What you need to know about the Pacers' 2025-26 schedule

Indianapolis Star

4 days ago

INDIANAPOLIS -- The full NBA regular schedule for the 2025-26 season was released Thursday afternoon, and the effect of the season-ending injury to All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton is clear on the Pacers' slate. Despite their first run to the NBA Finals since 2000 and just their second NBA Eastern Conference title in franchise history, the Pacers aren't featured prominently in many of the league's marquee events.
That being said, there still are several opportunities on the schedule for national attention and the Pacers were generally treated like a team expected to make the playoffs. Before back-to-back runs to the Eastern Conference Finals, the Pacers barely made a blip on the national radar at all, but this season they will be shown on all three networks that will be nationally televising games.
Here's what you need to know about the Pacers 2025-26 schedule.
This will be the first year of the NBA's new national media rights deal and the networks are different with TNT having lost its contract and NBC stepping back on to the scene for the first time since 2002 with both its traditional broadcast network and its streaming service Peacock. Amazon Prime will also nationally televise games on its streaming service. ABC and ESPN are still part of the network lineup.
The Pacers are scheduled to be on ESPN just once in their season opener at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 23 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse when they play the Thunder in a rematch of the NBA Finals. They could have games flexed on to ESPN later in the season and they could also earn more opportunities to be on the network if they advance in the NBA Cup.
The Pacers have four games scheduled to be on Peacock. All four are home games -- Dec. 8 against Sacramento, Jan. 12 against Boston, Feb. 2 against Houston and April 7 against Minnesota. The Minnesota game will also be broadcast on NBC. They're also set to be on Amazon Prime four times -- Nov. 21 at Cleveland, Dec. 26 vs. Boston, Jan. 23 at Oklahoma City and March 13 at home against the Knicks. All told, that's nine nationally televised games on the schedule with an opportunity for more.
As mentioned above, the Pacers will have their NBA Finals rematches with the Oklahoma City Thunder at home in their season opener on Oct. 23 and on the road on Jan. 23 with both games being nationally televised.
They will play the Knicks, the team they defeated in the Eastern Conference Finals, four times this season. The home games will be Dec. 18 and March 13 and the road games will be Feb. 10 and March 17.
The Cavaliers and Bucks -- who the Pacers defeated in the Eastern Conference semifinals and the first round respectively -- are Central Division foes, so they meet them four times each season. The play the Cavs at home on Dec. 1 and Jan. 6 and on the road on Nov. 21 and April 5. They meet the Bucks at home on Nov. 3 and Dec. 23 and on the road on Feb. 6 and March 15. That Nov. 3 home game could be emotionally heated as it will bring Myles Turner back to Indianapolis for the first time since he opted to sign with the Bucks in free agency rather than return to Indiana.
The Cavs, Knicks and Bucks are all expected to be among the favorites in the Eastern Conference this season with the Cavs and Knicks expected to be picked to finish first and second so each of those games will be important measuring sticks as the Pacers try to get by without Haliburton.
The Pacers don't have a foreign trip to point to as the reason their schedule is funky this season as they did last year when they went to Paris to play the Spurs and Victor Wembanyama. They just have a series of longer and funkier road trips than usual for reasons that are not immediately evident.
After their season opener on Oct. 23, they play three straight games on the road at Memphis on Oct. 25, Minnesota on Oct. 26 and Dallas on Oct. 29. They play their first Western Conference road swing early in the season when they play at Denver then at Golden State in a back-to-back on Nov. 8 and Nov. 9, then play at Utah on Nov. 11 and Phoenix on Nov. 13. They don't play two games in a row on the road again until January, but then they play five straight on the road from Jan. 17-26. They'll play at Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston, Oklahoma City and Atlanta during that stretch.
In February, the Pacers will play six straight road games, though two of them will be on the other side of the All-Star break. They play at Milwaukee Feb. 6, Toronto on Feb. 8, New York on Feb. 10 and Brooklyn on Feb. 11. After the All-Star Break, they play Washington in a back-to-back on Feb. 19 and 20. They then play a second West Coast road trip March 4-10 when they will play the Clippers and Lakers in Los Angeles, the Trailblazers in Portland and the Kings in Sacramento.
NBA teams play squads from their opposite conference just twice in the regular season -- once at home, once on the road -- so that means there's only one opportunity each year for Pacers fans to see the superstars in the Western Conference. Milwaukee's GIannis Antetokounmpo, New York's Jalen Brunson, Cleveland's Donovan MItchell and others from the East will see Gainbridge Fieldhouse at least twice this season and maybe more if there are playoff rematches, but seeing the West's stars means more specific calendar circling.
As previously mentioned, reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous Alexander will be in the building with the Thunder in the Oct. 23 season opener. Last year's runner-up and two-time MVP Nikola Jokic will be in Indy with the Nuggets on Dec. 3.