{"id":136635,"date":"2025-04-28T10:35:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T14:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=136635"},"modified":"2025-04-28T10:38:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T14:38:41","slug":"indiana-pacers-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/28\/indiana-pacers-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Look Now, But the Pacers Might Be the Deepest Playoff Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Indiana Pacers<\/a> finished the regular season as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. Despite finishing fourth, many people disregarded them and favored the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs. Now 3-1 after four games, the Pacers have shown that their depth is too much for the Bucks. But if you take a deeper look, they might have the deepest roster among teams in the postseason.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Look Now, But the Pacers Might Be the Deepest Playoff Team<\/h2>\n

Notably, Tyrese Haliburton<\/a> is their best player and franchise star, <\/a>but he has yet to lead them in scoring in a single game in the playoffs. Pascal Siakam<\/a> was the leading scorer in the first three games of the series, and Myles Turner<\/a> led the team in scoring in Game 4. They regularly play nine or ten players. Tyrese has scored 20+ points only once in the series. The Pacers have gotten contributions from all over the floor.<\/p>\n

In the playoffs, the Pacers have six players averaging 12+ points. They also have 11 players averaging 12+ minutes per game, and nine averaging 16+ minutes per game. Nine of their players played in all four games so far in the postseason. Aaron Nesmith<\/a>, Andrew Nembhard<\/a>, Bennedict Mathurin<\/a>, Obi Toppin<\/a>, Ben Sheppard<\/a>, and T.J. McConnell<\/a> are all making significant impacts.<\/p>\n

Can This Pacers Team Make Noise in the Playoffs?<\/h3>\n

Last season, the Pacers were the surprise team in the playoffs. They started the season strong and made it to the NBA Cup Finals, but fell in the standings towards the end of the season. They finished with 47 wins, which is good for the sixth seed in the East.<\/p>\n

This year, they won 50 games, the first time they cracked 50+ since the 2013-14 NBA season. The difference between last year\u2019s team and this year\u2019s team is a little bit more depth towards the end of the bench. Last season, they had seven players in double figures, but a huge drop-off after that. This season, they have six players in double figures, but nine players with significant contributions. We can even argue that their 10th guy, Jarace Walker<\/a>, is making an impact. The Pacers forward is shooting 75% from behind the arc on two three-point shots per game.<\/p>\n

The Pacers\u2019 Road to the Finals<\/h3>\n

With the latest news about Damian Lillard<\/a>\u2019s injury, the Pacers are all but guaranteed to make it to the second round. There, they will probably play the Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n

The good news for Pacers fans in this year’s playoffs is that they match up well with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Pacers are the only team in the Eastern playoffs that beat the Cavs three times this season<\/a>. The Celtics split the season series 2-2, while the Knicks lost all four games. The Pacers beat the Cavs three times, the last one in a double-overtime to close the season. Even more, they beat Cleveland two times in the last week leading up to the playoffs. The Pacers should be confident about playing Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. They can also feel good about a possible series against the Boston Celtics in the East Finals. This year, they beat the Celtics in two out of three games<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Do the Pacers Have the Deepest Team?<\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at some of the other contending teams in both conferences. The Oklahoma City Thunder, widely regarded as one of the deepest and most versatile teams, has only three players scoring in double figures. The Minnesota Timberwolves have four players scoring in double figures and play up to eight players. The rest of their roster averages three to four minutes. The Houston Rockets<\/a> have five players in double figures and eight players playing significant minutes.<\/p>\n

Back to the East side, the Cavaliers have seven players in double figures, but their production drops significantly after that. The Boston Celtics are top-heavy, with three 20+ scorers, but they have to play their main seven players 27+ minutes, with three guys averaging more than 36 minutes. The New York Knicks have five players playing more than 37 minutes, a clear indication that they lack any bench production. Ultimately, there’s a strong case that the Pacers are the deepest team in the league.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Indiana Pacers finished the regular season as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. Despite finishing fourth, many people disregarded them and favored the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs. Now 3-1 after four games, the Pacers have shown that their depth is too much for the Bucks. But if you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":136647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,11,62],"tags":[637,2738,2607],"class_list":["post-136635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-pacers","category-nba","tag-myles-turner","tag-paskal-siakam","tag-tyrese-haliburton"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136635"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136650,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136635\/revisions\/136650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}