The Pacers’ trip to face the Hawks on Sunday night offers a clean basketball test: whose fast break really travels better?
This is not a rivalry game, and it is not a rematch of some defining playoff battle. But it does have a mirror-image feel, much like Indiana’s first preseason game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Atlanta gives the Pacers a team built to stress the same part of the floor Indiana values most.
Both clubs lean hard into transition. For the Hawks, that urgency is tied to a roster full of non-shooters, which makes half-court offense harder to sustain. They have to turn live-ball chances into layups and cleaner looks from deep to keep the offense moving.
For Indiana, the fast break is less of a survival tactic and more of a reflection of Tyrese Haliburton’s gifts. He is the engine and the artist there, creating transition chances for teammates by seeing passes and lanes that other players simply do not. The Pacers’ best open-floor offense is really Haliburton’s talent turned into team basketball.
The personnel around him has shifted, though. Atlanta has added more shooting in Aaron Wiggins and more slower-paced players this offseason, most notably Lu Dort, who was an offensive anchor for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Indiana, meanwhile, has added Ivica Zubac.
Zubac may have been the best center available from a pure talent standpoint, but he also makes the Pacers slower. So if the first preseason game raised the question of whether Indiana can handle another team running its offense through the point guard, this one asks something different: who can play faster, and who can operate best in the open court?
Atlanta arrives with some real defensive answers for Haliburton, too. The Hawks can throw Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Dyson Daniels at him, and both are among the league’s better perimeter defenders. Lu Dort adds another tough option, and the bench has pieces that can compete as well.
And the rest of the Hawks’ roster brings more punch. Jalen Johnson is the closest thing to Pascal Siakam in the NBA, while Onyeka Okongwu is the kind of center many would have wanted the Pacers to get before Zubac. Zubac is the better player, but Okongwu would have fit better.
In Other News...
Tyrese Haliburtons Return Just Hit An Early Pacers Concern
Tyrese Haliburtons long-awaited return to NBA preseason action had the look of an important checkpoint for the Pacers, especially after he had been sidelined for nearly 16 months. The excitement in Indianapolis was easy to understand, with Haliburton back on the floor and the team trying to ease him into game action as it builds toward the regular season.
But the first step back came with a scare when Haliburton picked up a mild right ankle injury, enough for Rick Carlisle to rule him out of the upcoming preseason game against the Atlanta Hawks. The encouraging part for Indiana is that MRI results did not show any serious issue, including anything involving the Achilles, and the team is hoping he can get back to practice Monday and move toward playing again soon. [Read more 🡒]
Haliburton And Zubac Could Decide Indianas New Offensive Ceiling
Tyrese Haliburton is back in Indiana after spending the better part of two years rehabbing an Achilles tear, and his return changes the Pacers offensive conversation immediately. In the meantime, the roster around him has shifted too, with Myles Turner gone and Ivica Zubac now in the fold, giving Indiana a very different kind of frontcourt partner to pair with its point guard.
What makes that fit so interesting is that it is not just about talent, but about whether the two can meet in the middle stylistically. Haliburton has long been at his best when the ball is moving and the floor is open, while Zubac brings a more traditional interior presence, and Indianas next offensive jump may depend on how smoothly those instincts mesh once the games start to matter again. [Read more 🡒]