At the presser after a hard fought game against the bucks (in which he had 20 pts and 13 reb, 6 straight to cut it to 3) Pascal was talking about boxouts as a way of protecting the boards from crashes on rebounds. That's the first time I have seen him say anything about defensive strategy ever and I think he meant it.

Anyway, Haliburton had this crazy thing wrapped up around his quad last night on the bike. He is not doing that as an image. This team is Pascal's until further notice.

I want to see Q in all the way as point, Nesmith doing a Mathurin impression with fewer isos, and Walker handling Huff passes with finesse. If Spicy P can pull this off, orchestrating greatness with all possible injuries in play (still leaving hope of a win) I say his name belongs in the rafters.

Just remembered I had this picture.

Best plate ever?

According to Grok, In 2022, a rapper named “Babytron” tweeted at Myles Turner asking “ARE YOU EVER GOING TO MAKE AN ALLSTAR TEAM” To which Myles responded “No 🧢 I have no idea who you are and you ain’t bad… wager sumn. I make an all star team or you get a billboard top 10 single. Put $100k on it 🤝.”

Babytron ended up getting a top 10 single recently and pulled up to Pacers Bucks game yesterday to try and get the $100K Myles rightfully owes him.

Hello guys! New Nba fan over here all the way from Portugal. I started watching random games in march 2026 but always felt like I didnt like any of teams. So I came to the conclusion I wanted my team, a team to root for and to follow their games. I dont know why and how i got to the Indiana Pacers but here I am... So you guys are now the team I support.

I just wanted to know what are your expectations or what do you think of the current roster just to catch up more to the team and to understand some dynamics... (Players injured that I may not know, recent team problems/Unlucky moments are also welcome).

Every little detail would be welcome, so that I can form a better opinion on us.

Thanks and sorry if I mispelled some of my words, as English is not my main language.

"I wanna die"

Andrew Nembhard commented: 😂😂😂 rickyy

Did anyone else like our offense more with huff out there compared to zubac? I know we still lost but I liked the pace more and the flowitity more

4 games, 2-2, injuries, best player getting back into game shape. It has not been perfect at all, and there are lots of questions, but this team and front office have earned a little grace and patience from us.

The bench needs some work, but half the league can not be traded right now. Oubre plus Jarace's salary could net us a decent bench piece.

Love this team and I feel confident they will grow.

Random Thoughts from behind the Pacers bench:

1. That was one of the strangest atmospheres I've ever seen for a game. I bet at the end of the day there were probably 4,000 people there in a 17,000 seat stadium. There were entire portions of the 200 level with less than 20 people in it. I've never been to a major sporting event that was that empty.

2. Ware is a better player than Turner right now, but they're going to play Turner because of that contract. That said, a dude like Ware is an absolute matchup nightmare for this Pacers team. We don't have anyone to match up against a guy like that. His speed around the rim killed the Pacers.

3. On the offensive rebounding issue, Milwaukee was just crashing the boards faster and harder.

4. Hali looked exhausted from the third quarter on. When he wasn't in the game he had ice on his hamstring and was on the bike.

5. It felt like a couple of the players were frustrated with the substitution patterns last night. At least once, I think twice, Rick called for Slawson and ended up putting someone else in.

6. We really missed Nembhard as a second ball handler once Rollins started picking up Hali full court. Q allowed the D to sag more than Nembhard would.

7. You could just tell that they were worn down in the second half last night. They were going to live or die by the three in that second half because I don't think they had the legs to take it to the hoop. A frustrating loss, but I have to give the Bucks credit. They didn't pack it in when they went down 10, and under the circumstances they really could have.

Edit

1. One more thing to add. Rick huddled with his assistant coaches for about a full minute before he pulled all the starters and put in the bench. I don't know if he was sending a message but it sure felt like it.

I have two and can't go. If you can go, and especially if you are taking a kid to the game, please let me know and ill transfer the tix.🤙

watching the Milwaukee Brewers cake-walking their way to a World Series title has been quite fun, even though I'm a Cubs fan... the way they play reminds of the Pacers. You don't need the biggest payroll to win a chip.

Stating with wanting to plan for the future, ended up drafting as a fan 😅

Is Rick too rigid? I feel that adhering strictly to that time limit cost us what was actually a nice close game until late, given our available lineup. I've seen Haliburton and Nesmith ward off the teams many times in those last minutes (or if not Nesmith, Haliburton and Nembhard).

I wonder actually if coach sacrificed a game to make a point. No one other than Nesmith and Nembhard is capable of stepping up and directing traffic with Ty at this point. Maybe offensively, but even there....

The dead stare answer by Rick at the presser, pure silence for 20 seconds, to the question on Nesmith's minutes was classic. Followed by the informative, "He's got a 20 minute limit. At least as of today he does." I fully expect to see Hali, Nesmith, Nembhard, and hopefully Zu by next game and then we can assess how this season going.

Pascal thinks that it is as simple as boxing out opponents on rebounds, especially when they tag team and crash at the same time.

Another theory, after watching the short Myles interview, is that he is actually mentoring these young guys on the Bucks like he did in Indy. There is not much Nesmith can do about that per se (before long, we may need a couple young legs—when is Furphy expected back?)

1. We have a great starting big man, then we have a solid 3rd string big man (Huff), and finally we have a guy who should be playing in the Big 3 (Nance).

2. Jarace Walker has not shown anywhere near enough for me to stick around. The good news he has a nice $8mil contract that is very tradeable and very expiring.

3. I'm slightly concerned about TJ, I know we are looking for that next guard via the draft. First with Kam Jones and now Braden Smith, but I feel like we need to have a look at players already in the league.

4. James Johnson will fix everything when he signs his standard non-guaranteed deal in early November.

Once TJ is back and drew + nesmith + Zu are fully healthy so Kelly and Jay come of the bench I’ll feel a lot better, but we’re carrying so much dead weight right now and even once we’re fully healthy I feel like our team isn’t quite as deep as I’d like it to be. Q and Slawson have been great, so much hustle and fight in those two, but they’re not consistent at all on offense, Q shooting 39% from the field and Slawson only 2ppg. Just not good enough offensively for 2nd stringers on a championship contender. Their contributions are mostly on the defensive side of the ball and that would be fine except the bench goes downhill from here offensively and the offense is where we’re struggling right now. As a team we’ve only shot over 30% from three once this season. I want to give Jarace more time but we really don’t have much of it. His defense hasn’t been good, hes shooting below 30% from the field this season and his playmaking and passing aren’t nearly as good as in preseason. He does absolutely nothing for us. Larry Nance Jr has been straight buns this season. Starters have been good but the bench outside of Obi has been so lackluster and the shooting has been abysmal so far which is a huge problem for a team that got to the finals on elite 3 point shooting and depth and is trying to run it back with the same game plan. Our guys can’t hit wide open shots. Hali would be averaging 17 assists rn if they could. Maybe it’s just a slow start and we’ll bounce back (I know we started slow in 2025) or maybe Rick is working some developmental magic, but I’m sick to my stomach right now watching everyone shoot 30% from the field outside our top 4 guys. Are y’all worried or am I overreacting

I have zero doubt that they’ll make the post season and make it far but I think the team could use some more depth who would you guys want and who do you think we could realistically get?

He definitely had some lapses in the 2nd half. Poor shooting night but that was everyone.

His stat like was 10/8/2/2/2

I thought he played good defense. Did really well when he was assigned Herro. He needs to attack close outs with more assertiveness. But overall I though he earned his minutes tonight looked good. I don't understand the critics tonight.

My friends think I’m stupid for this, but I firmly believe that after that finals loss Myles Turner said to the pacers players “Look guys, I’m not as good as I once was. You know if I know it. So I’m gonna sign a massive deal with Milwaukee so that they have to pay me way too much money.”

Cut to now; Giannis is gone. Bobby Portis is gone. Gary Harris is gone. Not superstars, but seriously not a good situation for them. It was a self sacrifice. I get it, he could have never paid for a meal in Indy for the rest of his life if he stayed, but the bucks are screwed.

Am I wrong? Is he just greedy for more Lego sets?

I member

Feels like OKC players are breaking down after going through 2-3 years of deep playoff (Finals and Conference Finals) runs. Especially with their style of play, the wear and tear is bound to make them brittle, especially trying their best to come back and not fully recovering because the team is making run.

I remember last year when we still believed that "the standard is the standard" , and knew we couldn't afford to have Andrew Nembhard injured, because he was the closest PG we have to Hali, then he gets injured during the 1st game against OKC, which starts the domino effect of injuries that followed.

A Golden State fan mentioned that their team went through the same thing in 2019-20, after KD left, Klay tore his ACL, and Steph broke his hand at the beginning of the season. They decided to tank shortly after that.

The other team that was also in those deep playoff runs (conference finals and finals) was the Knicks, but since they don't play with the same defensive / offensive intensity as the Pacers or Thunder and they don't run as much, maybe they're not as battered. 🤷🏻‍♀️

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Anyway, the growing list of injuried players at the beginning of the season is worrying, to the extent that I breath a sigh of relief when we get through a game with no injuries.