It's shaping up as a record-breaking season for the Indiana Pacers - though certainly not in the manner fans expected or hoped.
As the NBA season enters its final weeks, the 2025-26 Pacers are on pace to establish a slew of franchise records. Unfortunately, all of those records are the undesirable kind. The ones for lots of losses, lots of points allowed, and lots of injuries.
Here's a breakdown of what Indiana has to do in its last 14 games to avoid some unwanted places in the team record book.
Record wreckers
Indiana needs six wins in its last 14 games to finish with a better record than the 1982-83 Pacers, who set the franchise record for futility with a 20-62 record.
Logically, Indiana also could finish with the fewest number of home wins and away victories in team history. The Pacers currently are 10-24 at home. The franchise low for a full season is 14 by that 1982-83 team. (The 2020-21 squad won 13 home games in a 72-game season).
Indiana enters the final weeks of the season with a 5-28 road record. The Pacers still need one win to equal the franchise season-low of six, "accomplished" three years in a row in the early 1980s.
The Pacers are already guaranteed to set a franchise record for the biggest drop-off in total wins over a full season. Even if they run the table, they would still finish with 21 fewer wins than last season. The previous franchise-worst drop-off was a decline of 18 wins from 2013-14 to 2014-15. (Technically, the biggest decline was 25 wins between the 1997-98 team that recorded 58 victories and the 1998-99 squad that won 33 times during the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season. If the current Pacers don't win 11 times in the last 14 games, they'll erase that technicality from the record books as well).
Pointing out some extremes
The 2025-26 squad is on pace to establish a franchise-worst for average point differential. Indiana enters the last weeks of the season with a -8.7 point differential. The previous franchise worst was -6.2 by the 1984-85 squad. If the Pacers want to avoid setting that record, they'll need to outscore their opponents by 84 total points over the last 14 games.
The current Pacers are also on pace to surrender more points than any other team in franchise history. Indiana has allowed 119.9 points per contest. The previous record was 120.2 points allowed per game by the 2023-24 squad that nonetheless reached the Eastern Conference Finals. The Pacers have allowed more than 120 points in 10 of 13 games since the All-Star Break. If the trend holds, they'll "surpass" the 2023-24 squad by the end of the season.
Body count
It seems like the injury-riddled roster has a new face every night, so Pacer fans will find this hard to believe: Indiana's use of 27 players this season is not only not a franchise record, but it isn't even the most of the last five years. The 2021-22 squad went through 28 players. The big difference, of course, is that the 2021-22 team went through a lot of players because of franchise-altering trades. The current team has gone through a lot of players due to franchise-altering injuries.