{"id":610541,"date":"2026-04-28T03:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610541\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T03:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T03:58:09","slug":"a-looming-pacers-lottery-fever-momentum-and-kenny-moore-gets-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610541\/","title":{"rendered":"A looming Pacers lottery, Fever momentum, and Kenny Moore gets real"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good evening and welcome back to Fieldhouse Files. It was a stormy day in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

Sunday marked just two weeks until a significant date in Pacers history: the draft lottery.<\/p>\n

After going 19-63 this past season, they have a 14% chance at the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft. More importantly, they have a 52.1% shot of selecting inside the top four \u2014 which is critical. If they drop out of the top four, their pick goes to the LA Clippers as part of a midseason trade that brought center <\/a>Ivica Zubac<\/a> to Indy.<\/a><\/p>\n

The draft lottery show will air live from Chicago at 3 p.m. ET on May 10. Yes, that\u2019s also Mother\u2019s Day. The Pacers need all the good karma they can get ahead of this.<\/p>\n

As for Pacers basketball and the NBA Playoffs, I\u2019ve been thinking about this for a while: Can they maintain their pace and increased number of possessions while staying healthy? We saw another young player, Donte DiVincenzo, suffer a torn Achilles tendon in the playoffs over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\"X<\/p>\n

Hardwood Paroxysm@HPbasketball<\/p>\n

We’re just never going to get another playoffs decided by anything but attrition until they slow the game down by rule change or reduce the schedule.<\/p>\n

1:43 AM \u00b7 Apr 26, 2026 \u00b7 178K Views<\/p>\n

68 Replies \u00b7 112 Reposts \u00b7 1.78K Likes<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Fever were back inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Monday to resume training camp. They enjoyed Sunday off after shooting 51% and scoring 29 points off turnovers in a 109-91 road win against the New York Liberty.<\/p>\n

Click here to read my game recap and watch my report.<\/a><\/p>\n

They have two more exhibition games, both at home: Thursday vs. Dallas and Saturday vs. the Nigeria National Team.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I spent Friday evening at the Lucas Oil Estate as Republic Airways hosted its 14th annual Plane Pull gala \u2014 benefiting A Kid Again, Indiana Wish, Riley Children\u2019s Foundation, Peyton Manning Children\u2019s Hospital at Ascension St. Vincent, and other children\u2019s organizations.<\/p>\n

Pacers Sports & Entertainment was one of many sponsors for the event.<\/p>\n

One of the special guests was Colts cornerback Kenny Moore II. He\u2019s been with the franchise since signing as an undrafted free agent in 2017. Years later, he\u2019s one of four players featured on giant photos inside Lucas Oil Stadium.<\/p>\n

However, he recently requested a trade<\/a> \u2014 seeking a fresh start elsewhere \u2014 so he doesn\u2019t know how much longer he\u2019ll be here. But the former Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award nominee for the Colts clearly values this community.<\/p>\n

Two Sundays ago, on April 19, I ran into him sitting courtside for the Indy Ignite game against Dallas Pulse in Fishers. He\u2019s also frequently attended Pacers and Fever games.<\/p>\n

Moore choked up and grew emotional when reflecting on his time here.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been so welcoming over the course of these nine years in this community. One thing that I\u2019ll definitely take away, that\u2019s one of my favorite memories, is teaching eight graders life skills and learning the curriculum around it and just seeing them thrive and giving me a headache at the same time, but I can\u2019t help a headache too. (laughs)<\/p>\n

Just putting myself in a position as an educator or a teacher is \u2014 I don\u2019t think teachers get enough credit for what they do.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been able to meet so many great people over the course of Indianapolis, but the one that hits home for me \u2026 [pause to collect himself, and the crowd applauded in support]<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been the families that I\u2019ve been able to meet. I think for me, I\u2019ve always tried to find comfort wherever I\u2019ve been in life and being here in Indianapolis since 2017, I met a couple families that have made me feel at home so I kind of adopted this place and Indianapolis adopted me. It feels like a hometown, so yeah, Indiana will always have a special place in my heart.<\/p>\n

We most often see these players in their element \u2014 on the hardwood or the field. But this is just another example of a player opening up and sharing human feelings.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Damiris Dantas watches as Caitlin Clark shoots before practice.<\/p>\n

Fever reserve center Damiris Dantas is ready for her third summer in Indianapolis \u2014 but first, she needed an approved work visa.<\/p>\n

That requirement delayed her arrival, which finally came over the weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good evening and welcome back to Fieldhouse Files. It was a stormy day in Indianapolis. Sunday marked just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-610541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}