Dec 2, 2014; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Indiana Pacers forward David West (21) reacts in the first quarter against the Phoenix Suns at US Airways Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

The Indiana Pacers fell to the Phoenix Suns last night in the desert, but there were many positives to take away. Chief among those was the team’s offense in the first half.

The shot a torrid 59.1% while scoring 56 points. Their scoring rate — 111.3 points/100 possession — represents a better offense than any NBA team so far this year except for the league-leading Dallas Mavericks. (And it’s waaaaay better than the Pacers season-long rate of 98.7 points/100, which is sixth-worst in the association.)

More important than the effectiveness, however, was the process and free-flowing form of the attack. Everyone was moving and the ball followed suit,

In the preseason, this was the recipe Frank Vogel preached for how the team could stay afloat without Paul George and Lance Stephenson. Of course, in the preseason, before the difficult task of facing actual NBA defenses begins, every coach exudes confidence about how his team will master the fundamentals and move the ball.

But we actually saw it last night.

On one especially beautiful play, West beat three defenders with a crisp, one-handed bounce pass through the paint, leading C.J. Miles directly to the rim where he could easily lay in an uncontested layup. Just look at this gorgeousness.

Even in the first six minutes of the game, when the team wasn’t scoring well, they were maintaining good spacing. We saw this pay dividends when it gave Rodney Stuckey room to go one-on-one, Roy Hibbert to hit an early hook shot, and West to do work on the block while scoring.

Even here, as Solomon Hill gets embarrassed by having his dunk attempt swatted, you can see good movement. After laughing at Hill a few times in the loop, look at how Sloan (cutting baseline) and Stuckey (moving from the opposite corner to the wing) do a good job of rotating around the perimeter in response to the West/Hill hand-off action.

Even Hibbert does a good job sliding down to find space as Plumlee abandons him to help. (Hill should have pump-faked and dished to Hibbert for the dunk.) No, the Suns aren’t playing great defense here and the spacing/movement the Pacers are doing is elementary — but that’s the point. Last year and when they’ve struggled this season, it is too often these small things that elude the Pacers.

The high-level movement was equally evident in the stats, as the Indiana Pacers logged 13 assists on 26 first-half field goals while putting up a 19.1 assist rate, much higher than their ugly 15.1 rate overall this year.

Perhaps most encouraging of all, 5 of those 13 dimes came from C.J. Watson, whose return to form last night was a huge lift to the offense. Watson showed the potential the team has to score better going forward; Donald Sloan has played admirably as the only healthy point guard, but the return of Watson shows how much talent the back court lost by having C.J. and George Hill watching from the sideline.

Even when everyone is healthy, the Indiana Pacers will probably never be a top-flight offensive team this season – at least not consistently. But if they can follow the blueprint laid out last night in the first half, they can score enough to win plenty of games and get into the playoffs.