The Indiana Pacers are back on the floor Tuesday, November 10th, and the timing could hardly be worse. At 3-7, they’re trying to stop a season that’s already slipping fast, and the next two weeks look downright punishing. Indiana’s upcoming run includes the Dallas Mavericks and the Washington Wizards, and if the Pacers can’t handle those two “easy” games, a rough start could turn into a hole that’s too deep to climb out of.
Dallas, though, doesn’t look like the kind of opponent Indiana can treat lightly. The Mavericks have been playing well, and they’re getting it done with a pair of stars at very different points in their careers: Kyrie Irving and Cooper Flagg.
Flagg has brought more than the expected scoring and playmaking. The buzz around him entering the league centered on his star potential, but this season has also shown the parts of his game that usually belong to role players.
His nonstop effort to chase loose balls and create extra possessions has helped turn Dallas into a surprisingly strong transition team. Whether that comes from youth, from forcing live-ball turnovers, or from constant work on the glass, Flagg has been the engine behind it.
Then there’s Irving, still producing at a high level at age 34. He’s averaging 21.4 points per game while playing under 30 minutes a night, and he’s doing it after returning from a torn ACL to a team that shifted from contention to rebuild. Even with that change in circumstances, Irving has kept his production right where it’s been.
Dallas also has other pieces worth noting, including Naji Marshall, Daniel Gafford, and rookie Morez Johnson, but the Mavericks are more than just a collection of names. They’re good enough to bother anybody, and with Indiana in its current state, overlooking them would be a mistake.
In Other News...
Pacers Injury Crunch Could Force A Rotation Move Soon
Indianas injury pileup has started to reshape the conversation around the roster, and it has pushed outside voices to suggest the Pacers may need to act sooner rather than later. NBA analyst Dan Favale recently floated Ochai Agbaji as a possible addition, pointing to the teams need for another body as it waits on Tyrese Haliburton and Ivica Zubac, both of whom are dealing with uncertain return timelines.
Agbaji would not be arriving as a mystery. He has already bounced around this season after being waived twice, and his recent stops with the Raptors and Nets at least give him some familiarity with the grind of filling in on the fly. For Indiana, the question is less about pedigree than timing, because the current stretch could force a rotation move if the injuries linger and the depth chart keeps thinning. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Get A Chance To Answer Dallas After That Ugly Opener
The Pacers get another crack at Dallas after a first meeting that left plenty of bad blood and even more room for improvement. Indiana was handled in the previous matchup, and the game also featured the flagrant foul incident involving Aaron Nesmith and Cooper Flagg, a moment that added edge to a result the Pacers would rather forget. Now the focus shifts to the rematch, with both teams dealing with a mix of injuries and rest decisions that could shape how the night unfolds.
For Indiana, this is less about settling scores than proving the earlier showing was not the standard. The Pacers have had time to sort through what went wrong, and the rematch offers a cleaner chance to measure themselves against a Dallas team that already made a statement once. With availability still in flux on both sides, the game carries the feel of a reset, but it also gives Indiana a chance to show that the opener was an outlier rather than a preview. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Fans Can Take One Small Comfort From This Brutal Start
The Pacers rough opening has been made even harder to absorb by the injury pileup around the roster, leaving Indiana at 3-7 and searching for any sign that the season can steady itself. In that kind of stretch, it is natural to look for a little perspective, and one place it comes from is the departure of Myles Turner, whose exit to Milwaukee was supposed to reshape the conversation around both teams.
Instead, the move has not gone the way the Bucks hoped, and Turners deal has quickly become a cautionary tale around the league. For Pacers fans, the small comfort is obvious: while Indiana has its own problems to solve, the team is not the one carrying one of the NBAs most damaging contracts, and the long view on Turners departure looks a lot different now than it did when he left. [Read more 🡒]