The Indiana Pacers beat the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday night by a final score of 136-109, but it came at a massive price.
Star center Ivica Zubac – the only real addition from the Pacers' 2025-26 gap year – suffered an ankle injury just seven minutes into the game and was seen on crutches afterward. He is expected to miss a decent amount of time with this injury. That is now a third difference-maker dealing with an injury.
However, in his absence, backup center J Huff played 21 minutes and scored 14 points on 5/6 shooting. While he did not rebound the way one would expect a big man to, it was Pascal Siakam who led the charge on the boards, adding seven rebounds to a 21-point scoring night.
It was an impressive showing for both players, who will need to pick up a lot of slack without the Croatian center. Huff was particularly impressive as a slasher, catching the ball on the perimeter and attacking off the catch in a way 7'1 players rarely do.
Without Zubac, the Pacers will have to hope players on their bench can step up, with Huff chief among them. With such a void in finishing possessions, the Pacers will need to commit more players to the defensive glass while still maintaining their typical pace. If they can do so, they'll leave this saga as a team better suited to support Zubac.
In the meantime, if Huff can produce the way he did, Indiana should be far better set up for the playoffs, with more meaningful, usable depth than anyone might have anticipated.
Huff to the Moon
Jack Simone will have more on this later this afternoon, but the Pacers will be relying on Jay Huff for the next few months. The former Memphis Grizzlies center will need to continue to shoot effectively while protecting the rim to match part of what the Pacers valued so highly when they sought out that trade for Zubac.
The biggest area of worry for this brief but vital transition is in the category of screen-setting. Where Zubac is a massive frame that walls off defenders chasing their matchups, Huff is a far more slender build, better built for slashing and perimeter defense, but struggling to create the same vacuous openings in pick-and-rolls that Zubac does.
Huff and Zubac are such vastly different players that it seems odd that the Pacers had one as the direct replacement for the other. Huff excels in many of the same ways former Pacer big Myles Turner did, namely as a trailer shooting threes and as a rim protector who was tested often.
Zubac succeeded on defense through a blend of rim deterrence and rebounding to end possessions. Huff does the opposite, hoping to challenge those who come at him – because they will try him – and to make up for any defensive shortcomings with his offensive skill set.
Whenever you lose a top three player on your roster for a significant stretch of time, you're going to be in trouble, but at least the Pacers have a quality option waiting in the wings.
Add us as a preferred source on Google