Pacers are making people believe as they had back to Eastern Conference finals

New York Times

14-05-2025

CLEVELAND — A chorus of laughter and jokes, with Jay-Z's 'On to the Next One' playing, filled the visitors' locker room at Rocket Arena.
The Indiana Pacers rapped along, hugging and dapping each other. They hadn't been favored in a single game in their Eastern Conference semifinals series against the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, but it didn't matter.
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'I don't care about the attention; what matters to me is the guys in the locker room,' Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. 'Attention, this time of year can be a curse. We can't start reading our press clippings. We can't start doing that stuff.'
This team cares little about outside noise. It's creating something captivating in the NBA. After defeating the Cavaliers 114-105 on Tuesday night in Game 5, Indiana is headed back to the Eastern Conference finals for the second consecutive season.
Cleveland got off to a hot start as the Pacers looked out of sync on offense. Indiana trailed 31-19 at the end of the first quarter, making just 7 of 22 field goals and 1 of 8 3-pointers. In the second quarter, Indiana fell behind by 19 points until Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton helped orchestrate a comeback, hitting all five of his 3-point attempts. A 27-9 run by Indiana sent them into halftime down just four with the game's momentum.
'I thought we didn't start the game with enough fight, enough boxing out … little things,' Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith said. 'We were able to flip a switch and chip away little by little in that second quarter. We were able to make a run, and we kept going.'
Indiana came back for the second half with force, going on a 26-5 run in the final minutes of the third quarter. The Pacers, though up in the series, played like their season was on the line. They were aggressive, attacking and explosive.
Haliburton, who had mostly been quiet in the previous two games, had 24 points with 12 minutes to play. He'd been taunted with chants of 'overrated' from opposing teams during the playoffs, but Haliburton helped silence the Cleveland crowd.
In the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers found their offense and clawed their way back, relying heavily on their star Donovan Mitchell. With less than six minutes left, the Cavs made it a two-point game. But Indiana ensured there would be no Game 6 in Indianapolis.
With 23 seconds left to play, Myles Turner hit a 3-pointer to make it a nine-point game, and Cleveland fans headed toward the exits.
CLUTCH.
Myles Turner sealed the series with this three with less than 24 seconds remaining. pic.twitter.com/4dF8FaSeDr
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) May 14, 2025
'We're just different than every other team,' Haliburton said. 'We don't just have one guy who scores all the points. We defeat teams in different ways. We move the ball. Got a lot of different guys making shots, making plays, but we've preached our depth for the last couple of years.
'And it's paying off now. I had a great game, but I think a big part of that was guys finding me, putting me in the right spots.'
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The Pacers shot 50 percent from the field and 42.9 percent (15 of 35) beyond the arc. All five starters finished with double digits. Haliburton scored 31 points and added eight assists and six rebounds — the first 30-point game for a Pacers player in this year's playoffs. Pascal Siakam added 21 with eight rebounds. Andrew Nembhard finished with 18 points. Nesmith, who was huge for the Pacers on the glass, had 12 points and 13 rebounds. Thomas Bryant threw down a couple of big dunks off the bench, which added 21 points.
'I just gotta give it to my teammates for just keeping that trust in me and just having me out there,' Bryant said. 'The resiliency that we show. We're a close team, and every time everybody doubts us, we … just figure out a way.'
Carlisle once said his team is one without a singular hero, and the performance of the Pacers' bench is a testament to that. Depth is what makes this team special. The Pacers have shown that any of them can create their shots while wreaking havoc on the other end of the floor. They use their 'wear-down effect' to speed up the game and make teams uncomfortable. They fly around the court, creating chaos and mismatches on offense while being pests on defense.
Indiana is peaking at the right time. It was 16-18 on Dec. 31 and finished 50-32, going 34-14 in the final 48 games to gain the No. 4 seed. That was the fourth-best record since Jan. 1 behind the Oklahoma City Thunder (41-9), Boston Celtics (37-12) and Cleveland Cavaliers (35-14).
'It's a special feeling,' Haliburton said. 'I'm not going to sit here and talk like I got so many years of experience. I'm in my fifth year. But something I've learned from my vets, and just being in the NBA for enough time, is not to take winning for granted. This is a special time, back-to-back Eastern Conference finals. We're not done. We still got a ways to go.'
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Last season, the Pacers defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 4-2 in the first round when the Bucks were without an injured Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard missed two games. Indiana then bested a banged-up New York Knicks squad in seven games in the second round before falling to the eventual champion Celtics in the conference finals.
Now they're using that sweep by the Celtics to fuel them as they head back.
'Everybody believes we should have been in this spot again, and now we're here,' Nesmith said. 'And we're ready to take advantage.'
Indiana awaits the winner of the Celtics-Knicks series, which New York leads 3-1. Game 5 is Wednesday night in Boston.
After handily taking down the 64-win Cavaliers, winning three games on the road, the Pacers are just four wins away from making the franchise's first NBA Finals appearance in 25 years.
'The league is wide open this year,' Carlisle said. 'We've just got to keep believing. '
More people are starting to believe in this team without any big names.
'World can't hold me, too much ambition. Always knew it'd be like this when I was in the kitchen,' the Pacers rapped along with Jay-Z in their locker room.
Now they're on to the next one.
(Photo of Tyrese Haliburton and Aaron Nesmith: Ken Blaze / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)