sergechewbacca | GSW

237 | 8 hours ago

Going from Game 7 of the Finals to this is crazy

OpeDefinitely | Pacers

170 | 8 hours ago

Not playing tonight:

Haliburton (hurt)
Mathurin (hurt)
Toppin (hurt)
Siakam (rest)
Nembhard (rest)
Nesmith (rest)
McConnell (rest)

Edit 1:

The lineup that the Pacers trotted out tonight combines to make a full $20M less than Pascal Siakam, the team’s 2nd highest paid player. The highest paid Pacer to play tonight has a cap hit of ~4%.

Edit 2:

Indiana is on the second night of a back-to-back. Each Pacers player tonight falls into one of two categories:

Players who only recently developed into NBA rotation guys, but who are playing tired while being asked to play more minutes than normal.
Literal G-League players who were called up for this game.

interested_commenter | Thunder

67 | 8 hours ago

Plus Turner is gone.

It looks like a completely different team from the one that went to the Finals because it IS a completely different team playing.

OpeDefinitely | Pacers

22 | 8 hours ago

Jay Huff’s per-36 is matching Turner’s this season, while Turner’s stats with Milwaukee have regressed back to where they were with the Pacers before Tyrese joined the team.

Myles Turner has always been a solid rotation player but not much more. Tyrese is a top-3 PnR facilitator with SGA & Luka, and he spammed the PnR/PnP with Myles in such a way that made Myles look a lot better than he was.

The second that Tyrese got hurt in G7, it was clear that we would not be going into the tax to re-sign him. Wouldn’t have made sense for ¹³⁄₇.

interested_commenter | Thunder

20 | 8 hours ago

Yeah I’m not arguing with moving on from him. I’m just saying that’s another rotation guy from that team not playing tonight. Eight guys is basically the entire rotation.

OpeDefinitely | Pacers

5 | 8 hours ago

totally true, right on. my bad for the rant.

A lot of crazy comments in this thread are driving me crazy & making me defensive.

Altruistic-Rent-1780

6 | 7 hours ago

Per 36 means Boban is better than MJ

OpeDefinitely | Pacers

5 | 7 hours ago

Okay, fine:

Turner: 12pts, 5reb, 1.5 blocks. ⁴²⁄₃₈ shooting splits. 28MPG.

Huff: 9pts, 4reb, 2 blocks. ⁴⁷⁄₃₁ shooting splits. 20MPG.

Not sure that the extra 3 points and rebound in 8 minutes would help.

RepulsiveBrilliant35

0 | 7 hours ago

That has absolutely nothing to do with it.

PurpleWoodpecker2830

8 | 7 hours ago

Jesus Christ.

ajteitel | Suns

18 | 8 hours ago

Makes me a bit worried for the Pacers next year. Hali is great, but he’s not that individually great to cause a total collapse like this. Don’t want it turning into a Hawks situation where the entire team overperforms for a deep run and they keep banking on finding that magic

OpeDefinitely | Pacers

39 | 8 hours ago

Tyrese’s advanced stats are off the fucking charts. He is the Pacers, in everything he does that shows up on the scoresheet & that doesn’t. There are legitimate reasons to believe Rick Carlisle’s assessment that there may someday be a new stat named after Ty.

Anyway, the Pacers have been super hurt this season outside of Tyrese & we’re resting everybody who isn’t hurt today. Here are the guys who aren’t playing:

Haliburton (hurt)
Mathurin (hurt)
Toppin (hurt)
Siakam (rest)
Nembhard (rest)
Nesmith (rest)
McConnell (rest)

Practically the entire finals rotation is not playing tonight. Obviously they were going to be beyond ass.

ajteitel | Suns

0 | 8 hours ago

More just a board look at the entire year. Tonight is not the deciding factor lol

TurkishDonkeyKong

16 | 8 hours ago

All those players outside of siakam have missed half the year. We’ve had 24 different players this year

Ironredhornet | Pistons

20 | 8 hours ago

Tbf they’re basically resting anyone who actually was a contributor today since its the 2nd half of a back to back. If you take out most teams top 4 guys on a back to back against a stalwart defensive team, they’re probably facing a similar beating.

Pickleskennedy1

-2 | 8 hours ago

You’re half right but most teams aren’t going to be down 35 at half under those circumstances, that’s still special

OpeDefinitely | Pacers

21 | 8 hours ago

Lol, I’d argue that team missing their top 7 rotation players on the road against their conference’s 1 seed is at risk of being down 35 at the half.

Best player on the court tonight for the Pacers is Jarace Walker.

Pickleskennedy1

-7 | 8 hours ago

No NBA team has scored fewer points than 25 in a half since 2018. Any half. Any team. Come on it’s unusual

OpeDefinitely | Pacers

11 | 7 hours ago

The highest paid Pacer playing tonight has a 4% cap hit.

The lineup that the Pacers are playing tonight combine to make $20M less than Pascal Siakam does.

That’s the most unusual part about what’s happening tonight. Totally predictable cause of a team scoring fewer than 25 points in a half against the conference’s best team.

Pickleskennedy1

-8 | 7 hours ago

Nothing’s a predictable cause of hitting 25 points in a half in 2026

Mura_14 | Lakers

7 | 8 hours ago

To be fair, they’re missing a lot more than just hali. Tonight they had zero starters from last year playing and TJ mcconnell is out. They’re gonna be an entirely different team next season (and they’re competing for a top pick in a stacked draft class)

Drak_is_Right | Pacers

5 | 6 hours ago

Basically the top 8 from last year were all out.

9th and 10th guys played, along with an off-season pickup for 2.4m salary.

Tight_Ad2788

7 | 8 hours ago

Nah they cool man, Hali is just the straw that stirs the drink and they’re missing a bunch of other guys - they’re likely gonna get a major piece from this draft too

xbarracuda95

3 | 7 hours ago

That wasn’t the Pacers only run though, the year before that they went to the ECF, their team just goes up a level in the playoffs

bryanl12 | Hawks

4 | 8 hours ago

That “we don’t wanna be the Hawks” quote is gonna jinx them and they’re gonna be the Hawks

Wasnaf1 | Pacers

8 | 8 hours ago

Wouldn’t that make more sense if this was after the ECF run? So many people said “2021 Hawks!!” Then pacers went to game 7 of the finals the next season

Pickleskennedy1

6 | 8 hours ago

Not trying to kick the Hawks while they’re down but they’re already not the Hawks

Waste_Committee4406 | Pacers

2 | 3 hours ago

Hawks no offense, we are and almost always have been better managed than you. We will be fine, this is a great year to tank and get potentially our first top 5 pick since 1988.

ajteitel | Suns

0 | 8 hours ago

It’s hardly unique to the Hawks. A miracle run happens basically every year. Just usually not to the finals. It’s up to the org to recognize if it is a miracle run or something sustainable. Doubling down on a miracle run doesn’t usually work out.

Wasnaf1 | Pacers

3 | 8 hours ago

They won’t be doubling down on it, they got plagued by injuries to start the season and it basically ended the season lol, but next year there will be Tyrese coming back, top 3 pick (hopefully) and they will trade for a center

ajteitel | Suns

-3 | 7 hours ago

That is technically doubling down on it. But the Pacers haven’t figured out if it is a miracle run or something sustainable yet, so it doesn’t count lol. That would be like in 2 years if they do the same despite being bounced in the 1st round two years in a row.

As for trade for a center, you (and most fans) may want to look who would even be available and who would even be good. Finding a center is tough. Finding a good one is even harder. Finding even just a playable one is difficult. Because the best FA center this year may be Vucivic and the draft for centers this year isn’t much better.

OpeDefinitely | Pacers

2 | 7 hours ago

Myles Turner is averaging 12pts, 5reb, and 1.5 blocks on ⁴²⁄₃₈ splits with Milwaukee right now. Myles averaged ¹³⁄₇ on the Pacers before Tyrese was on the team.

Tyrese is a top-3 PnR/PnP facilitator. Only SGA & Luka compare in points per PnR possession. Tyrese spammed the PnR/PnP w/ Myles to make average 16-18ppg and look MUCH better than he was.

The Pacers are about to have Tyrese back and a lottery pick. They also have plenty of other assets with which they can make a consolidation trade.

As long as the Pacers get a center who can hit wide open PnR/PnP shots, they will be fine. It’s barely even a concern.

Wasnaf1 | Pacers

1 | 7 hours ago

I think I’m confused on what you mean by doubling down on it tho? Adding Tyrese, a top 3 pick, and a center is basically three new starters? Call it a miracle run, I understand because of the game winners but they have a style they play and believe in and took them to the ECF and game 7 of the NBA finals.

Acet14

-3 | 8 hours ago

Yeah the only explanation for them having the worst record in the league is they’re actively tanking for this deep draft. Only people they’re missing is Turner (meh) and Hali and he misses like 20 games a year any way. They won’t even get to 20 wins.

Funny-Transition7869 | Pacers

7 | 8 hours ago

we’re not tanking, we’re really bad. if we were tanking we wouldve rested last game vs nola

Drak_is_Right | Pacers

4 | 6 hours ago

Um. Toppin has been out the entire year. Nesmith, Nembhard, McConnel have all missed a hood bit of time. Mathurin has missed time and is playing injured.

Siakam is our only 8 man rotation guy healthy this season.

Add to it different rosters each night and players not trying and its been bad.

silvusx | Minneapolis Lakers

1 | 8 hours ago

Maybe it’s mental. Hali is just so clutch, he made 4 game winner shots in the playoffs. After witnessing that, I’d think If you were his teammates, you’d believe in miracles as long as Hali is on the floor.

Sometimes having a reliable positional role player makes all the difference. Before Dereck Lively, Mavs really struggled. Lively isn’t some god tier Center, and maybe that’s who Turner was for the Pacer. Same thing with Cavs, their team record is abysmal after losing their role player despite Donovan stil playing like a superstar.

TurtlePope2 | Wizards

80 | 8 hours ago

Fuck off Pacers. Stop trying to out tank us.

AroundNdowN | Pistons

63 | 8 hours ago

You guys are gonna have to step it up. This is some of the best tanking I’ve ever seen.

igonnawrecku_VGC | Celtics

22 | 8 hours ago

Nothing will top the Jazz pulling this same shit against the fucking Hornets

FunetikPrugresiv | Pistons

6 | 7 hours ago

Seriously. Their top seven players got benched tonight for making the mistake of playing well.

ob_knoxious | Wizards

5 | 6 hours ago

Did you see our 5 on 1 botched play? We are taking that level of turnovers and adding Trae Young to it. If that’s not maximum tank I don’t know what is.

Drak_is_Right | Pacers

4 | 6 hours ago

78 would still win a lot of Pistons Pacers games from the mid 2000s.

gm5891

68 | 8 hours ago

Haliburton getting a retroactive MVP for last year

Next-Supermarket9538

28 | 8 hours ago

Pacers players out for tonight’s game:

Haliburton, Siakam, Nembhard, Nesmith, Matthurin, McConnell, and Toppin

That’s pretty much their seven best players. They’re basically playing the G-League team tonight

sun_not_cold | Lakers

1 | 30 minutes ago

Same w/ the Lakers. There are only 41 games left in the season! Plus World Cup. Plus World Baseball Classic. Plus March Madness. Plus 2 months of postseason. Wait, did the all star break already happen?

Subredditcensorship | Nets

23 | 8 hours ago

This is going to be a generational tank race. Nets pacers wizards Utah and the kings are gonna be straight throwing games

VintageRCFishArtist

1 | 5 hours ago

Can’t forget the pelicans

Subredditcensorship | Nets

6 | 4 hours ago

Pelicans are just true poverty. They tryna win rn

JasonTaverner | Pacers

19 | 8 hours ago

Sweet merciful death take me now

HenrikCrown | Pelicans

17 | 8 hours ago

That would be league average in 2006 (I’m only half kidding)

Drak_is_Right | Pacers

8 | 6 hours ago

Look up the Pacers - Pistons playoff series in 2003-2004 season.

Game 6 was 69-65.

nugentismycenter | Pistons

12 | 7 hours ago

As a Detroit fan it might easy to hate on the Pacers but I just can’t they are injured and next year will be formidable again with Hali and a top pick.

YpsitheFlintsider

1 | 4 hours ago

Wellp, in the meantime

Waste_Committee4406 | Pacers

1 | 3 hours ago

We were never going to compete this year after everyone started getting hurt. Even then we were thinking 40-45 wins and 5-8 seed, which in hindsight I’m so glad I was wrong and we went this route, unintentionally or not. We will be fully loaded next season, and hopefully added our highest draft pick since the 80s, Adam Silver be willing.

montanfears

5 | 8 hours ago

respect for Siakam went up

Akipella | Warriors

7 | 7 hours ago

How

OpeDefinitely | Pacers

13 | 7 hours ago

The lineup that the Pacers trotted out tonight combines to make $20M less than Pascal Siakam, who is the Pacers’ 2nd highest paid player. The Pacers’ highest paid player tonight has a 4% cap hit.

Pacers are playing their g-league team tonight against the East’s current 1-seed.

Akipella | Warriors

5 | 7 hours ago

Oh Siakam was out even tonight…lmao gg

OpeDefinitely | Pacers

5 | 7 hours ago

Also no Nembhard, Nesmith, Mathurin, McConnell, etc.

YpsitheFlintsider

1 | 4 hours ago

By scoring 25 in a half

ObiOneKenobae | Knicks

5 | 7 hours ago

They knew that tank was at risk and weren’t taking any chances today.

RelativeHand4753 | Hornets

5 | 8 hours ago

Imagine losing to these guys lmao

msterling2012 | Mavericks

-5 | 8 hours ago

Is this team just going to be ass even when they get Haliburton back?

SecondForward5911 | Pacers

11 | 8 hours ago

Look at the lineup, over half the guys getting minutes right now probably wont even be on the roster next year or will barely get minutes

batmans420 | Pacers

2 | 8 hours ago

Nah, we’ll at least be “good” if Hali is even close to himself. We’ve been playing better lately, but everyone is sitting this one out

The Pacers’ 25 points in the first half is the fewest any NBA team has scored in any half since the 2018-2019 season