3 smart decisions the Pacers made to get to the 2025 NBA Finals

USA Today

2 days ago

3 smart decisions the Pacers made to get to the 2025 NBA Finals
The Indiana Pacers have surpassed expectations by winning the Eastern Conference to earn a spot in the 2025 NBA Finals. But how did they get here?
Many basketball fans know about the trade that sent Domantas Sabonis to the Kings in exchange for Tyrese Haliburton. Their move to sign Bruce Brown and then trade him for Pascal Siakam was incredibly savvy as well. However, since then, the Pacers have only continued to ascend in the East.
Rick Carlisle is a wildly clever coach who has maneuvered very well during his time leading NBA franchises, and explaining exactly what decisions they have made to get here would take quite a long time. But here just a few notable examples.
1. Playing with Pace
This is an objectively funny place to start considering that "pace" is literally in the team name for Indiana's franchise.
But playing fast is something that is very important to the identity of the Pacers and it's part of why their offense is so successful. They averaged 2.65 seconds per touch in the regular season, which was the quickest of any team in the league.
Here is more from Dan Devine (via Yahoo Sports):
"The Pacers like to push the ball up the court after makes or misses, hunting leakouts and hit-aheads at every opportunity. When they can't advance the ball with touchdown passes, they just sprint with the dribble, looking to get into their first action as early as possible."
Indiana is going to move fast and they are going to make you pay for it.
2. Efficient shot selection
The Pacers are not one of the teams that shoot the most 3-pointers in the NBA.
But in the postseason, they are the most accurate and are thus far the only team shooting better than 40.0 percent from beyond the arc. They have several players who are unafraid to fire it from deep including Aaron Nesmith, Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, Pascal Siakam, and Myles Turner.
That allows them to spread the floor and play five-out in the Rick Carlisle-led offense, which makes them difficult to beat.
3. Andrew Nembhard defending the best opposing player
Indiana's Andrew Nembhard leads the league in opposing matchup difficulty, per BBall-Index.
Already in the playoffs he has had the task of attempting to slow Donovan Mitchell as well as Jalen Brunson and Damian Lillard, via NBA.com. Mitchell was just 3-of-18 on 3-pointers when Nembhard was credited as the primary defender in the postseason. Brunson was 1-of-7 from beyond the arc while Lillard was 1-of-7.
While he was not even considered a defensive presence when he was in college at Gonzaga, he is now one of the most important players in the league on that end of the floor.