Indiana secured its 6th win in a row and its 12th in 15 games, jumping Milwaukee and Miami for the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Indiana Pacers struggled in the early weeks of the 2024-25 NBA season, looking a far cry from the team that had reached the Eastern Conference Finals just one season ago.
However, Indiana has turned things as the season nears its halfway point. Led by the stellar play of Tyrese Haliburton and an excellent supporting cast, the Pacers are in the midst of a six-game winning streak and are tied with the Sacramento Kings for the best record in the league over that stretch.
While Halibuton is averaging 21.0 points and 9.8 assists during the current win streak, it’s been a total team effort for the Pacers, with numbers to back it up.
The Pacers rank second in net rating during their winning streak with a 15.0 mark, trailing only the Oklahoma City Thunder (16.7) in that category. This is the best measure of how good the Pacers have been on both ends of the court in recent weeks, as they lead the league in offensive rating (121.5) and rank second in defensive rating (106.5) behind the Thunder. The most significant difference is that the Thunder are built to be a defensive juggernaut while the Pacers’ performance on that end of late is a bit more unexpected.
The key difference is that the Thunder are an established defensive juggernaut, while the Pacers’ performance on that end is a bit more unexpected.
The offensive numbers don’t tell the whole story, though. When digging a bit deeper, we can see that Indiana also ranks seventh in assist percentage (67.6), first in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.74), third in assist ratio (21.7), second in defensive rebound percentage (75.9) and tied for second in total rebound percentage (53.2) during that span. The Pacers also lead the league in turnover percentage with a mere 11.6% and are sixth in effective field goal percentage with 57.2%. They’re doing this by grinding teams down and making the most of their possessions (Indiana ranks 19th in pace).
On Sunday, the Pacers ruled Haliburton out coming out of halftime of their matchup against the Cavs due to left hamstring tightness. Indiana secured a 108-93 win over Cleveland, snapping the Cavs’ 12-game winning streak.
It’s unclear if the Pacers will be able to sustain these numbers if Halburton is forced to miss time, which could very well be the case given the nature of the injury, However, the Pacers have found a way to build an impressive stretch based on efficient shooting (50.5% from the floor) and elite defense.
Their sustained improvement since the season’s early weeks suggests the Pacers could become a nightmare matchup for top teams in the second half of the regular season.
