Pacers no longer winless as wild weekend sums up their early season

MY BED, Ind. – A wedding, specifically my former roommate's wedding, kept me away from Pacers action this weekend. I haven't covered one of their games in person since they played in Memphis. Normally, missing a week (but still watching, of course) is just that – missing a few games. I'll be back Monday and, in a normal moment, would be mostly capable of getting going again with relative ease.

But in the last Pacers game I was at, Obi Toppin and Bennedict Mathurin were both healthy (at tipoff, at least). James Wiseman started. Mac McClung and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl weren't even on the roster. The team had not yet earned a victory.

That's all to say... It's been a wild week for the blue and gold, but their ongoing homestand is providing stability. They beat the Golden State Warriors on Saturday to get in the win column. Robinson-Earl and McClung were both active. Wiseman isn't on the team any more. Shots finally dropped.

There were a lot of impressive moments throughout their first W. Aaron Nesmith provided many of them, scoring a career-high 31 points on just 19 shot attempts. It took him 35 minutes to get there, and man did the Pacers need a performance like this from Nesmith.

The typically-reliable wing couldn't make a thing in October, shooting 29% from the floor across Indiana's first five outings. Just 20.8% of his looks from long range dropped, including a miss at the buzzer in Dallas that would have won the Pacers the game. It was a dreadful start for a player that finished in the 50-40-90 club last season.

In the win, he led the team in scoring. Just behind him was one expected hero in Pascal Siakam and one out-of-nowhere savior in Quenton Jackson. Siakam finished with 27 points, which included a clutch three late as the Pacers erased an 11-point fourth quarter deficit, and Jackson had 25 points plus 10 assists.

For Siakam, 27 points is hardly special. He's averaging 25 this year despite seeing double teams often. But for Jackson, 25 is herculean. It's his new career-high in scoring, and he too hit a clutch three, plus the dagger basket from inside the arc. His toward-the-rim pop and overall speed were game changing – Jackson, Siakam, and Nesmith combined for 83 of Indiana's 114 points.

That trio made 32 shots. The rest of the team combined for eight makes. There are still some consistency concerns for the Pacers right now, but they became irrelevant with those three players having terrific outings – including two career highs at the same time.

The night before against Atlanta highlighted those concerns. Isaiah Jackson shot 4/7 from the field and was the only Pacer to make more than half of his shots in the contest (minimum two attempts). Everyone else struggled with accuracy, an issue for the team all year.

108 total points isn't enough to win on most nights anyway, but the Pacers were even worse defensively in their NBA Cup opener. The Hawks finished with 74 points in the paint on their way to a 20-point victory, and some of their rim looks were comically easy. Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker all made seven-plus two-point shots in the game – no Pacer finished with more than six makes of any kind.

It was just the second dud of the season for the blue and gold, but two in six games is still too frequent. They've got to be thrilled to have finally gotten a win after three close, painful losses in their first four games. But inconsistency is the name of the game on the court right now – and it's showing up visibly in their point-of-attack defense and shot making.

Off the court, health remains a major topic. It is present in the many notes you may have missed from the Pacers weekend that was.

Obi Toppin out for at least three months

Before the Pacers were thumped by the Hawks, head coach Rick Carlisle told reporters that Toppin was set to have surgery and not to ask for clarity about his status until February 1. Shortly after, the Pacers announced that Toppin had been diagnosed with a partial stress fracture of the fifth metatarsal in his right foot.

He will have the injury surgically repaired in New York by Dr. Martin O’Malley of the Hospital for Special Surgery.

Toppin has played in at least 62 games during each season of his career, a streak that will end this year. He's played in 82, then 79 games during his two seasons with the Pacers. He's always been a rock.

So it's cruel that he, an off-court connector and on-court weapon, went down with an injury against the team that he was at his best against last season. He was going to be Indiana's best center this season and simultaneously a key reserve in the frontcourt – now, the team will have to be creative with lineups.

Despite struggling from the field, Toppin was averaging 14 points per game pre-injury. Now, after just three appearances, he won't play again until 2026.

Jeremiah Robinson-Earl joins Pacers on 10-day hardship

The Pacers signed Robinson-Early to a 10-day hardship deal on Saturday, and he played six minutes in the win over Golden State that night. He has yet to see a loss while donning the blue and gold.

The 25-year old pulled in a rebound during the victory. Indiana needed a forward after Toppin went down – they were routinely trying lineups with two of their centers on the floor at the same time earlier in the week. Jarace Walker has been playing a ton. More depth was crucial, and Robinson-Earl provides it.

He spent training camp with the Dallas Mavericks and averaged 6.3 points per game for the New Orleans Pelicans last season. Carlisle called him adaptable, and the Pacers will need him to be exactly that during his 10 days on the team, which will end on Monday, November 10 – the day after the Pacers play the Warriors on the road.

Any signing is news on its own, but this one comes with another layer – its timing tells us something about the injury timeline of at least one Pacers player. In order to be eligible for a 10-day hardship contract, a team must meet the following requirements:

A) Four players out for three-plus games in a row
B) A full 15-man roster
C) Those four players are expected to be out for at least two more weeks

I ran through all of this here, but it's noteworthy that the Pacers were eligible for this hardship contract before they played Golden State. Because at that time, Toppin had yet to miss three games, meaning he was not one of the four players who caused the Pacers to qualify for the exemption.

Taelon Peter returned from his groin issue against the Hawks, meaning he wasn't one of the four either. And Johnny Furphy recovered and was able to play his second game of the season against the Warriors. So he's out of the quartet, too.

That leaves five Pacers players who could make up the four-man group that is going to miss at least two-plus weeks beyond Saturday. Not every timeline is known, but four of these five players won't play until at least November 15 (unless I am interpreting the rules incorrectly, which I will seek clarity on):

1. Tyrese Haliburton (out for season)
2. Bennedict Mathurin (week to week)
3. T.J. McConnell (November 9 update timeline)
4. Kam Jones (November 9 update timeline)
5. Andrew Nembhard (progressing, return timetable unknown, doing some on-court work)

The Pacers play a home game on November 15 against the Toronto Raptors. That date is now worth keeping an eye on beyond that November 9 update timeline the team previously shared.

Shots finally dropped

The Pacers shot 44.9% in their win over Golden State. That's not particularly good – it would have ranked 67th out of 82 games for the 2024-25 Pacers. But it is a season-high number that the team needs to build on.

I have written, and talked, a lot about how the Pacers are just missing shots. Sometimes, it sounds like lazy analysis – an excuse for something deeper that is going wrong. I don't believe it is in this case, and neither does Tyrese Haliburton. The star guard joined the Fanduel Sports Indiana broadcast of Pacers-Warriors and was asked for his thoughts on the 0-5 (at the time) group.

"Sometimes, you've just gotta make shots," he said. Agreed, Tyrese. Over the weekend, they missed shots like crazy in a loss and made just enough in a win. They shared bad injury news but signed a player because they are so banged up. Every piece of news is another reminder of where this team is right now as they try to close their current homestand with more victories.

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