It’s Time To Believe In The Pacers

It’s Time To Believe In The Pacers

So, the Indiana Pacers have done it again. They are returning to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second consecutive season after knocking out the topseated 64- win Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round. And there were plenty of times during this playoff run, hell, even when they were up two-0 on Cleveland where a lot of people weren’t fully willing to accept them as championship contenders. I think they’re in the club now. I’m just shocked. Like, this is insane. So many playoff risers. Tyrese Hallebertton dominating. They’re legit contenders. Pacers, if you haven’t already, make sure you give this video a like, give us a subscribe, and hit that notification bell so you never miss out on one of our videos. So, I know Pacers fans are probably utterly terrified right now considering what our last video was about and the fate that befell that team in the immediate aftermath. So, Pacers fans, you know, don’t click off the video, obviously. Leave a like, subscribe, all that good stuff. But, you know, maybe maybe shield your eyes a little bit. Also, fun fact, the Pacers are one of only two teams that in our like 2 and 1/2 years of making videos on this channel, we’ve never made a video solely dedicated to them. So, Indiana, you hid from us for long enough, but you know what? Everyone gets the synthetic sports curse at some point and now it’s your guys’ turn. Yeah. Only other team is Utah, which they’re in hell already. Yeah. Do we really need to curse them? Like their last hope was getting Cooper flag. That didn’t happen. So, be a while before we talk about them. The Pacers were coming off an Eastern Conference Finals appearance. Personally, I didn’t have a ton of faith in them. Kind of thought they were like a darkhorse team going into the season. Maybe like a second round exit. Well, I had like no faith. Yeah, you absolutely zero faith in this team. I think in our predictions video I said first round exit. Something like that. I mean to be fair that’s what you picked going into the playoffs as well. I’m on fire with just so many takes this playoffs. Yeah, we both are. Yeah. I mean they were the six seed last year and they did make the conference finals and I don’t want to say they got lucky but stuff like definitely broke their way. You know Giannis doesn’t play the first round. The Knicks were more or less falling apart by the end of that series. You know Josh Hart, Randall, Mitchell Robinson OG and even Jaylen Brunson all suffered from injuries. And finally when they matched up against Boston, you know, they played Boston tough, but they still got swept. So coming in the season, they didn’t make any big moves. They did resign some guys. I was like, “Okay, they’re going to get a full training camp and full year with Pascal Seakkum.” I feel like they’d be a little bit better in the regular season, but ultimately would probably just go out in the first round. Yeah. And early in the season, it really wasn’t a good start. I mean, your take was looking pretty accurate. You know, 9 and 14 to start the season, but once the new calendar year hits, this team was incredible. the fourth best record in the year 2025. And we got to get the mention in somewhere. Clinched the playoffs in April 1st after the Blazers beat the Hawks. And they went in the playoffs as the four seed. A rematch against the Bucks this time. Healthy Giannis. Obviously Dame still dealing with the blood clots. I picked Indiana. I thought Indiana like seven. I know. Yeah. As we mentioned, you had Milwaukee and the Pacers just gave them the business to be honest. Hammered them twice in Indiana in games one and two. hammered him in game four after Dame went down with the injury and then completed one of the craziest comebacks in NBA playoff history. We already went over this in our video on the first round. So, not going to go too deep, but to come back from a seven-point deficit with 39 seconds left. I mean, pretty sure the last 25 years that had only happened one other time, and it was the Thunder insane comeback against the Clippers back what, like 10 years ago at this point. So, even then, I I still didn’t believe. I was just like, man, Milwaukeee’s way worse than I thought they were. I mean, they played insane in that series, though, to give them credit. I kind of thought, you know, still darkhorse contenders. I still obviously like the Celtics better. I thought the Cavs were still the better team than maybe even the Knicks. But I mean, they just again worked the Cavs just like they did the Bucks. They go on the road, they win game one. You know, it was tough to tell after that game to make like a harsh judgment. I thought it was a fluke. Yeah. I mean, Garland was out. I thought, you know, Cavs still probably win the series six and seven, but then game two again, just another insane comeback. Yeah. I mean, Cavs are up by 14 heading into the fourth. And despite, you know, a valiant effort by the Pacers, the Cavs still at a seven-point lead with less than a minute to go. And Indiana did the exact same thing that they did to Milwaukee in game five. Came all the way back, won the game after Tyres Hallebertton missed a free throw, got his own board, and then hit a game-winning three-pointer. Just unbelievable. And I still didn’t believe in them. Call it anchoring bias. Call it stubbornness. Call it like buying into the Tyrese Hallebertton hate. call it just being a pissy [ __ ] cuz they were beating the [ __ ] out of my Eastern Conference champ pick. I wasn’t like fully bought in. Again, I was more mad at Cleveland. I was like, “Why are y’all [ __ ] around like this? What are you doing?” And so like when game three happened and the Cavs dominated, Mitchell went for 43. I was like, “All right, this is what I expected. I fully expected them to win game four, five, and six. Kind of like what you thought the Celtics would do to the Knicks.” Game four was a bit of a reality check for me. I mean, game four, I think they said, I didn’t fact check this before the video, the biggest halftime deficit in playoff history. 41 points. Yeah, I had never seen a beatd down that bad. To be honest, I had to turn the game off. I’m just like, this [ __ ] is over. I got to focus on editing. Then you get the notification, the news that Don Mitchell injures his ankle at halftime. So, obviously, that game was over. The funniest thing from that game I saw on Twitter was someone posted, I think it was a notification from the real app. It was like, oh yeah, yeah. Garland heating up eight straight points to the Cavs. Cavs trail 68 to 102. Chris Paul, you can rest now. You are off the hook for the rest of time. But what really did it for me with the Pacers, it was game five. Now, the Pacers could have easily just lost this game, gotten themselves fully ready for game six, won the series in six, and advanced to the conference finals. Honestly, if they had did that or won the series in seven, I’m still not sure I would have believed. Like that’s what happens most of the time in a series where a team goes up 3-1, right? I would have felt like, you know, they got the Cavs early when the Cavs were kind of [ __ ] themselves and by the time the Cavs finally got their act together, they had dug themselves too much of a hole to get out of. That’s probably the excuse I would have been making to myself. And honestly, like early in this game kind of felt like that was the way it was headed. Cleveland led by 19 early on. Seemed like they were on their way to an easy win, but the Pacers, they go on a huge run to end the half. They tighten up the defense. They start just raining in threes. I think it was like seven of their last nine made field goals in the first half were three-pointers. They kill the Cavs in the third, outscore them by 13, take a nine-point lead into the fourth, and then every single time in the fourth quarter when it felt like Cleveland might have a chance, the Pacers just made big play after big play. Now, to be fair, Cleveland shot themselves in the foot plenty of times. Donovan Mitchell missing three straight free throws. What the [ __ ] was that about? I don’t know. I was straight shocked by that. But for the Pacers, there’s so many guys that deserve shout outs. But I think maybe in some ways more than anyone, Miles Turner, there was like a six-year stretch where every time the trade deadline, this dude was in trade rumors specifically to the Lakers. Yeah. Well, specifically to the Lakers, but yeah, just in general, but he stayed there the entire time. And the Pacers got to be hugging themselves for keeping him. Just the perfect big in the NBA. Great defender, three-point shooter. Hit that three with 23 seconds left to truly just seal things. A remarkable win. Like you said, most of the time, young teams especially, they seal these type of series, game six on your home court in front of like a ralus playoff crowd, right? But just it feels like they make damn near every three they take. Yeah, exactly. And like they didn’t get lucky beating Cleveland. They straight up outplayed Cleveland in every game except for game three. Like they took it to the team that won 64 games in the Eastern Conference, best record in the conference. They straight up beat them. It was no fluke whatsoever. And like at this point I’m I’m a changed man. Like it took a lot. It took them doing a whole lot to convince me. But like this team is absolutely a championship contender. And I would be saying that regardless of what’s happened to the Boston Celtics. Like if Boston was still fully healthy, if they were tied 2-2 with the Knicks right now, I would still feel the same way because of what Indiana did to the Cavaliers. But considering Tatum’s now done for the Celtics, it just makes the path to the finals for the Pacers a lot clearer. And look, we’re going to do something that’s a little bit dangerous. Knicks fans, maybe plug your ears for this. We’re going to assume the Knicks beat Boston. Okay, this might be like a little like mini curse over for the Knicks, but they’ve got three chances to do it. One of which would be on their home floor. The Celtics don’t have their best player. Surely we are not this strong. We can’t do this to the Knicks. We guarantee you. That’s what I’ll say. No, no, no, no. Yeah. If we somehow curse this, we’re just next level. And that is such an intriguing playoff series. Like another just going to be great playoff series. at least should be the classic rivalry of the ‘9s. You know, bring in Reggie Miller. He might be doing the TNT game. Spike Lee, like we’re really going back at it. Oh, they need to get Spike on like the pregame if Reggie’s doing commentary or something, too. And Hallebertton verse Brunson. The two clutchest players in the NBA all season. Brunson wins clutch player of the year. Hallebertton has to be like the runner up if they had that. And I mean, I know you’re going to love this moment and you got to have to throw it back. It’s over Twitter. The Friday Night Smackdown rematch. It’s honestly just beautiful to see. It’s so great because like they go face to face. Hallebertton’s got [ __ ] brass knuckles. Like Brunson’s got a chair. Like you know nothing’s going to happen obviously because it can’t because they’re worth way too much. But just the fact that they try to convince you that these two multi-million dollar NBA players are going to throw down in the ring on a Friday night. Also, massive props to Wade Barrett on commentary for asking if this was game eight when Brunson stepped over. when he stepped over like the fence or whatever. Triple H, book these two in like a TLC match for SummerSlam. Like get you could get other guys in there. Maybe like a Logan Paul or you know LA Knight, the two guys there. They could protect them, right? Tag match. Do it. It’d be amazing. Obviously, also rematch of the conference semi-finals from last year except the Knicks now have their new look roster. They’re all Except the Knicks now have their new look roster and they’re all healthy. And like superlatives aside, just straight up roster-wise, really interesting matchup because the Knicks, they have the bigger stars. You know, they got Brunson, they got Towns, Bridges, they made the big trades in the offseason, but the Pacers, they go a lot deeper than the Knicks do. And according to the advanced stats, like the Pacers have been the better team in the playoffs. And it’s not like a lack of competition or anything. Like, they have played just as tough teams as the Knicks have, and they’ve been much better in the playoffs. I do like how the Pacers aren’t overly reliant on one score. Like, they’ve got five guys that average over 14 points a game. Even like Matther and TJ McConnell Obby Top and they’re all averaging more than nine. The Knicks are also very balanced, but they do rely on Brunson quite a lot. He gives them 30 a night. And this has always been like a concern for the Knicks. It’s like what happens if one guy in that starting five? Forget going out with injury. What if like Brunson picks up three fouls in like a first half or something and he has to sit out? Like where do they go from there? You know, I feel like something like that could affect the Knicks a lot more than the Pacers because the Pacers have got that depth. And honestly, like you want to talk about some playoff risers, Andrew Nemhard and Aaron Nesmith. Holy [ __ ] [ __ ] Looking at their stats like regular season to playoffs. Especially Nemhard. It’s just ridiculous. Like like I said, it feels like they hit damn near every three because over half the time, literally statistically, they are hitting three-point shots. I mean, N Smith shoots 43% from three in the regular season. That’s good enough. He’s 53% now. and Nemhard. He’s gone from 29% in the regular season to 50 to 50%. That’s unbelievable. I mean, the fact that this is his second year doing it, I honestly last year. Yeah, I feel like this is intentional, dude. Just so you know. Let me just chill for a little bit. Oh, playoff time. Flip the switch. Just ball out. Yeah, it’s a really intriguing matchup. Knicks obviously that insane starting five and then the Pacers. They’re the deeper team. Not going to make a pick yet. just had a respect to the point that we get to the series. You know, like we said, might curse this thing. But regardless, the Pacers are a legit championship contender. They’re a team that, you know, has been so successful in their like franchise history, but haven’t been able to get that title. So, honestly, it would be great to see them finally get over the hump, make it back to the finals. But regardless, like look at the ages of their players, the playoff risers, Tyrese Hallebertton, they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. in. You have to say it. This team is a legit

The Indiana Pacers have defied all expectations this postseason. Despite making the Eastern Conference Finals last season, few expected the Pacers to return to the Conference Finals this year. Whether it was the teams in their way, or the bizarre hate that Tyrese Haliburton gets, no one really believed in the Pacers as genuine contenders. Well after knocking Giannis out in round one and dominating the 64 win Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2nd round, that all has changed…

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