The Indiana Pacers aren’t your typical NBA Finals team in many ways.
“Since I’ve been in the league, the NBA is very trendy. It shifts,” Myles Turner said after the Pacers won the Eastern Conference Finals, “but the new trend now is kind of what we’re doing—OKC does the same thing—young guys get out and run, defend, and use the power of friendship is how they call it.”
“We’re different from every other team in the NBA,” Tyrese Haliburton said before the conference finals. “We don’t just have one guy who scores all the points, I think we defeat teams in different ways.”
Collecting the three best star players that you can and then filling out enough of the roster with veteran role players has been increasingly difficult in this second-apron CBA. But beyond even just the team-building philosophy, the Pacers are doing something new on the court as they break from conventional wisdom, age-old clichés about the playoffs.
The game slows down in the postseason? Not if the Pacers have anything to say about it. If their opponent doesn’t get back on defense, Pascal Siakam or Obi Toppin are gone with strides like gazelles racing to the rim. Missed shot, made shot, it makes no difference. Indiana’s running and Tyrese Haliburton is always looking upcourt to advance the ball as fast as possible.
The team with the best player typically wins in the playoffs? Well, Giannis Antetokounmpo lost in five games. Then, Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley lost in five games. Then, Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns lost in six games. That’s two guys on the All-NBA First team, two guys on the second team, and one guy on the third team. The Pacers stars? Tyrese Haliburton was voted onto the All-NBA third team, but well behind KAT in total votes and Pascal Siakam, the Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP, got a grand total of four votes for third team among 100 ballots. While you can certainly make the argument for the Pacers stars over some of these players they’ve defeated, the general consensus has been that the Pacers are winning with the better team, rather than with the best player or even one of the two best players in the series.
Teams shorten their rotation in the playoffs? Rick Carlisle laughs at the thought. 12 players found themselves with rotation minutes in the conference finals and every single one of them delivered at some point against the New York Knicks to send their squad to the NBA FInals. The Pacers have often called their depth their superpower. They may not be a SUPER team but they are a super TEAM.
Obi Toppin.
Myles Turner.
Ben Sheppard.
T. J. McConnell.
Aaron Nesmith.
Thomas Bryant.
Andrew Nembhard.
Bennedict Mathurin.
Indiana's talented depth has helped secure their first Finals appearance in 25 years 🔥 pic.twitter.com/uHAnV3QNfs
— NBA (@NBA) June 2, 2025
That’s the most impressive thing about these Pacers, what really makes this group special. Thinking about the last era of Pacers teams that made trips to the conference finals only to fall short against the Miami Heat, the average minutes of the starters was each over 34.7 minutes per game in the conference finals with Paul George and Lance Stephenson each playing over 40 mpg. They had very little depth that they could rely on, playing just two guys over 10 minutes per game off the bench in C.J. Watson and Luis Scola. Only six guys averaged over 14 minutes per game overall throughout the playoffs.
The 2025 Indiana Pacers have 9 guys averaging at least 14 minutes per game in the playoffs and another two players nearly in double digits at 9.7 and 9.6 in Jarace Walker and Thomas Bryant. No starter averages more than 35.1 mpg. Rick Carlisle hasn’t been afraid to pull every lever, press every button in a rotation shift when the moment calls for it, and more rest allows the starters to continue to play at their breakneck speed without wearing down. Because of that, nearly every available player contributed to a win just in this prior series.
It was a full squad effort tonight for Indiana!
Toppin: 18 PTS, 6 REB, 3 BLK, 7-11 FGM
Nembhard: 14 PTS, 8 AST, 6 STL
Turner: 11 PTS, 4-6 FGM
Bryant: 11 PTS, 3 REB, 3 3PM
Nesmith: 10 PTS
The @Pacers clinch a Finals berth for the first time since 2000! pic.twitter.com/YfIe5s8e5J
— NBA (@NBA) June 1, 2025
Tony Bradley, a late-season addition from the G-League who no one expected to see minutes in the playoffs, ends up playing a critical role in dealing with the rebound machine Mitchell Robinson after Thomas Bryant struggled in the opening games.
Tony Bradley. Gotta feel amazing for a guy at the end of the bench with no real expectations to play to have his named called in the conference finals and deliver. pic.twitter.com/STBt0tjMEN
— iPacers.com (@iPacersblog) June 1, 2025
But Thomas Bryant would have his redemption, after Bradley was injured and limited, Bryant got his shot in Game 6 and he took full advantage. Making three corner 3-pointers on his way to a playoff career high of 11 points. Bryant, who the Pacers acquired for nearly nothing from the Heat in December, hit two triples in the third quarter and blocked an OG Anunoby layup after needing to enter the game with Myles Turner picking up his fourth foul with 10 minutes remaining in the third quarter.
“Thomas has an indomitable spirit, as a person and as a player,” Rick Carlisle said of the backup center. “Even when he’s not in the rotation, he’s over there in a defensive stance on the sidelines. He is into it and he is ready. He is ready. He’s had a flair for these moments.”
Always one of the most passionate and emotional players on the team, Bryant was soaking in the moment after the game slamming his fist on the scorer’s table with tears running down his face. This meant something to him. He won a ring with the Nuggets previously but didn’t really contribute on the floor.
Thomas Bryant was emotional after winning, hunched over at the scorer’s table, hit it a few times. Pascal Siakam came to talk to him for a bit. pic.twitter.com/nTJgtAyTho
— iPacers.com (@iPacersblog) June 1, 2025
“A lot of people—when things go left or they don’t get their way or they don’t get the playing time they want—they say they got ‘screwed over,’” Bryant told James Boyd of The Athletic after Game 6. “But that’s not always true. You still gotta stay resilient through it. I hope that people realize that I stayed resilient, and because of that, I was able to contribute and accomplish things that other people never thought I’d do.”
Jarace Walker hadn’t played in the first four games of the conference finals. Then in Game 5, he was one of very few bright spots in a putrid performance by the Pacers in a loss to the Knicks with solid moments of team defense and hitting open shots. In Game 6 he delivered again getting some minutes alongside the starting lineup in place of Aaron Nesmith while he was in foul trouble and playing over Bennedict Mathurin in the second half before a bad ankle injury occurred that will keep Walker from playing in at least the first two games of the NBA Finals.
Ben Sheppard got his first minutes in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals with 7:22 left in the fourth quarter and the Pacers chances on life support with the team down 16. Sheppard plays the next 7 minutes guarding the Knicks best player in Brunson, soaking up possessions that prevent both Nesmith and Nembhard from picking up fouls (they both finished overtime with 5) and doing just enough to help the Pacers make their miraculous comeback as they were +14 in their minutes before Nembhard replaced him with 22 seconds left. His presence also allowed Nesmith to get a few minutes of rest in the quarter as well which left him “fresh as a daisy” to score 20 points in the final five minutes of the game including six 3-pointers.
Obi Toppin didn’t have his best series against the Knicks but he was critical in both the opening game where he grabbed 10 rebounds and allowed the Pacers to play small down the stretch and in overtime and in the closing game where he scored 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting in the series clincher against his former team. He punctuated the performance with exclamation mark slams on a pick and roll and a lob finish on a baseline cut that served as a perfect kickoff to the party that was happening in the stands as the Pacers inched closer to their first NBA Finals appearance in 25 years.
Bennedict Mathurin had scored just 2 points total over 19 minutes of playing time in games two and three. Then he rediscovered his aggression and how to be himself within the team’s free-flowing, random system as he scored 20 points in just 12 minutes, becoming the first player in NBA history to score 20 points in that little amount of time. He was aggressive in attacking the rim, performed timely cuts to the rim, and drew a whole lot of fouls, shooting nearly a free throw per minute as he went 10 for 11 from the line. In Game 5, he was the Pacers only consistent source of offense, once again bullying his way to the rim to score or get fouled. He scored 23 points and added 9 rebounds.
While T.J. McConnell’s scoring effectiveness waned as time went on in the series after scoring 10-12 points in each of the first three games, he shot 53.8% from the floor for the series averaging 8 points while adding 3.2 assists and 3 rebounds in 15 mpg. An absolutely incredible photo after hitting a 3-pointer in Game 5 as he went by celebrity row in MSG, he followed that one with another 3-pointer in the third quarter of Game 6 that sent the crowd into a frenzy.
That’s 7 bench guys that all had their valuable contributions in the series. And we all know what the starters were able to do: Pascal Siakam put the team on his back in Game 2 and scored 30+ points in three of the Pacers wins, Tyrese Haliburton hit the choke sign in the first game after his game-tying shot bounced to the heavens and through the net and was historically unmatched with his nearly flawless Game 4, Aaron Nesmith turned into Reggie Miller in Game 1 while also being the team’s most consistent defender against Brunson, Andrew Nembhard played the best defensive game of his life in Game 6—and that’s saying something, and Myles Turner continues to lead the league in blocking shots in the playoffs while making the most of limited opportunities offensively in the series while making 56% of his shots.
“We’re the kind of team that needs a lot of heroes,” Carlisle said after Game 4 against the Milwaukee Bucks. “That’s the way we’re built. We’re built on depth. We’re built on camaraderie, a connected spirit.”
Safe to say they have a lot of heroes. And they’ll need everybody for this next challenge as they face off against an Oklahoma City Thunder team led by the MVP of the NBA and that only lost to an Eastern Conference team one time in the entire regular season, twice if you include the NBA Cup Championship. They haven’t lost to an opponent from the East at home since the Pacers beat them in March of 2024. Indiana may enter the Finals as the biggest underdog in over 20 years.
But with how these playoffs have gone, doubt the Indiana Pacers at your own risk. No one else might have expected them to be here but they did. They knew this was possible.
Myles Turner said he thought it was possible starting when the whole team got together before last season in Nashville, prior to acquiring Pascal Siakam, and continued that belief with every player consistently showing up on off days to get work in.
“We just get working and get better day after day after day. This is just a combination of everybody’s hard work,” Nesmith, who thought the group was special as soon as he was traded to the Pacers, told Tony East of Forbes.
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