At 10-15 we didn't know if Pacers would even make playoffs — let alone NBA Finals. How they turned season around

Indianapolis Star

2 days ago

INDIANAPOLIS – The highlight moments of the Pacers' playoff run to their first NBA Finals in 25 years have already been immortalized in the minds of the faithful. Tyrese Haliburton's driving layup past Giannis Antetokounmpo in Game 5 against the Bucks, his step-back rainbow 3 over Ty Jerome in Game 2 against the Cavs, and his on-the-line, high-off-the-rim and back in, is-it-over-or-not jumper in Game 1 against the Knicks are all shots that take their spot in any list of historically great Pacers moments.
There will be individual performances from over the past six weeks that will have their share of franchise immortality too. Haliburton's 32-point, 15-assist, 12-rebound, zero turnover triple-double in Game 4 against the Knicks. Aaron Nesmith's 30-point performance in Game 1 against the Knicks including the six fourth-quarter 3-pointers that fueled the Pacers' nearly impossible comeback. Pascal Siakam's 39-point effort in Game 2. There was also Myles Turner in Game 4 against Milwaukee with 23 points and four huge blocks and Andrew Nembhard in Game 1 against Cleveland with 23 points on five 3-pointers to get that series started.
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But there were moments and games in this season long before the Pacers started to feel magic in the air that set the course for where they are now that don't stand out in the same way, but were every bit as critical to getting the Pacers to where they are now.
They hit bottom with a 10-15 start that led to legitimate questions of whether the Pacers would even return to the playoffs much less the Eastern Conference Finals, but they closed with a 40-17 finish that earned them a 50-win season for the first time since 2013-14, and they entered the playoffs with earned confidence from being tested by not only tight games but sustained adversity.
The following are five moments, situations or games that served as turning points or launch pads for the rest of the season. These were the times when the Pacers fixed what ailed them and built a ship fit to sail in the playoffs, creating an identity and an approach that ground down each of their three opponents and raising their All-Star point guard back to a place where he could carry the team again.
The rock-bottom moment of Tyrese Haliburton's struggles came Nov. 22 in the first half of the Pacers' game in Milwaukee against the Bucks. The Oshkosh, Wis., native grew up about 90 minutes away from Milwaukee, so going back is usually good for his soul, but nothing about this trip felt uplifting for him. It was the last leg of a three-game road trip that also included games in Toronto and Houston. The Pacers had gone into each of those games short-handed and lost by double figures. Haliburton scored a combined 20 points in those games on 6-of-25 shooting including 3-of-14 from 3-point range including just four points on 1-of-7 shooting against the Rockets.
Heading into the Milwaukee game, Haliburton was averaging 15.3 points and 8.5 assists per game but shooting just 37.5% from the floor and 28.4% from 3-point range. All of those misses started to build frustration in his head and it was evident throughout the game in Milwaukee he wasn't enjoying himself. The Pacers fell behind 58-44 in the first half when he was 2-of-7 from the floor, 0-of-4 from 3-point range. He made four second-half 3-pointers, but that didn't do much to help. He seemed despondent in a post-game media interview at his locker and when asked if he felt any closer to figure out what was holding him back he said, "No, no I don't."
The Pacers returned home after that and had three straight home games against teams that would end up in the draft lottery. That seemed to help and so did words of encouragement from his teammates — particularly Pascal Siakam — as well as his trainer Drew Hanlen, friends and family. He posted 21 points and nine assists in a win over the Wizards on Nov. 24, hitting five 3-pointers. On his way off the floor, Siakam stopped him and told him he needed to put less pressure on whether shots go in and simply trust the work he puts in.
"I just wanted to make sure we tell him that obviously, first we're all with him," Siakam said at the time. "I'm with him. It's not on him. He doesn't have to feel like all of this is on him. We haven't played well as a team. It's not on Ty. And not putting so much pressure on makes or miss. It's gonna happen. The work is done."
The next night against the Pelicans, Haliburton scored 34 points, knocking down nine 3-pointers, and also posted 13 assists in a 114-110 win. In his post-game news conference, he thanked Siakam for his words and vowed not to let himself get into that deep of a mental hole again.
"I've had people sending me clips of how I've looked in media and how I've looked on the court," Haliburton said then. "My body language sucks. My attitude sucks. It's hard to get out of what you got going on if you're that way. I've been told my life my whole way to control what I can. I can't control if the ball goes in every time — I mean technically I can, but it's a make-or-miss league — but I can control my body language. I can control my energy and I can control my effort. Through 18 games, I think people look at the Indiana Pacers and they're like, 'Man, their pace is down, the energy of the team isn't very good.' Put that on me. I've gotten caught up in myself. ... I can promise that will be better moving forward."
The rest of the regular season, Haliburton averaged 19.5 points per game on 49.9% shooting including 41.5% 3-point shooting and also averaged 9.4 assists per game, ending up with third-team All-NBA honors.
The first half of the Pacers' schedule was a whirlwind in part because NBA schedule-makers had to compress their slate to allow for them to spend a week in Paris in January for two games against the Spurs. As a result, they didn't get to practice much from the season opener into mid-December, which in turn made it difficult for the Pacers to deal with fairly constant roster tumult.
The Pacers had to start guard Quenton Jackson and forward Enrique Freeman — both on two-way contracts — and using rookie Johnny Furphy way more than they expected to. They had to sign center Moses Brown out of the G League just to have a backup center who wasn't Obi Toppin. They still had their top four scorers available in Haliburton, Siakam, Myles Turner and Bennedict Mathurin, but they were missing most of their connective tissue. As a result, they found themselves losing to eventual lottery teams including the Pelicans, Hornets, Raptors and Nets.
On Dec. 1, Nembhard returned on a minutes restriction, but even that seemed to shake up the ecosystem as the Pacers had to play with different rotations when he was and wasn't available. So much of what they were trying had to be done on the fly because there wasn't much opportunity for practice time. One of their best performances in the season's first 25 games came on Dec. 6 when they had an extended shootaround in Chicago and worked in some new offensive concepts before their game with the Bulls and ended up winning 132-123 in one of their best offensive performances of the season to date. They followed that, however, with one of their worst games, a 113-109 home loss to a Charlotte team that was playing short-handed without star point guard LaMelo Ball to fall to 10-15
The NBA Cup schedule, however, created some time to regroup. After reaching the 2023 In-Season Tournament Finals, the Pacers didn't win an NBA Cup Group play game so they weren't involved in the knockout round. For most of the week of the knockout round, the teams that didn't qualify don't play so as to allow the tournament games to dominate the airwaves. That meant the Pacers had five days between games, and they practiced on three of them, creating a competitive environment but also re-establishing their offensive flow game and their defensive principles.
After that stretch of practices, the Pacers got two NBA cup consolation games against wounded opponents in the 76ers and Pelicans and beat them both. They then ran the table on a West Coast road swing, beating Phoenix, Sacramento and Golden State on the road just before Christmas. That was the start of a 40-17 close to the season.
The Pacers went into Cleveland on Jan. 12 for the first game in a home-and-home series with the Cavaliers in a three-day period. At that point they'd run the table in January with wins in their first five games in the month. They had caught some injury luck, having just beaten the Warriors without Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins or Jonathan Kuminga, so the Cavaliers series seemed to be a test of their legitimacy as Cleveland had the NBA's best record at the time.
The game in Cleveland didn't start well as the Pacers fell behind 53-40 at halftime. Haliburton felt some tightness in his groin and didn't return for the second half of the game. With Haliburton out, the Pacers resolved to try to make a comeback with defensive pressure, and they put enough on the Cavs to make them wilt. The Pacers outscored the Cavs 68-40 in the second half, creating eight turnovers and turning them into 15 points while holding Cleveland to 11-of-39 shooting (28.2%) including 2-of-17 from beyond the arc.
"They just picked us up," Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. "They got into us. It was like full-court press that we didn't see a lot. Give Rick (Carlisle) credit. I mean it was really good strategy. We didn't handle the press well. We did not handle pressure well."
The Cavs won the following game in Indiana, but that game was a high point of a 10-2 January in which the Pacers finished fifth in the NBA in turnovers caused, seventh in scoring defense and third in the league in defensive rating. After they spent almost all of last season at the bottom of most defensive categories, it was a sign the Pacers were finally growing on that end. They finished 14th in the NBA in defensive rating after finishing 24th last season, and they were ninth in the league in the category from Jan. 1 on.
Aaron Nesmith's 35-game absence with an ankle injury allowed Bennedict Mathurin to get in as much of a rhythm as he's ever had in the NBA. The former No. 6 overall pick and first-team All-Rookie selection in 2022-23 has a top-of-the-line isolation scoring game, but he hasn't always fit in easy with a Pacers system that's based on constant ball movement and player movement. With Nesmith out, however, Mathurin had to start at small forward and made significant strides on both sides of the floor, making quick decisions on offense and playing the sturdiest defense of his career so far.
Considering what the Pacers have invested in Mathurin and how big of a decision they have coming as he becomes extension eligible this summer, Carlisle had a tough call on his hands when Nesmith returned in Jan. 16. Nesmith's style of play fits in better with the starters as he doesn't require the ball in his hands much, and at his best he's a better defender than Mathurin. However, Mathurin ultimately has a more complete offensive skill set and perhaps a higher ceiling on that end. For nearly a month after he returned to action, Nesmith stayed on the bench.
However, Carlisle eventually decided they wouldn't get the best out of Nesmith if he was coming off the bench and it would be better for this team's success even if it threw a wrench into longer-term plans. Carlisle shifted Nesmith back into the starting small forward role on Feb. 12. He didn't even score in his first game as a starter and had eight points the next night. However, he came back after the All-Star break rejuvenated and averaged 15.0 points per game on 52.2% shooting and 45.3% 3-point shooting.
In his first four seasons in the league, Tyrese Haliburton made himself available for just about every showcase he could take part in. He played in the FIBA World Cup in the summer of 2023 and the Olympics in 2024 for Team USA, and he took part in each of the first four All-Star weekends of his career. In his rookie year and second year, he played in the Rising Stars Challenge, and he made All-Star teams in his first two full seasons with the Pacers. In 2024 with the game in Indianapolis he was practically the "prom king" of the weekend as he put it with constant events as the game's effective host.
So in some ways it was a relief for Haliburton that he didn't make this year's All-Star Game with the ugly early part of his season holding him back. So instead of having to spend a week making appearances and playing in an oft-criticized exhibition, he went to Playa del Carmen, Mexico with his girlfriend to kick his feet up and watched "The Wire".
He came back rejuvenated and he's been a force since. In his first seven games after the break he averaged 23.9 points per game on 60% shooting including 54.5% from the arc with 12.0 assists per game against 1.1 turnovers. He missed some time with another injury and cooled off but still averaged 20.6 points and 11.0 assists after the All-Star break. That has led into a postseason in which he's averaged 18.8 points and 9.8 assists per game, hit three of the biggest shots in Pacers history and led them where just one Indiana team has ever been before.