Tyrese Haliburton mobbed by the rest of the Indiana Pacers players
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 21: Tyrese Haliburton #0 of the Indiana Pacers is congratulated by his teammates after scoring a game-tying basket against the New York Knicks as time expires in the fourth quarter in Game One of the Eastern Conference Finals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Madison Square Garden on May 21, 2025 in New York City. User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
You need look no further at which teams were expected to come out of the NBA’s Eastern Conference in the 2024-25 season than at ESPN.com’s experts picks. The Indiana Pacers were not one of them.
With 11 of their analysts each charged with the task of picking the Conference Semi-Finals series winners, between the Pacers versus the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks versus the Boston Celtics, they all got every single pick wrong. A collective 0-22 shooting night. Five worse than Tim Hardaway Sr’s all-time futility record.
Both teams, clearly, have been underappreciated. But with the Pacers now up two games to none over the Knicks in the resultant Conference Finals series headed into tonight’s Game Three, with both victories coming on the road, they have quite emphatically stated their case to legitimate championship contendership. They really are that good.
How Did The Pacers Get Here?
It bears repeating that the Pacers were in the Eastern Conference Finals last season as well. This is not a team that came out of nowhere. The floor for this season was already high.
What the Pacers have done, though, is raise the ceiling. And they have done so through internal development and emphatic team buy-in, rather than make further acquisitions.
Indiana’s 2024-25 rotation and roster are nigh-on identical to last season’s. Aside from replacing Jalen Smith and Doug McDermott with Tony Bradley and Thomas Bryant as frontcourt depth, and tweaking their two-way contract players, it is the identical Pacers team to last season. They just got better at being themselves.
Having Pascal Siakam for a full season as opposed to just a few months is a big help. Acquired from the Toronto Raptors at the 2024 trade deadline raised the Pacers’ ceiling considerably, and a full season of offensive integration has seen the Pacers add a versatile presence at what was already their best end. The Pacers finished ninth in the NBA this regular season in offensive rating, after finishing second in 2023-24, and have taken it to another level in the playoffs, where they rank second once again.
The Pacers have plenty of outside shooters. Siakam, starting centre Myles Turner, three-and-D wing Aaron Nesmith and superstar guard Tyrese Haliburton are all above-average shooters for their positions, and their multiple playmaker line-ups involving Haliburton, Siakam and either Andrew Nembhard or T.J. McConnell capitalise regularly on all that spacing. Whereas the Knicks have too often at times relied upon the individual brilliance of Jalen Brunson – who has overdribbled as a result, despite his scoring – the Pacers’ “organised chaos” offence under Rick Carlisle prioritises pace, ball movement and player movement more than a quota of opportunities for any individual.
Defense Wins Championships
What separates the Conference Finals Pacers of last season and the Conference Finals Pacers of this season, however, is the defensive end.
Despite having almost entirely the same personnel, Indiana’s team defence has improved markedly. Last year’s team ranked a lowly 24th in the NBA in defensive rating, but this year, that has improved to 13th. And the buy-in comes from everyone.
McConnell is noted as a defensive whirlwind at the one position he can play, and Nembhard has truly emerged on that end at the guard positions. Turner is a quality rim protector, and Nesmith embodies the three-and-D profile perhaps as well as anybody in the NBA today, especially with his record-setting shooting barrage in Game One. Yet a more consistent effort from all personnel has been at the crux of their improvement. The high pace at which Indiana plays can be tiring on the legs, and players tend to recuperate on the less-glamorous end, but that has been less of the case this year, and the Pacers’ regular starting five has not a bad defender amongst it.
The common refrain states that the NBA Playoffs are about match-ups. When it comes to match-ups, however, the Pacers now have the personnel to hang with anybody. More pertinently, they are very hard to stop going the other way, with their barrage of shooting, passing and pace attack. The Indiana Pacers are a legitimate NBA title contender since the Team That Never Was back in 2004-05, and while the Knicks are certainly still in the series, it is they who will have to change things.