{"id":60109,"date":"2025-08-10T22:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T22:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/60109\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T22:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T22:45:07","slug":"one-of-the-worst-finals-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/60109\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018One of the Worst Finals Teams’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former All-Star and Indiana Pacers point guard (though not an All-Star on the Pacers, it should be noted) has come out swinging against his old team.<\/p>\n

Since trading to acquire three-time All-Star power forward Pascal Siakam ahead of the 2023-24 season’s trade deadline, Indiana has been one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference \u2014 at least, when the playoffs start. <\/p>\n

More news:\u00a0Pacers Forward Already Trash Talking Rookie Top Pick<\/a><\/p>\n

Indiana has posted a just-okay regular season record of 97-67 across the these past two runs, but has made the Eastern Conference Finals for two consecutive years, and advanced all the way to the NBA Finals this past summer.<\/p>\n

Tragically, two-time All-NBA point guard Tyrese Haliburton, just 25, ruptured his Achilles tendon during Game 7 of the Pacers’ Finals clash against the Oklahoma City Thunder. <\/p>\n

More news:\u00a0Pacers Forward Already Trash Talking Rookie Top Pick<\/a><\/p>\n

Indiana held serve without him for a quarter and change (the injury happened in the first frame of the game), but fell apart in the second half of the bout. It had been the team’s first Finals appearance in 25 years. <\/p>\n

Now, Indiana faces a short-term “gap year” retool, with shooting guard Andrew Nembhard being temporarily shifted to Haliburton’s starting point guard role as he recuperates for all of 2025-26. The Pacers are currently without a starting-caliber replacement center Myles Turner, who departed as a free agent for the loathed Milwaukee Bucks.<\/p>\n

On a recent episode of his very entertaining “Club 520” podcast, ex-Pacers point guard Jeff Teague has issued some harsh words for Indiana’s Finals-bound roster in 2024-25. Teague, an Indianapolis native, played for his hometown team during the 2016-17 season. <\/p>\n

Suiting up for all 82 contests (all starts) on the 42-40 Pacers, the 6-foot-1 Wake Forest product averaged 15.3 points on .442\/.357\/.867 shooting splits, 7.8 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 1.2 steals a night.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the worst Finals teams in NBA history, bro.” Teague said. “One of the worst rosters in NBA history, that’s who made the Finals.” <\/p>\n

Granted, Indiana was technically an underdog in three of its four playoff series, and sported just two All-Stars in Haliburton and Siakam, neither of whom scores in bunches (at least, not at the level of, say, Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander). But the Pacers proved themselves to be quite deep and versatile, and employed a unique playing style that helped them overcome several starry challengers before ultimately falling to Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n

For more news and notes on the Indiana Pacers, visit\u00a0Indiana Pacers on SI<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former All-Star and Indiana Pacers point guard (though not an All-Star on the Pacers, it should be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-60109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}