The Indiana Pacers are buoyed by an incredibly strong bench.

The idea behind your reserves in basketball is pretty simple. The starters are supposed to lead off the game by getting your team the lead. As your teams (generally) best players, they should be able to do this if you have the right personnel. The bench, on the other hand, is supposed to come in and maintain that lead, or at the very least not lose it. But not the Indiana Pacers bench.

What the Pacers second unit has done this year has been remarkable. With all 5 of Darren Collison, Victor Oladipo, Bojan Bogdanovic, Thaddeus Young, and Myles Turner off the floor, the Pacers are still a +26 on the season, per pbpstats.com. Even when Nate McMillan goes with the full backup platoon, the Pacers are still able to balloon their lead.

What a luxury that is. That takes pressure off the starters, and it allows McMillan to mix and match his other lineups in order to play the matchups and get the players some needed rest. Having a quality bench is undeniably important.

But how have then been able to do it? How has the Indiana Pacers second unit been able to outscore other teams?

It starts on the defensive end.

The Pacers have given up 631 points on 627 possessions with none of their starters on the floor, a 100.6 defensive rating. That’s the equivalent of the best defense in the league by almost 4 points per 100 possessions. They smother everybody.

They force opponents to take the worst kinds of shots. Opposing offenses can’t even get up good shots. Their expected effective field goal percentage given their shot quality is just 50 percent, only 1 point per shot. They limit the number of shots at the rim and from 3 point range (both slightly under 1/3 of total shots). Nothing easy gets passed them.

Domantas Sabonis hasn’t figured out the angles of defense, but he’s adequately protecting the basket. Tyreke Evans is a quality on-ball defender thanks to his massive size for his position and solid foot speed. Doug McDermott and TJ Leaf struggle on defense, but they can get by against second units. Those 4 all get the job done.

Cory Joseph makes it all work. CoJo hustles his ass off. He frantically rotates and closes out perfectly almost all the time. Because of how well he does defending the point of attack, the opposing teams lead guard has trouble creating good passing angles. That helps everyone else just enough to make it all click really in a spectacular fashion.

This possession has it all – Tyreke blowing up a DHO, CoJo closing out and recovering perfectly, Leaf deflecting a pass, McDermott pressuring the inbounder, and Leaf forcing a miss:

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This group has no quit on that end of the floor, and it sets them a quality base for success. But you have to score points. This group does that juuuuust well enough to be successful.

With no starters on the floor, the Pacers have scored 657 points on 626 possessions, a mediocre 105 offensive rating. It’s fine, but it doesn’t pay the bills. But with a defense as good as they have, that’s all they need.

It gets done with a balanced attack. All 4 of Domantas Sabonis, TJ Leaf, Doug McDermott, and Tyreke Evans have between 95 and 120 points in the “no starters” scenarios. Aaron Holiday and Cory Joseph are knocking on the door with 80 and 65, respectively.

A balanced attack generally means a fair amount of productive passing, and the numbers back that up. Slightly over half of their 2s are assisted, and over 80 percent of their 3s are off of dimes. Their assists are productive too. 74.7 percent of them lead to shots at the rim or from three. They move the ball well, and to the best areas.

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Now, all of these stats reflect moments when the Pacers have all 5 starters off the floor. But that’s an unfair reflection of what the second unit actually is. The bench features lineups that display a combo of starters and reserves, and that is where the Pacers really get their advantages.

For example, with Thad Young as the only starters on the floor, the Pacers just slaughter opponents. They have outscored the other team by 100 points in 244 minutes. Their offensive rating is 122.6 in these situations, and their defensive rating is 101.2. I’ll save you the trouble. Those stats are amazing.

WIth Thaddeus Young in the dunker spot and Domantas Sabonis slinging the ball around at center, the Pacers get insanely good looks from inside the arc. They get 43.58 percent of their shots at the rim. This group is incredible at manufacturing good looks around the basket.

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This all speaks to the Indiana Pacers incredible depth. They can throw out a crazy variety of lineups that use both reserves and starters and they can kick ass. CoJo, Oladipo, Bojan, Sabonis, and Turner all together have been sensational in very limited minutes, for example.

It’s a blessing to have the depth the Indiana Pacers have. Not many teams can throw out any of their best 9 players and conceivably outscore their opponent. As the Pacers attempt to survive without Victor Oladipo. their depth with help buoy them on their path to the playoffs.