Last year, the Indiana Pacers faced the Oklahoma City Thunder in a regular-season game. It was an unimportant regular-season game during a season in which the Pacers were tanking, and the Thunder had taken a step back.
Tyrese Haliburton was not eligible after tearing his Achilles in the NBA Finals in OKC just a few months earlier. Haliburton asked to be excused from the game, wanting to save that return to Oklahoma for when he could be back on the court for that game.
We now know when that game is happening.
The Pacers will battle the Thunder on February 5th, 2027, in the same arena where Tyrese saw his leg give out, and Pacers fans saw their team fall short in the biggest game in franchise history.
Even though they were thoroughly disrespected by the NBA league office, it's nice to see that this matchup is given the respect it deserves, coming in a prime slot and being lauded as one of the most anticipated games this year.
And that matchup is always a fun one anyway.
Hali and Shai, guards who play vastly different styles
The Pacers are 9-6 against the Thunder in their last fifteen matchups. While it's certainly not one-to-one, Indiana does certainly have the edge over their 2024-25 NBA Finals rival. Maybe it's playstyle, maybe it's matchups, but it is certainly not luck.
Indiana has also added a player who poses extreme matchup problems with the Thunder in Ivica Zubac. While OKC center Isaiah Hartenstein has clearly matched up against Zubac in the past, the positive lineup comp comes down largely to what Zubac enables the other four starters to do.
The Thunder are down some valuable depth pieces after they dumped Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins, and Isaiah Joe. None of those players are world-beaters, but they are important losses nonetheless. The Thunder have also seen some struggles as their second-best player battles injuries.
It's funny how different the basketball world would look had Haliburton and the Pacers pulled a massive upset.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander would be a score-first point guard who couldn't get over the hump despite his success as a two-time MVP. OKC likely would've looked harder at moving one of the two younger second options. Most importantly, the Pacers would not be hoping for a healthy Haliburton return.
Instead, we live in this world. The Pacers won just 19 games last season en route to a top-five pick that they didn't even get to keep. The Thunder crashed out against the San Antonio Spurs. Neither team liked last year.
Still, it is exciting to be able to look forward to these games again. Like it or not, basketball is back. Slowly but surely, we are ending the offseason.
Last year needs to be exercised before it haunts the team like a bad ghost, pulling them back into the lottery. For that to happen, Tyrese needs to face his fears, and he will do exactly that in early February.
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