Pacers fight for Nancy Leonard until the bitter end on opening night

INDIANAPOLIS – Every year, opening night has different pregame ceremonies for the Indiana Pacers. It isn't just starters, national anthem, hype video, then game time. Instead, every player is introduced one-by-one. The coaches and trainers are all named. There is more fanfare as a new season begins, and at the end a player grabs the mic – this year Taelon Peter was forced into doing it as a rookie – and addresses the crowd to thank them for coming. It all adds excitement to the start of the season.

Thursday's opener for the Pacers hardly needed more buzz. It was an NBA Finals rematch against the OKC Thunder on ESPN. Multiple Pacers players admitted they were looking forward to facing off with the Thunder – a rarity in an age where many repeat the "it's just another game" line so often. There was tension. It's the kind of setting that makes sports so enjoyable.

Yet there was more to this outing for the Pacers. It was the first regular season game, and first season, without Nancy Leonard. Leonard, often considered the First Lady of the franchise, passed away less than one month before opening night at the age of 93. The wife of legendary Pacers coach Bobby "Slick" Leonard, who guided both NBA and ABA versions of the blue and gold, Leonard has seen it all.

It has been well documented, and strongly done here by Wheat Hotchkiss for Pacers.com, that the Pacers may not be in Indianapolis – or even exist at all – without Nancy Leonard's "The Save the Pacers Telethon" in 1977. It kept the franchise going. You may not be reading this without her hard work that July day. Thursday's outing might not have happened at all.

The Leonards both left their leadership positions with the franchise in 1980. Slick became a broadcaster and Nancy a fan. And she had a great view. Her seat for games in recent seasons was just behind the Pacers bench at the end of her row. She was mere feet from Rick Carlisle. All of the noise in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, an arena that wouldn't be there without her, fell from above toward Nancy Leonard.

She often ate in the Courtside Club – and in the same seat – before games. That's where I personally almost always interacted with Leonard. We didn't know each other well, but she always said hello to me and had the same smile. It always brightened my work day.

She had that effect on everyone, including Carlisle. Prior to Pacers-Thunder, the head coach was sharing some of his stories about the Leonard family – including a time during the 1998 lockout when Carlisle and his wife were in Cancun with both Slick and Nancy. The Carlisle crew went parasailing after being coerced by Nancy, and as their parachute was lifting them away from the boat, the boat slowed down and began to lower Carlisle and his wife toward the water. It must have been frightening, though the head coach didn't admit that. Instead, he shared his memory of Nancy laughing at the entire ordeal from the shore. As usual, she lit up the moment.

That applies to actual basketball, too. Her seat was so close to Carlisle's during games that the two interacted prior to tipoff. "During the other team's introductions, we would always have a handshake and blow a kiss. She would always hold on to my hand for an extra long time and give me a staredown," Carlisle recalled. Her eyes did that talking in that moment, and Carlisle had to interpret what they were saying.

"These guys ready?" he believes was the visually-relayed message. "It was just a beautiful thing," the head coach concluded of the exchanges.

Being ready for this particular game was not challenging given the circumstances. But one could forgive the Pacers team for being slightly off balance early. They were emotionally charged, playing under their 2024-25 Eastern Conference Championship banner for the first time, and watched a tribute to Leonard a few minutes before tipoff.

Then Peter addressed the crowd. Usually, that's done by a veteran. But a first-year player on a two-way deal took the mic. He admitted he was a bit nervous, then in his postgame media interview explained that he had some other nerves about making mistakes on the court in the leadup to Thursday. But as he spoke to a sellout crowd, all alone on the floor, he appeared confident.

That was the sign that Nancy Leonard would have been looking for. Yeah, the Pacers were ready. Even their nervous players were confident.

The team went through their pregame high-five line with Tyrese Haliburton at the front. Their poise was obvious, and away the game went.

It was just like multiple NBA Finals games in that it was a physical, demanding battle. 18 lead changes. 19 ties. The largest lead for either team all night was seven, an ideal game for viewers. At any moment, momentum could change.

That's exactly what happened. The Pacers were ahead for much of the first half, but OKC surged into halftime. Indiana battled back and reclaimed the lead for moments in the third quarter, and the fourth period was basketball's version of tug of war. During the final 12 minutes of regulation, neither team ever led by more than five.

It was fitting that after 48 minutes, the score was tied at 113. Pascal Siakam drilled a jump shot in the final 10 seconds to even the score. It was an epic battle that deserved overtime and got one, then another after an 11-11 extra period.

53 minutes in, nothing separated the two finalists from last season. Something was about to, though, and it started with continuous events that began in the first half of the game. Really, it started within the first three minutes.

Andrew Nembhard, the Pacers only experienced healthy point guard, got his arm caught in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's body while defending, and he immediately winced and trotted away after the play. Nembhard was clearly in pain. He kept rotating his shoulder around as if to stretch it out during the first half.

After halftime, Nembhard wasn't on the floor. Ben Sheppard opened the half as the "point guard" or whatever you want to call his role in that lineup. The Pacers later announced that Nembhard had a shoulder injury and wouldn't return. Mind you – Indiana entered the game without Tyrese Haliburton, Quenton Jackson, Kam Jones, or T.J. McConnell. They're all hurt. So the Pacers only healthy point guard for the second half was RayJ Dennis, and they were down to 13 available players. Four of those 13 were centers, which will become important later.

The available Pacers met Leonard's challenge in the second half. They were more than ready. But in a game that was given a tight whistle – there were 91 free throws attempted between both teams – fouls began to mount. Isaiah Jackson had several. So did wings Bennedict Mathurin, Aaron Nesmith, Jarace Walker, and Sheppard.

With fewer healthy players, Carlisle relied on his best ones. But one-by-one, they became disqualified after reaching the foul limit. For Nesmith, that happened with six minutes left in regulation. Mathurin and Sheppard weren't able to continue in the second overtime period – for the former, there was 4:11 to go. The latter made it until the final minute.

So the Pacers finished the game with 10 available players. Four of them were centers, and the bigs were ineffective outside of some screens from Tony Bradley here and some tidy play from Jay Huff there. Obi Toppin deservedly received most of the playing time at the five. But with all four centers ineffective, Carlisle had basically six guys left to choose from by the time the game ended – Siakam, Toppin, Johnny Furphy, Walker, and Peter was his closing lineup. Dennis was available but didn't play.

Despite those half-dozen players being Indiana's final useful pieces in this game, they took the reigning champions (who were also banged up) to double overtime. The hosts were winning with 3:15 to play, but once Mathurin fouled out the Pacers were too thin on offense. They fought valiantly but came up short – the final score was 141-135.

Dropping a game like that really stings. The Pacers wanted to beat the Thunder but lost a frustrating, long game and saw another key player get hurt. Not a soul on the coaching staff or on the roster was in a particularly good mood after the game. Who would be?

When asked, many were still appreciative of the team's performance. "Disappointed, but proud," was Carlisle's description of his emotions postgame. "It's tough. Injuries are never easy... fought hard the whole game." added Siakam "It was a good effort, but we didn't get the job done at the end."

They just ran out of bodies by the final buzzer. But Mathurin and Siakam were spectacular, scoring over half of the team's points. Walker and Sheppard stepped into bigger roles and were effective, and Peter impressed in his first-ever game. Toppin finished plays inside the arc while Nembhard and Nesmith defended their asses off – all three players struggled with jumpers, though. Huff hit the glass, blocked some shots, and was efficient.

In the end, it was just short of enough to win. But given the circumstances, it was a great performance from the Pacers and one they should be proud of.

They were all ready to play. Nancy Leonard would have loved it.