First quarter woes doom Pacers vs Wembanyama, Spurs as Zubac's season ends
The Pacers came up short, literally.
MY KITCHEN, Ind. – Have you seen that Victor Wembanyama guy? He's huge, and the Pacers were going against him without their starting center. Ivica Zubac's season is over, leaving the Pacers with Jay Huff and Micah Potter in the middle for now.
Fighting size with, well, less size against Wembanyama can work but is a challenge. The Pacers opted instead for skill and speed. With Pascal Siakam back in the lineup, head coach Rick Carlisle chose to start Siakam, Jarace Walker, and Aaron Nesmith as the frontcourt in San Antonio with Quenton Jackson and Andrew Nembhard as the guards.
It gave the Pacers a quick five-man group. It also meant Siakam was on the floor participating in the opening tip opposite Wembanyama – Siakam did a few test jumps before walking to center court for the jump ball. He lost, but was pretty close.
Tony East
Wembanyama turned it over against a swarm of Pacers on San Antonio's first possession. Siakam was his primary defender. The Spurs missed a layup on their second and third trip down the floor, then found Harrison Barnes for a wide open corner three on the fourth one.
He made it, foreshadowing for the Pacers coming first quarter struggles. That three gave the Spurs the lead, they never trailed or were tied in the game again. San Antonio led by 10 just 4.5 minutes into the game. They were up 15 at 38-23 before the first period even ended.
Their offense was fantastic. Despite the Pacers shooting 12/23 from the field during the first 12 minutes, they weren't close on the scoreboard. The Spurs went 17/31, made six of their 12 three-point attempts, and dominated the possession battle. The game got out of hand quickly.
"They shot it extremely well in the first quarter. I don't think we played well defensively," Pacers assistant coach Lloyd Pierce said of the first quarter woes during a halftime interview on the FanDuel Sports Indiana broadcast. Then, he looked toward their second quarter successes. "Just tighten up a little bit. The zone threw them off. We'll probably try to mix in some different defenses to keep them off balance."
The Spurs put 42 points on the scoreboard in the first quarter. It was the 13th time a Pacers opponent scored 40-plus points in a quarter this season, and the Spurs are the only team that's done it twice.
They led by 13 after 12 minutes. When the final buzzer sounded, they were ahead by... 15. The final 36 minutes were basically an even draw, but the start of the game was so poor that the Pacers never really had a chance. It was a game of mini runs, and the Pacers cut the Spurs edge down to eight early in the second half, but the hosts strong start made a see-saw affair acceptable.
Wembanyama's influence was a factor in the Pacers' changed rotation. They started small, then saw a strong Huff stretch in the middle of the game in which he made multiple three-point shots. He's tall, yet several inches shorter than the French MVP candidate, meaning his jump shooting was by far his most important skill on this night.
Potter brought the best combination of size and speed. He brought together lineups against San Antonio, the team he was with during the preseason, and finished with nine points. The Pacers outscored the Spurs in his 19.5 minutes by three.
Yet those successes weren't enough to overcome the Pacers early-game failures. They simply delayed the inevitable – a 134-119 loss. It was the Pacers eighth defeat during their current losing streak in which they allowed 130-plus points and lost by double digits.
And their losing streak is now 16 games long, so half of them have been of that variety. That's the longest streak of defeats in franchise history and doesn't appear to be ending soon. Four more losses (minus one for every Mavericks win) and the Pacers will lock up top-five lottery odds.
Ivica Zubac's season is over
The Pacers prized trade acquisition in Zubac won't play again this season after suffering a rib injury against Portland on Wednesday. That wasn't his only injury from the game, but it was the most significant – you can read more about it here.
Zubac appeared in just five games this season, and they came in a one week span. He averaged 11.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game – respectable numbers that he hoped would be higher. Nobody has been a bigger critic of Zubac's struggles with touch and rebounding (particularly vs New York) than Zubac himself.
While his absence for the final 12 games of this season doesn't change the Pacers fortunes, it is a massive loss for the team in terms of growing chemistry. The primary reason to play the big man down the stretch was to give him reps alongside other Pacers rotation players. Now, that can't happen.
The final counts for Zubac in his five games when it comes to minutes with projected (possible) Pacers rotation players for next season:
- Tyrese Haliburton: 0
- Andrew Nembhard: 45
- Aaron Nesmith: 84
- Pascal Siakam: 0
- T.J. McConnell: 61
- Ben Sheppard: 13
- Jarace Walker: 100
- Obi Toppin: 38
- Jay Huff: 3
And, of course, zero minutes with a to-be-determined potential top-four pick, but that applies to every member of the Pacers. So Zubac has some experience with the Pacers system and his new teammates, but not much for 2026-27.
Rick Carlisle reacted to the injury before the Pacers played the Spurs. "It happened in the first quarter of the Portland game. He's not exactly sure when it happened. But later that night, he had a lot of difficulty sleeping. Didn't get much sleep at all. Came in the next day, got the MRI, and there's a non-displaced fracture," he said of the injury. "If you've ever had rib stuff, it's kind of the worst because breathing bothers it. Coughing bothers it. Sneezing is impossible, and laughing, you just can't do it. He's going to be uncomfortable for a while, but he will make a full recovery. But it's a tough break for us because we were looking forward to seeing as much of that core group together as possible and now it's not going to happen."
The Jazz will face a similar issue next season when it comes to Jaren Jackson Jr, as will the Wizards with Anthony Davis. But those trades, along with Zubac to Indiana, were all done because the team acquiring a high-level frontcourt player believed in their fit and talent. The Pacers still do with Zubac, it just may take a bit longer for the Pacers strengths and Zubac's strengths to dovetail.
That's a problem for next season. In the meantime, the Pacers will deploy their center rotation of Huff and Potter and try to improve their defense during their final 11 games.
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