In the midst of what has been a nightmarish 2025-26 NBA campaign, the defending Eastern Conference champion Indiana Pacers may finally be seeing the light.
Indiana, which is on a season-high three-game winning streak, hosts the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night in Indianapolis.
The Pacers are battling New Orleans, Sacramento and Washington for the league’s worst record, and they currently sit in the Eastern Conference cellar.
Without star Tyrese Haliburton, who ruptured his right Achilles tendon in Game 7 of last season’s NBA Finals defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Pacers lost 13 of their first 14 games.
The nightmares didn’t end there. After going a respectable 5-5 in their next 10 games, Indiana went a full month without a victory, leaving Rick Carlisle stuck on 999 career wins.
He finally became the 11th coach to reach 1,000 victories last week in a 114-112 victory at Charlotte, and Indiana has since defeated Miami and Boston. Monday night’s 98-96 victory over the Celtics, thanks to Pascal Siakam’s 7-foot bank shot with 6.8 seconds left, is the team’s best of the season.
Siakam, a former Raptor and three-time All-Star who was named the MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals last spring, has persevered through this 9-31 campaign. He leads the Pacers with 23.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.3 steals.
“He epitomizes versatility at that position,” Carlisle said. “For a power forward or a four man or however you want to label that position, it’s not just scoring, rebounding, defense — it’s also ball-handling and playmaking … A great deal of responsibility falls on him. He’s just been so graceful with everything he’s accepted.”
In the visiting Raptors, Indiana is facing a team that’s struggled the last several weeks after an early-season nine-game win streak propelled them up the Eastern Conference ladder. They currently sit fourth in the conference standings.
Toronto dropped a 115-102 decision to Philadelphia on Monday, allowing the 76ers to score 80 first-half points.
Immanuel Quickley had 18 points while Brandon Ingram, the team’s leading scorer, added 17 points on just 5-of-15 shooting to go with 10 rebounds and seven assists.
Scottie Barnes, the reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week, had 15 points. Barnes, who was also named the Eastern Conference Defensive Player of the Month for October/November, averaged 22 points, 6.3 rebounds and six assists as the Raptors went 3-1 last week.
The Raptors finished a combined 54 games below .500 the past two seasons, so third-year coach Darko Rajakovic is taking this year’s highs and lows in stride.
“Obviously, we’re making significant strides. Players individually are getting better,” Rajakovic said after Monday night’s loss. “There’s a lot of reason for us to look back and be satisfied with what we’ve achieved, but that doesn’t change the fact that we need to go another 42 games … so we need to constantly be hungry and humble.”
Toronto won the first two games between the teams, posting both victories over a 12-day span in the middle of November.
–Field Level Media
