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Indianapolis • After spending the first half Saturday night getting pushed around and beat up and down the court, the Utah Jazz needed a change.
And by the time Rudy Gobert and company re-emerged from the locker room at Bankers Life Fieldhouse at halftime on Halloween night, they looked like they had changed into their defensive superhero costumes.
The Jazz quickly erased a seven-point halftime deficit thanks to another stifling effort by one of the league's top young defenses, allowing the Pacers to score just 27 points over the game's final 24 minutes. The end result: a second-straight 20-point win — this one a 97-76 whooping of Indiana — to improve to 2-1 on this opening Eastern Conference road trip.
"We just stayed as a block," said Gobert, who finished the night with nine points and a game-high 17 rebounds. "We competed and kept playing the same defense every possession over the game. I don't know if they got tired, but I think it's hard to play against a team that plays hard for 48 minutes."
The Jazz had stomped the 76ers in Philadelphia on Friday night, and looked like they could have used Daylight Saving Time to come a day early Saturday as they sleepwalked through the first two quarters. Utah committed six first-quarter turnovers and Indiana raced to 11 fast-break points in the opening frame, as the Pacers built up a 7-point lead at by halftime.
"I think there was probably a little bit of fatigue," said forward Derrick Favors, who had two points in the first half. "Playing the first back-to-back of the year, guys were just getting used to it again."
If not for the efforts of second-year guard Rodney Hood, who scored 12 of his 17 points in the first half, Utah might have been in real trouble.
"I just want to give these guys juice," Hood said. "Gordon [Hayward], Fav, our leaders on the time. When they're tired or they're not doing things well, I'm gonna give them juice."
That juice was apparently refreshing enough.
The Jazz opened the second half on a 10-0 run and outscored the Pacers 28-12 in the third quarter. When the Pacers cut the lead to single digits early in the fourth quarter, Utah outscored them 20-7 the rest of the way.
"I think we just adjusted to the speed of the game and the physicality of the game," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "In the second half, we got our legs under us."
And in the process, the Jazz took the Pacers' out from under them.
The Pacers said this summer they wanted to be faster and sleeker. So over the offseason they dumped the plodding Roy Hibbert and watched aging power forward David West leave. They brought in the speedy Monta Ellis and shifted All-Star Paul George to power forward. They wanted to go small — and in the second half Saturday the Jazz made them look especially so.
Indiana point guard George Hill scored a team-best 17 points and George finished with 16 points and three rebounds. But it was hardly enough to contend with the Jazz, as Indiana dropped to 0-3 on the season.
Gobert grabbed 12 rebounds after the break. Favors — who scored 26 points against the Detroit Pistons and 20 against the 76ers — hit 8 of his 11 attempts in the second half to finish with 18 points. He has been the Jazz's leading scorer in the first three games of the season.
"He missed some easy shots in the first half," Gobert said. "We knew they were going to fall in the second half, so we just kept going at him — especially when he had a small on him."
In an Indianapolis homecoming, Hayward scored 12 points but made just 4 of 11 shots. In past years, that might have doomed the Jazz, but not at the moment.
In addition to Hood's 17, the Jazz bench contributed 42 points, led by 15 from Trey Burke and 10 apiece from Alec Burks and Joe Ingles.
Meanwhile, the Utah defense continues to impress. Through three games, the Jazz own the NBA's top defense. On Saturday, it held the Pacers to 40 percent shooting and created 24 turnovers, leading to 30 points.
"It's definitely our calling card," Hayward said. "I think we started doing that at the end of last year. When we can play our defense, it gets us going offensively. It keeps us going and it was really big for us tonight."
Twitter: @tribjazz —
Storylines
R The Jazz outscored the Pacers 28-12 in the third quarter en route to their second win in a row.
• Derrick Favors scored 16 of his team-high 18 points in the second half.
Inside
O Rookie Trey Lyles gets his first points in the NBA at the same arena where he won a high school state title. > C13