The evaluation game: Pacers drop final 2025 preseason outing vs Spurs

MY DESK, Ind. — The Indiana Pacers final preseason game was Friday night in San Antonio. Rick Carlisle was absent, spending time with family in Virginia, so Lloyd Pierce led the blue and gold for their final tune-up game before the 2025-26 season.

While Carlisle was gone, Ben Sheppard was back. He missed much of training camp and the preseason after suffering a calf injury during the team's player-led minicamp in Orlando, so he needed some game action to ramp up. His play style doesn't require much easing in, but more court time is better than the alternative.

The Spurs played the Pacers on Monday, so evaluations were going to be a bit easier. These teams just faced off. Several observations stood out in the Frost Bank Center.

1. Isaiah Jackson with a steal, deflection, and overall more effective defense early. He was poor in the last outing against San Antonio but has been better so far outside of getting blocked twice on the same possession.
2. James Wiseman getting some time with the starters in the first quarter. It's clear the Pacers are still evaluating basically everything at the center spot.
3. Tough defensive night from many early. The Pacers have been giving up three after three against the Spurs in these two games. Rim deterrence has been worse so far tonight, too.
4. Ben Sheppard is making his preseason debut in the first quarter... and as expected, he's already running around like Ben Shappard does. Both of his early threes rattled out.
5. No point guard with the bench group? Cam Payne didn't play in the first period while a Sheppard plus Taelon Peter lineup led the second unit. Obi Toppin played as well.
6. From a Pacers official: Jarace Walker did not make the trip to San Antonio, which explains some of the rotation choices.
7. Sheppard is hitting shots to start the second period, both a three and a steal into a run out. Outside of makes and misses, the Pacers know what they are getting from the Belmont product.
8. The starters are back in for their second stint and neither Payne or Jay Huff have played yet. With much of a roster battle still to-be-determined, some evaluating clearly happening today — I personally wonder if Payne minutes wouldn't be helpful if he's healthy.
9. Nesmith is on fire, up to 12 points on 5/6 from the field. His only miss was a shot attempt to beat the buzzer at the end of the first quarter. Unrelated: his birthday was yesterday.
10. The opening five looks much better in the second frame than the first. Indiana: back in front at 49-47.
11. Hello, Pascal Siakam. He's doing All-Star things: 9 points and 4 assists without a missed shot so far.
12. The Pacers are doing identity-focused things tonight. Many times they've run to get the ball when it goes out of bounds. They're trying to push after makes. Many passes toward the rim, for better and worse. Really playing Pacers basketball, even as the Spurs surge to close half.
13. Halftime: Spurs 66, Pacers 63. Andrew Nembhard, Bennedict Mathurin, and Nesmith in double figures. Quite a bit of evaluation going on in terms of who played with who (Wiseman with starters, no backup point guard, Toppin at the five again).

14. Pacers open the second half with Cam Payne, Taelon Peter, Gabe McGlothan, Obi Toppin, and Isaiah Jackson on the hardwood.
15. From Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star: Jarace Walker's absence is for precautionary reasons related to back soreness.
16. Indiana reserves kept this one close against San Antonio starters... until they didn't. It was 73-70 in favor of the hosts before a 12-0 Spurs run.
17. After substitutions, Jay Huff and Wiseman are playing together. Huff finished an alley-oop from Peter then drilled his first three. He will almost certainly be the most efficient jump-shooting big man for the Pacers this year.
18. I like playing the centers as much as possible for evaluation purposes, but it's hard to get a true sense of what's going well/poorly when Huff+Wiseman or Huff+Tony Bradley groups are out there. Zany can be good, though, and Huff can shoot enough to be a spacing four man in weird situations.
19. I had a fan describe Cam Payne to me as mercurial (as a player) after being signed. I had watched Payne before and had a good sense of his skills but that vernacular has been perfect so far. 7 points and 1 dime in the third quarter with all the points coming late in the frame.
20. Taelon Peter's improvement from the start of summer league until the end of preseason is significant. I don't know how much he will figure in his rookie season, but I do know that he's worth keeping a close eye on with the Noblesville Boom.
21. I was in the middle of typing that Tony Bradley was having a substandard stint, but he had a great defensive rep against Dylan Harper in the middle of me getting the sentence down. Later, a patient hook shot over Micah Potter.
22. This lineup of deep bench players that will probably never play together again is not very good on defense. A 16-3 Spurs run has effectively put away the game.
23. A big time evaluation game. The centers were much better than they were in the first game vs San Antonio, but the defense in general was not. The Pacers will have to be a great possession team this season to be great.
24. Final score: Spurs 133, Pacers 104.
25. Pacers finish the preseason 2-2. The starters were solid, and that's probably the most important thing... besides injuries mounting. The real games start next Thursday in Indianapolis vs the OKC Thunder.

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