November 14, 2026
November 14, 2026
Indiana Pacers 2025-26 Season: From Finals Heartbreak to Franchise Low
Twelve months after pushing the Oklahoma City Thunder to a seventh game in the NBA Finals, the Indiana Pacers fell further and faster than anyone in the building could have imagined. The Pacers’ 2025-26 season ended at 19-63, the worst record in franchise history. It was a year defined by injuries, departures, and a trade-deadline gamble that backfired in the most painful way possible.
Indiana entered the campaign as the reigning Eastern Conference champion, coming off a 50-32 season and a thrilling playoff run. That status evaporated quickly. By March 10, the Pacers became the first team in the league eliminated from postseason contention.
The collapse began before a single regular-season game was played. Two blows in the span of a few weeks stripped Indiana of its engine and its anchor.
The defining moment of the season came in June. Early in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, Tyrese Haliburton crumpled to the floor in Oklahoma City with a torn Achilles tendon. The Pacers lost that game, and they lost their All-Star point guard for the entire 2025-26 campaign.
Haliburton was the system. His pace, vision, and late-game shot-making powered head coach Rick Carlisle’s high-tempo attack. Without him, Indiana had to rebuild its offense around players who had spent years as complementary pieces.
Andrew Nembhard absorbed the biggest share of those duties. He averaged 16.9 points and 7.7 assists across 57 games, and he dished out 19 assists in a March loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Nembhard proved he could run a team, but no one could replace what Haliburton provided.
The second blow landed in free agency. Myles Turner, the franchise’s all-time leader in blocked shots, left for the Milwaukee Bucks on a four-year, $107 million deal. According to CBS Sports, Indiana had been prepared to go deep into the luxury tax to keep him, and the move stunned the front office.
Turner had spent a decade in Indiana. His rim protection and floor spacing had shaped the team’s identity through multiple rebuilds. Losing him on top of Haliburton turned a difficult year into a near-impossible one.
The Pacers responded by acquiring 7-foot-1 center Jay Huff from the Memphis Grizzlies for a second-round pick. Huff became one of the season’s few reliable constants. He appeared in all 82 games, averaged 9.5 points, and led the team with 153 blocks.
Expectations shifted accordingly. Indiana still had Siakam, Nembhard, Nesmith, and Mathurin, a core that had logged major minutes during the Finals run. The hope was that depth and Carlisle’s system could keep the team afloat in the Eastern Conference until Haliburton returned. Within weeks, that hope looked badly misplaced.
The early weeks set the tone. Indiana opened 0-5, including a 141-135 double-overtime loss to Oklahoma City in a Finals rematch on opening night. Aaron Nesmith finally ended the drought on November 1, scoring 31 points in a 114-109 win over the Golden State Warriors.
The injuries never stopped coming. Nesmith, Obi Toppin, and Ben Sheppard all missed significant stretches, and the roster rarely resembled the one Carlisle drew up in training camp. Players missed a combined 429 games because of injury, according to Fieldhouse Files.
The losses piled up into streaks the franchise had never endured. A 13-game skid stretched from December into January. A 121-78 defeat in Detroit on January 17 dropped Indiana to 10-33. Then came a 16-game slide from February into March, the longest losing streak in franchise history.
Carlisle leaned on youth out of necessity. Jarace Walker took on a larger role, appearing in 76 games and averaging 11.6 points and 5.1 rebounds. His growth stood among the season’s few genuine positives. By the final night, a 133-121 loss to the Pistons, three of the nine Pacers who played were on two-way contracts.
Pascal Siakam refused to let the season swallow him. He started all 62 games he played and averaged 24.0 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 3.8 assists. That production earned him a spot as an All-Star reserve, a rare honor for a player on a team buried at the bottom of the standings.
Siakam delivered the season’s brightest nights. He scored 36 in a 120-105 win at Chicago on December 5. He poured in 30 during a 137-134 overtime victory at Madison Square Garden on February 10. He added 37 in a 128-126 escape at Orlando on March 23. A 145-126 rout at Chicago on April 1 produced the team’s highest-scoring night of the season.
One win carried more weight than the rest. On January 23, Indiana walked into Oklahoma City, the arena where its Finals dream had died, and held on for a 117-114 victory over the defending champions. For one night, the Pacers looked like the team that had come within a game of a title.
Every decision in a lost season carries consequences for the next one. Indiana’s biggest move of the year was made with the 2026-27 campaign in mind, and it came with a steep risk attached.
At the February 5 trade deadline, the Pacers moved aggressively to find Turner’s long-term replacement. They sent Bennedict Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson, their 2026 first-round pick, a 2029 first-round pick, and a second-rounder to the Los Angeles Clippers. In return, they received center Ivica Zubac and forward Kobe Brown.
Mathurin had been one of the few healthy scorers available, averaging 17.8 points in 28 games before the deal. Zubac, meanwhile, arrived nursing a lingering ankle problem that delayed his debut. He played only five games for Indiana, averaging 11.6 points and 7.2 rebounds.
The logic was clear. With Haliburton returning the following season, Indiana wanted a proven starting center to rebuild the core that had reached the Finals. The danger lay in the 2026 pick, which carried protection only if it landed in the top four.
The Pacers finished with the league’s second-worst record, which gave them strong odds of keeping their pick. The ping-pong balls had other plans. When the lottery was held in May, Washington jumped to the top spot, and Indiana slid to No. 5.
That single slot meant everything. Because the pick fell outside the protected range, it went straight to the Clippers. A franchise that had endured 63 losses walked away from the lottery with nothing to show for it.
Team president Kevin Pritchard publicly apologized to fans after the result, as reported by ESPN. The moment crystallized the cruelty of the season. Indiana had lost its stars, lost its games, and finally lost the one reward its suffering was supposed to provide.
The Pacers’ 2025-26 season will be remembered as the year everything broke at once. It marked the first time the franchise failed to reach 20 wins, a startling fall for an organization that has typically hovered around 40 victories and a playoff berth. For a fan base that had packed Gainbridge Fieldhouse during the Finals run, the drop was jarring. The full statistical toll is preserved on Basketball Reference, where the injury-ravaged box scores tell their own story.
Yet the year was not entirely without purpose. Siakam proved he could carry a franchise through its darkest stretch. Nembhard showed he could run an offense. Walker and Huff established themselves as rotation players. Zubac arrived as the presumed answer at center, giving the front office a clear blueprint for Haliburton’s return.
Could a season this bleak become the foundation for another deep run? That question hangs over everything Indiana does next. The Indiana Pacers bet heavily that health, not talent, was the real problem in 2025-26.
What cannot be undone is the history. The Pacers’ 2025-26 season stands as the lowest point in the franchise’s NBA history, a stark reminder of how quickly a contender can unravel when its foundation disappears.
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