The Indiana Pacers have been lost on the road this season. 11 losses in 12 road games, to be exact.
The Pacers lost their first 10 road games to start the 2025-26 season. A brief breakthrough, a victory against the Chicago Bulls on Dec. 5, was followed by another road setback, this one against the Philadelphia 76ers on Dec. 12.
There’s no need to overanalyze the numbers to explain the road woes. It all comes down to putting the ball in the basket. Indiana has shot worse from the field than its opponent in most road games this season. When the Pacers finish a road game with a lower field goal percentage than the opponent, they lose.*
Indiana shoots about 5 percentage points worse on the road than at home, which translates to 10 fewer points per road game, which translates to a lot of defeats.
Is there a roadmap to more road wins? Indiana fans who comb through the Pacers’ home-away splits will see five numbers of note that could help.
More shots for Pascal Siakam
The Pacers need Pascal Siakam to get more shots away from Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Siakam averages 2.6 fewer shots per road game. Some of that is due to Siakam seeing fewer minutes in games that have already gotten away, but that’s still a significant difference. If anything, Indiana should make a point of making sure its top scorer sees the ball more often on the road.
Knock-down shooting from Andrew Nembhard
Andrew Nembhard is making 30 percent of his three-point attempts in road games. That’s not terrible, but it's not great. It’s also nowhere near Nembhard’s scorching 45-percent accuracy from 3-point range at home. If Nembhard can lift his long-range road shooting closer to his home numbers, the Pacers will get a big boost.
Jarace Walker must find the range
Jarace Walker has been much-maligned in an expanded role this season. It’s really the road version of Walker that has been the cause for concern.
Walker’s typical home game is 11 points on 43 percent shooting. Not All-Star material, but not awful. Unfortunately, the Houston alum's typical road game is 8 points on a ghastly .257 field goal percentage. If Walker is going to continue to see significant road minutes, those numbers must improve.
T.J. McConnell also has a big difference in his home-away shooting splits, but it’s because his .571 home shooting percentage is so good. If McConnell can boost his numbers on the road, where he currently sports a respectable .459 shooting percentage, it would be a nice bonus.
Re-channeled aggression from Bennedict Mathurin
Bennedict Mathurin’s scoring and shooting splits are relatively similar at home and on the road. However, he averages 2.2 fewer rebounds per road game, along with an extra half-turnover. (To be fair, he also averages an extra two-thirds of an assist and a bonus half-block on the road). The ideal version of Mathurin would channel his aggressiveness into an extra couple of rebounds and a few less turnovers in games away from Indiana.
If you want to get technical …
The Pacers continue to “lead” the league in most free throw attempts for the opponent (30 per game), and they commit 2.4 more fouls per road game. They could reduce a portion of that number with fewer technical fouls. Indiana has been T’d up 22 times this season, one of the highest totals in the NBA.
*The Pacers have finished with a lower field goal percentage than the opponent in 10 of 12 road games this season. The other two contests? One was a November loss at Toronto when another kind of shooting – a season-worst performance at the free-throw line – led to defeat, even though the Pacers out-shot the Raptors from the field. That leaves Indiana’s lone road win of the season, the victory at Chicago, where the Pacers shot a season-road-best 53 percent.