On the road, the Indiana Pacers are usually very pedestrian.

Just last season, they had a record of mediocrity while playing away from their dear Bankers Life Fieldhouse, going 21-20 on the road. It was the single largest reason why they weren’t able to pass the 60-win plateau, and why it came down to the last two days of the year to secure the No. 1 seed.

In the East, three teams captured a better road record than Indiana (Washington, Miami, Toronto). In the West, eight teams managed to go better than 21-20 away from home. In a conference that features so many impossible arenas to win in, such as the West, that’s still mind-blowing.

Frank Vogel and his Pacers got their first crack at life on the road on Saturday night, taking on the Atlanta Hawks on their brand new home floor.

Right off the bat, it didn’t appear to be competitive for Indiana. The Hawks used their penetration, because of the lack of perimeter defense from Indiana, to create all their opportunities. In many ways, Jeff Teague picked up right where he left off in the first round series last year. As you should remember, Teague averaged nearly 20 points in the seven-game series against the Pacers in April, including a 28-point performance in the Game 7 loss on the road.

Now, in his first game against them since then, he took it upon himself to show why he’s overlooked. 11 of his 25 points were scored in the first quarter alone, as he got to the line four times and knocked down 3-of-5 field goals in the opening minutes. While Vogel has been hoping his second string of defenders along the perimeter — Donald Sloan, Rodney Stuckey, Chris Copeland, and Solomon Hill — would become formidable against teams, they’ve been struggling to stop anyone.

Roy Hibbert (55) during the first half at Philips Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

In a small sample size (three games), the Pacers have allowed 105.4 points per 100 possessions, which is only the 16th best of all teams that have played. It’s incredibly too early to start stacking their defense up against anyone, and that’s for a couple reasons.

First, most teams around the league have only played two games, and you can’t judge a defense based on the two offenses they’ve faced. You need a full-league sample size, or you wouldn’t be looking down an accurate lens. Secondly, there is an abundance of injuries around the league that are just devastating teams. You would hate to live in Oklahoma City or Indiana right now with what they have to deal with.

Of all the issues the Pacers are fighting through, nothing can seem more monumental than their injuries. But, with this second and third unit that’s trying to hold them alive in the meantime, there’s one glaring issue.

It’s a touchy subject for Indiana, because they’ve been so heinous in the department for the last few seasons.

Turnovers. Taking care of the orange thing that bounces. They can’t seem to do it in the last two games, and it truly makes you ponder how many games they’ll be able to grind out because of their defense if they’re not able to get enough offensive chances.

In Atlanta, the Pacers coughed up the ball 18 times, while the Hawks did their job in holding onto it with just 12 on the night. For Indiana, their assists total (25) only outweighed their turnover margin by seven. Normally, that’s fairly acceptable, but they’re still trying to polish up both factors; keeping their possessions alive, and getting more unselfish ball movement. Without either, this team won’t be hovering around .500 by the time mid-December hits.

Indiana’s Assist-to-Turnover ratio for the loss was only 1.389, which isn’t where you would like it to be for a hard-fought win on the road. That was their main issue throughout each quarter. Compare it to Atlanta’s 2.167 for the night, and you begin to see why the Hawks are on a determined path to get a top seed in the East. As a result, the Pacers tasted defeat on Saturday, 102-92.

This wasn’t the first time early in the season that Indiana struggled.

Just the night prior, on Halloween, they fell on their faces in the second half against the Memphis Grizzlies. They hosted their second straight home game, and it was the best way for them to get on top of the standings in an early showing. The motto for Indiana should’ve been “We might as well try to win gobs of games early on, because we know how we fall apart after the All-Star break.”

Memphis didn’t allow anything easy, and the second half shutdown we witnessed was one of the more lopsided disparities you can remember.

The Pacers had exploded out of the gate in the first 24 minutes vs. Memphis, taking 14 3-pointers in the first half. Connecting on seven of them, this unusual offensive mix looked to have the best Western Conference defense on the ropes.

However, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol aren’t fools, and they weren’t being tricked on Halloween.

After out-scoring Memphis 53-45 by halftime, Indiana found themselves embarrassed in the second half. They were the ones that became out-scored, 52-36, to close out the game. Just like Saturday in Atlanta, it was all due to turnovers.

They had collected an absurd 10 turnovers in the first 24 minutes alone vs. Memphis, which doesn’t get you on track to win anything against a Western Conference foe. In the second half, they continued to penetrate inside the Grizzlies’ stranglehold of a frontline, and lost the ball repetitively, either on kick-outs or mishandles from Donald Sloan and C.J. Miles.

The difference was the turnover discrepancy, as the Pacers couldn’t force Memphis into a lot of giveaways themselves. Usually, if you turn it over 18 times but also force your opponents into 16-18 turnovers, you won’t be in bad shape to pull out a win. Nonetheless, Indiana couldn’t blemish the Grizzlies’ near-perfect offense in the second half, as Memphis only turned it over three times in the final 24 minutes.

Add that to Memphis’ low amount of turnovers in the first half (6), and you still have a single-digit amount of turnovers from your opposition.

Indiana’s Assist-to-Turnover ratio for the loss against Memphis was a nasty 1.05, as they only recorded one more assist (19) than turnovers (18). David Joerger, on the other hand, loved how his Grizzlies stayed their course. It resulted in a ratio of 2.22 for the road team, and that’s going to get you a dominant road record if it remotely keeps up for them.

Even more injuries

In the loss at Atlanta, Rodney Stuckey was asked to come in the game during the first quarter, after starting point guard Donald Sloan picked up two fouls. As everyone knew, Stuckey was on a minutes restriction for the first few games of the season, still nursing a sore left foot that he suffered during the preseason.

Vogel had hoped to only play him around the 15-20 minutes per game mark for the first week or so, and that’s what he was on par to do. Stuckey had only played in 29 minutes over the last two games, and it sure looked as if they could’ve used him in the Memphis loss, down the stretch.

When Vogel had no choice but to dig into his bench early on in Atlanta, he didn’t expect anything unfortunate to happen.

However, everything goes down the drain for Indiana when it comes to receiving luck.

Stuckey re-aggravated his left foot in the first six minutes he entered, and had to leave the court with under a minute left to play in the first quarter.

The Pacers were starting to move the ball around, and Stuckey found himself with a good look from the outside, but it happened to be the same play that cost him more minutes in the game. Either when he lifted off the ground to enter his jumpshot, or when he landed on his foot, the soreness reached another level:

Stuckey wouldn’t be able to return to the game, as he was ruled out with the same diagnosis he had all through the week. Although he’ll be re-evaluated on Monday morning, Stuckey didn’t seem too optimistic about what the issue is with his foot.

“I don’t really know what’s wrong with my foot,” he said after the game. He’s still able to walk without a limp, boot, or anything, but it’s the vigorous activity that always causes something unexpected, as we saw on Saturday.

These injuries that keep piling up are nothing to disregard or ignore. The roster was already depleted, but now it’s getting worse — in a hurry.

David West will have his sprained ankle re-evaluated when the team returns back to Indianapolis this week, and his timetable could reach longer than the initial “first three games” that was announced before the season.

Point guard George Hill still has at least another two weeks before he can be re-evaluated again for his knee contusion, and that’s an injury that you can’t rush coming back on. If it heals properly, you’ll see Hill return around the Nov. 15-22 mark, in which they play Chicago, Charlotte, and Phoenix within that week.

Backup guard C.J. Watson was scheduled to miss at least the first two weeks of the season with a bruised foot, and nothing has changed in that regard. If it’s directly after the first two weeks when he’s able to return, the Pacers will have more guard depth when they enter the stretch against Miami, Denver, and Chicago in the Nov. 12-15 range. If it’s longer, they’ll suffer more losses and get themselves in a hole that’s hard to rise from. They can’t afford to do that in the stronger Eastern Conference.

All of these injuries, including the most significant one to Paul George, have put tons of unforeseen pressure on the backup wings and guards of Indiana.

After their third game of the season, Chris Copeland, Donald Sloan, and Solomon Hill have already received a larger taste of the regular season pie than they saw coming:

Copeland is certainly not complaining about his usage in the opening portions of the season, and he’s proving to Fran Vogel just how much he could’ve used him last year as a threat to space the floor.

The third-year forward is already 10-of-25 from beyond the 3-point line to begin the year, and he’s next to only Trevor Ariza for most 3-pointers made in the first week of the season.

“He’s a lot like Lance [Stephenson],” Vogel said. “He’s going to make a bonehead play here and there, and that’s just something you live with when you have guys with special gifts like Cope has. He’s a gifted, gifted scorer so you have to give them some freedom to go out and let their talent shine.”

Copeland better be able to shine on a nightly basis. If not, the only shining Indiana will be doing is making their case for a lottery draft pick.