The Indiana Pacers are already staring at a brutal climb, and the road ahead looks even steeper than the one they’ve just been trying to navigate.
A season that began with a pile of injuries has left Indiana scrambling to get whole again. The team was down to just six active players at one point, and that kind of damage has already warped what looked like a manageable opening schedule. Instead of banking wins against presumed rebuilding teams and softer competition, the Pacers have stumbled to a 3-6 start.
Saturday’s game against the Denver Nuggets in Mexico City is no small task, but it’s only the beginning of what comes next. After that, Indiana still has the Dallas Mavericks and the Washington Wizards before the real punishment starts.
Three games from now, the Pacers enter a stretch that borders on absurd: seven straight games against contenders in just 14 days.
That run opens with a back-to-back against the New York Knicks on November 14th and the Philadelphia 76ers on November 15th, then brings the Houston Rockets on the 19th. The Rockets have likely been the most impressive team in the league through the first handful of games, which only adds to the difficulty.
From there, Indiana gets three games in four nights. It starts in Cleveland on the 21st against the Cavaliers, then shifts to Madison Square Garden for another meeting with the Knicks, before the Pacers return home for a double-header against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are admittedly hugely injured. The stretch closes with another matchup against the Sixers.
There’s a narrow path where this doesn’t spiral. If the Pacers handle the next three games at their best level, they could enter that gauntlet at 6-6, right around .500, and still have something to work with.
But if things go sideways and Indiana goes into that run at 5-7 or even 4-8, the damage could snowball fast. By the end of it, the Pacers could be sitting nearly 10 games under .500.
It’s still early enough that no one is talking about a season being lost, but this is about as ugly as it gets this early. And the bad news doesn’t stop there: December is only easier, not easy.
For Indiana, the hole is already there. The next question is whether they can keep it from getting deeper.
In Other News...
Pacers Suddenly Have A Real Quenton Jackson Rotation Problem
Quenton Jackson has turned into one of the more useful pieces in the Pacers backcourt while Indiana has been navigating the absences of TJ McConnell and Tyrese Haliburton. He has given the team real minutes as a perimeter defender, brought scoring off the bench and taken on more playmaking responsibility than many expected when the season started.
Now the tricky part is what happens when the backcourt gets healthier. Jackson has done enough to make a stronger case for a steady rotation spot, and the Pacers will have to decide whether his recent value is temporary cover or something worth preserving in a deeper role once the injured guards are back. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Suddenly Face A Bigger Problem Than One Ugly Loss
The Pacers have spent the early part of the season trying to survive without Tyrese Haliburton, and the offense has shown the strain. Indianas 3-7 start has been shaped as much by the absence of its top engine as by any single bad night, leaving the group searching for rhythm while the schedule only gets tougher from here.
What makes the next stretch so important is that it wont just test the Pacers depth, it could also sharpen the conversation around where this season is headed if the offense keeps sputtering. Several strong opponents are coming up, and how Indiana handles that run, along with how Haliburtons recovery progresses, will go a long way toward defining the teams outlook. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Showed Fight In Mexico City But One Problem Won Again
The Pacers left Mexico City with the same result on the scoreboard, but not the same feel as some of their earlier rough nights. Indiana dug itself into trouble in the first half with shaky three-point shooting and too many turnovers, then showed enough resilience to make the game interesting after the break against Denver. Pascal Siakam was part of the push, and the group around him found enough energy to turn a lopsided night into a competitive one for stretches.
TJ McConnells season debut gave Indiana another ballhandler to work with, and the Pacers needed every bit of that help as they tried to steady themselves against a Nuggets team that kept finding answers. Larry Nance Jr. and Ivica Zubac were among the names in the mix as the Pacers searched for a cleaner rhythm, but the same issue kept surfacing at the wrong times. Indianas fight was real, yet the recurring problem that hurt them early was still there when the comeback ran out of room. [Read more 🡒]