Still no sunshine for the Pacers: Instead, more losses and more injuries

MY LIVING ROOM, Ind. – I wondered at one point last week if some writing synergy might be coming my way. This story you are reading, which centers around Pacers vs Suns from Thursday night, comes less than two weeks after Pascal Siakam said the following after the Pacers lost to the Milwaukee Bucks at the buzzer.

"We've just gotta keep weathering the storm. Hopefully, we get some sunshine coming up soon." Siakam scored 32 points that night.

How convenient that quote could have been if the Pacers found a break in the clouds and beat the Suns last night – a good team, but one that Indiana showed in the opening minutes they can handle.

Instead, this is a solar eclipse. The sun is completely blocked for the Pacers, in this case ironically by the Suns. The Pacers were beaten again. They lost another key player to injury. Phoenix clobbered them by 35, marking the fourth-straight loss for the blue and gold by 17+ points.

It's the first time in franchise history that's happened, per a Stathead query (many more coming) – the previous worst stretch was, of course, three consecutive 17+ point defeats. Their road trip, painful. Their injury report, growing. Sunshine, still absent.

"Tough game. We did a lot of good things for two-and-a-half, three quarters. And then they hit too many bursts," Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said postgame. "This has been a tough trip."

The Pacers opening five, a group that featured Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Tony Bradley for the second-straight game, started off well. They led 13-8 after four minutes. Across the entire outing, the starters were +1 in 11:38 of play. That's good!

That means every other combination of players was -36 in 36:22. That's bad! Extremely bad! If the Pacers had any starter off the floor last night, they bled one point per 60 seconds. Most of that came in the final 15.5 minutes – it was 88-77 Suns with 3:30 to go in the third quarter. But there was a clear shift in balance during both halves of the game: Once the Pacers made a substitution, the Suns went on a run.

I wondered about the new starting lineup and the message it's sending here. Long story short, this new starting five does make sense to me in that it gets the most consistent performers on the floor at the same time for longer. That's good. But, so far, it has also weakened the bench in a way that has proved costly. The team's health is doing no favors. But the tradeoff of "Better starters in exchange for a worse second unit" – a trade that I understand making as T.J. McConnell is on the floor again – hasn't paid off.

Frankly, nothing is really paying off for the Pacers right now. They have the NBA's worst record at 1-11 and the third-worst net rating, only Brooklyn (who beat the Pacers) and Washington are below them. The results have been poor.

Before this road trip, those results at least came with competitive games. A six-point loss to OKC. A four-point loss to Minnesota. Two-point losses to Dallas and Milwaukee, and a tight game versus Brooklyn. Of course, they lost all of those games. But given their health, tight games were acceptable and somewhat promising, even if frustrating.

Now, the losses are blowouts. During their four-game road trip, the Pacers were outscored by 107 points. That's their worst cumulative scoring margin across four games in franchise history, per another Stathead query. The previous worst was -98 from March 18 through 23 of 1977. Yes, the Pacers first season in the NBA.

If the Pacers lose Saturday to Toronto back in Indianapolis, they'll be 1-12. That would be the worst start in franchise history. They only have 25 seven-plus game losing streaks in franchise history – currently, they've lost six in a row (the franchise record is 12). That's the research the Pacers current level of play requires.

"We're going to try to do what we do, better," assistant coach Jenny Boucek said at halftime of Pacers-Suns on the Fanduel Sports Indiana broadcast. The Pacers have tried to be process-oriented as the losses pile up.

And in some ways, it wasn't all bad in Phoenix. Bradley was effective. Andrew Nembhard scored 21 points, his third 20+ point game among his last four appearances. The Pacers got to the foul line 29 times and made 27 of them. Isaiah Jackson was aware of space and Ben Sheppard made some threes (ignore the twos...). Had the score ended up being close, there would have been real takeaways from the loss, and the chippy game would have been much more fun.

Instead, it was another blowout defeat for the Pacers. They're still weathering the storm, this time thanks to the Suns. And their outlook got worse with another in-game injury in Phoenix.

Aaron Nesmith suffers a knee injury

With 9:25 on the clock in the third quarter, Nesmith fell to the court in a heap. He was sliding to defend Suns star Devin Booker when he planted his right foot on top of Robinson-Earl. His body's momentum continued while his feet, stuck on another player, stopped. His left knee buckled and hit the hardwood.

The six-year veteran scooted off the court and pounded the hardwood in pain. It was a scary scene. Later, the broadcast showed two Pacers staffers helping Nesmith off the floor, and the tireless forward was bending both of his knees and putting at least some of his weight onto his feet, an encouraging sign.

Carlisle added more postgame. "Hoping that Aaron's situation is not very serious. At this point, it looks like we may have dodged a bullet, he may have dodged a bullet... but he'll miss some time," the head coach said. Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star reported from Phoenix that he saw Nesmith leaving the Mortgage Matchup Center with a limp but walking on two legs.

Carlisle explained that it hurts to lose Nesmith because he's one of the team's top players. That's true, and it also hurts to lose the recently-extended forward because he's just 26. Nesmith is still developing and could have improved his other skills with more on-ball reps.

He had only missed one game this season prior to Thursday's night injury. Nesmith is so far averaging a career-high 15.5 points per game this season, albeit on much higher than usual shooting volume, with shooting splits of 36.7/37.3/79.5. He will be missed on both ends even with his efficiency down.

More about his condition will be learned later today, then even more on Saturday. Two immediate thoughts – one is that Nesmith's third missed game will be after Pacers-Hornets next Wednesday. That's important for hardship contract reasons. Tyrese Haliburton, Obi Toppin, Kam Jones, and Johnny Furphy also currently project to be out through that date, so it's possible Indiana gets another (it would be their fourth already) hardship exception once Nesmith misses three games. Bennedict Mathurin is a factor as well, more on him coming in a second. Conveniently, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl's current 10-day agreement expires the day after that Hornets game.

My second thought – I think Jarace Walker should start with Nesmith sidelined. This was a dreadful road trip for the young forward, he had more turnovers (11) than made shots (eight) while out West. His defense looked floaty. It was extremely poor play, and it ended with a sour 0/10 night in Phoenix.

That said, his best stint ever came in Dallas earlier this season, and he can be better than he has been of late. Especially given how the Pacers season has gone so far, giving Walker chances to both develop and play alongside the team's best players seems like the right path forward. Sheppard could get consideration as well and has a similar outlook to Walker, but there are more questions about the lottery pick among the two players.. I think starting Walker with Nesmith out gives him a chance to answer some of those questions.

Cody Martin - Out (illness)

Yes, this was a real listing before Pacers-Suns. Martin popped up on the injury report with the illness at 3:30 p.m. on gameday and wasn't able to suit up. A Pacers hardship player, who was only able to be signed because of the team's many injuries, was on the injury report. You can't make this up. Remember Siakam's line about injuries from last week before Nesmith and Martin missed time? "It's almost laughable, you know? It's not funny. It's just a tough situation," he said.

Thursday night would have been Martin's last game with the team on his current deal – his contract expires once Friday ends. The Pacers won't have a hardship contract available to keep Martin unless Mathurin is expected to miss two-plus weeks from Saturday. More about his status will be known, by force, on Saturday.

Martin averaged 1.8 points and 3.5 rebounds per game across three outings on his hardship deal. He, like everyone this season, struggled with shot accuracy (2/10 on all shots, missed every three-point attempt) but contributed in other ways.

The veteran forward played for Phoenix to end the 2024-25 season, so the game he would have been most helpful in was Thursday night. Instead, the Pacers didn't have him – though Monte Morris filled the "knows the personnel of the Suns" role. Still, the more the merrier.

Martin wasn't critical to the Pacers' operation, but he would have played against Phoenix, especially after Nesmith went down and the game became a blowout. His immediate future will be clear in the next day or so.

The Pacers will use that day to travel home and prepare for their game against Toronto. It's another chance for the Sun to shine after a hellish road trip.

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