The Indiana Pacers went through a brutal season last year. Losing Tyrese Haliburton in Game 7 of the NBA Finals ended up costing him the entire 2025-26 campaign, and the Pacers felt the loss. Now, Haliburton is out again. He’s week-to-week with a mild left hamstring strain, and it’s clearer than ever that the Pacers need him if they want to be relevant.
On Sunday night, the Pacers lost to the Brooklyn Nets. It was the Nets’ first win of the season. Haliburton has missed the Pacers’ last two games, and they are 0-2 in them. Obviously, they were very competitive in the loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, but losing to the Nets is definitely brutal.
Haliburton will be back. The Pacers will be just fine. But it’s been made very clear that Indiana desperately needs Haliburton to get healthy if they want to make any real noise this year.
Pacers need Tyrese Haliburton to make real noise
Indiana has plenty of talent on the roster. But last year was a pretty clear test case: If Haliburton isn’t healthy, the Pacers aren’t going to win many games. That seems to be holding up this season.
They can stay in games. They can keep things close. But they really need Haliburton to be on the floor if they want to close things out and be competitive on a night-to-night basis.
Right now, there’s no real need to freak out about Haliburton’s absence. All the Pacers have to do is remain relatively competitive until he gets back. Just enough to stick around in the playoff picture.
Obviously, losses to teams like the Nets aren’t really good enough to accomplish that goal, but in the grand scheme of things, Indiana should be able to maintain its spot alongside the rest of the East’s best teams.
Or can they? We all say what happened when Haliburton was out last year. Maybe Haliburton is just that important to winning, even during the regular season.
That’s not really something the Pacers can afford to figure out this year. Every win is going to count this year. The Eastern Conference is absolutely stacked, and a few wins could be the difference between a playoff spot and an early exit once again.
The Pacers need Haliburton back as soon as possible if they want to remain a legitimate threat in the East this year. If they want to stay relevant throughout the course of the season.
Haliburton is the key to everything.
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