Aaron Nesmith Cleared for Sunday as Pacers Look to Add Defense to Their Track Meet
Carlisle: Aaron Nesmith (hamstring) available to play Sunday.
Rick Carlisle finally delivered the news that Indiana Pacers fans and prop bettors have been waiting for: Aaron Nesmith and his hamstring are officially cleared for Sunday.
Getting your primary wing defender back is usually a big deal, but it feels especially crucial for a team that treats defense like a polite suggestion. The Pacers are built to run you out of the gym, but you still need at least one guy willing to stay in front of his man.
Indiana is coming off a 145-125 track meet victory over the , which is a hilarious scoreline for a regulation basketball game. But just before that, they dropped a 114-109 game to the Philadelphia 76ers, proving that trying to outscore everyone by 30 every single night is not a sustainable strategy.
Nesmith brings actual resistance to the floor. His return against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday night completely shifts the math for anyone looking at the over/under. When you add a player who actually wants to guard the perimeter, those inflated totals start looking a lot more precarious.
This hamstring issue is just the latest in a weird string of ailments for the forward, who has spent the last year collecting ankle and knee tweaks like they are loyalty points. But when he is right, his catch-and-shoot gravity is the exact thing that makes this Indiana offense impossible to guard.
We will see how many minutes Carlisle actually gives him against Brooklyn. If Nesmith looks healthy and gets his legs under him, the Nets are in for a long night, and the Atlanta Hawks better start stretching for Tuesday.