toward the left wing on its way out of bounds. Sheppard was above the top of the key and not particularly close to the play, but he sprinted to the sideline, collected the ball, set his feet and fired hoping maybe he could land on Simpson and get a call because otherwise the Pacers were running out of time. That break and the free throw Sheppard hit to follow it allowed the Pacers to play on.

That shot capped a quarter in which Sheppard hit 4 of 6 field goals after taking just three shots in the first three periods. The Pacers were down 85-73 when the period began, but Sheppard stole a pass and took it the distance for a layup and a foul with 10:03 to go that seemed to ignite them. By the game's end, Sheppard was on the floor with three players on two-way contracts -- Newton, Jackson and Enrique Freeman -- as well as forward Cole Swider who is still fighting for the last roster spot. But Sheppard and Freeman, who scored nine of his 15 points in overtime, provided the energy the Pacers didn't get from their first two units.

"We were just motivated," Sheppard said. "The early moments of the game just weren't going our way. We had no energy. We just came in with a spark and tried to bring us back into the game and made something happen."

That, of course, is why Pacers coach Rick Carlisle is such a big fan of Sheppard. He's always motivated, even in a game like Thursday's that ultimately does not matter. He always makes something happen.

That was why Sheppard earned a rotation spot last season and even started in playoff games after being the No. 26 pick in the 2023 draft and spending most of the first half of the season on the bench. Carlisle found that every time Sheppard was on the floor, he brought energy -- running the floor as hard as possible, chasing every loose ball he could conceivably get to, defending his position well and hitting the open shots that came to him. He averaged 4.4 points in 14.3 minutes per game in the regular season but the combination of Bennedict Mathurin's shoulder injury and Sheppard's unstoppable motor earned 19.7 minutes per game in the playoffs. There were just seven other players in the NBA playoffs who earned more total minutes off the bench, and two of them were Pacers teammates, T.J. McConnell and Obi Toppin.

"He's a proven competitor," Carlisle said of the former Belmont star. "I can't give a higher compliment, really, to a guy at the beginning of his second year. You know what you're gonna get. It's boundless. It's pure. It's all about the team. It's all about trying to win a game."

It was particularly uplifting on a night when the starting five's struggles were leading Carlisle to serious consternation and even the second unit wasn't doing enough to alleviate the issues.

The Pacers made seven of their first eight field goal attempts, but even then they only built an 18-14 lead because they weren't doing enough to stop the Hornets. They took a seven-point lead in the first quarter at led 29-25 after the period, but they were outscored 36-20 in the second period and starters Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, Myles Turner and Andrew Nembhard were -15 in the 9 minutes they spent on the floor together during that period, shooting a combined 3 of 10, grabbing just two rebounds and turning the ball over five times. Turner scored 18 points with 14 of those in the first quarter and Haliburton scored 14, but all four finished the game -12 or worse. Forward Aaron Nesmith played fewer minutes and was -7.

There has been enough of a trend of slow starts and sub-par defense for Carlisle to be legitimately worried.

"We have a lot of work to do before next Wednesday," Carlisle said. "We're not where we need to be. I have to really look at what's happening. Our starting group has just not been tied together and we're not doing a good enough job in a lot of the important areas with physicality, with rebounding, with togetherness. That's on me. We'll keep working on that."

But while the rest of the team has struggled to get back to its form from April and May, Sheppard seems to have picked up where he left off. He's averaging 9.0 points per game in preseason play with more aggression off the dribble and the same level of constant grit on defense. And as usual the Pacers are better off when he's on the floor, as they are +23 in his minutes through four games. Only Newton (+33) has a better preseason figure.

"I just say every chance I get to step on the floor I'm just trying to showcase the player that I am," Sheppard said. "I'm just a team player, a high IQ player that just plays the right way. I feel like every time I go out there, I don't need to do anything outside of my skillset."

And Carlisle makes a point to let Sheppard know that he notices, even though some of the rotations he's used in the preseason suggest that Sheppard could be the odd man out -- more specifically, the 11th man in a 10-man rotation.

As concerned as Carlisle is at the moment, there's been little to suggest that he'd alter his starting five of Haliburton, Nembhard, Nesmith, Siakam and Turner. McConnell and Toppin have every reason to feel safe in second-unit spots at point guard and power forward after excellent playoff performances and lucrative off-season contracts. Isaiah Jackson and James Wiseman are locked in a battle for the second-unit center position. That leaves the shooting guard and small forward spots for Sheppard, his draft classmate Jarace Walker and guard Bennedict Mathurin.

Sheppard has disadvantages in the race. The Pacers have more invested in Mathurin and Walker than Sheppard as they were picked No. 6 and No. 8, respectively in the 2022 and 2023 drafts, becoming the first Pacers draft picks taken in the top nine since Rik Smits went No. 2 in 1988 and George McCloud went No. 7 in 1989. Mathurin earned first-team All-Rookie honors in 2022-23 as the third-leading scorer among Pacers rookies in the franchise's NBA history. Walker got fewer minutes than Sheppard as a rookie, but he has a rare collection of offensive skills for a 6-8, 235-pound forward with a 7-2 1/2 wingspan. Walker is making a move from power forward to small forward and he's played more total minutes -- 94 -- than any other Pacer as Carlisle is giving him an opportunity to find his way on the floor on a more constant basis.

But that doesn't mean Carlisle has forgotten about Sheppard. The 6-6 wing has played some minutes with the second unit and some with the third, but he played 89 total minutes in preseason, second only to Walker. Sheppard may not be on the second unit on opening night, but in some respects he's the player Carlisle trusts the most out of the three. He may be the player Carlisle trusts most on the team to come in cold in the second half if he didn't appear in the first half or to play heavy minutes after going a few games without seeing the floor.

So regardless of what his role is when the season opens, Carlisle will make sure he has a chance to make things happen.

"A lot of times guys like that are taken for granted because they're great people and they appear to be low-maintenance," Carlisle said. "But it's important that we keep reminding him how important he is to our culture, how important he is to our team. Certainly, all the really, really positive things he did in the playoffs last year. This is a new year, but the great thing is that he hasn't changed one bit and likely never will."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Ben Sheppard leads Pacers to comeback win but will he be in the rotation?