Deep dive into LeBron James' history with Pacers ahead of In-Season Tournament Finals

After going undefeated in group play and surviving two grueling matchups against East powerhouses, the Indiana Pacers have met the final team standing between them and the inaugural In-Season Tournament championship and $500k for everyone, the mighty Los Angeles Lakers.

For the Pacers, this means more to them than it would for most teams. Indiana has gotten the most attention they have gotten in years because of this tournament.

Most notably, the last two games against Milwaukee and Boston, thanks to the efforts of Tyrese Haliburton, who has fully arrived on the scene and let his name be known as a sleeper MVP candidate and legitimate superstar.

However, as history has shown, the one obstacle standing between Indiana and glory for the past decade has more or less been one man: LeBron James.

James and the Pacers have quite the history with one another, as going back to 2012, they have met in the playoffs five times, including three years in a row from 2012 to 2014 and two years in a row, from 2017 to 2018, with LeBron being on the Cavaliers for the second run and the Heat for the first run.

Let's discuss those five playoff series and how much of a Kryptonite LeBron has been for Indiana since 2012.

The Miami days: LeBron vs. Paul George

Prior to moving to Cleveland, LeBron didn't really have much history with the Pacers outside of routinely beating them when they met up.

In 27 games from 2003-04 to 2009-10, James posted an 18-9 record against Indiana in the regular season, even winning nine games in a row from December 9, 2006, to December 5, 2008, a full two-year span in which Indiana didn't get a single win over LeBron's Cavs.

After going to Miami, however, that would change. In LeBron's four years with the Heat, he matched up with Indiana in the playoffs three times and dispatched them from competition all three times.

With the exception of 2010-2011, James' inaugural year with Miami and the year the Pacers made the playoffs with a 37-45 record due to a horrendous Eastern Conference, Indiana vs Miami was a mainstay on fans' television screens until 2014.

Their first playoff meeting was in 2012, in which Miami won in six games. While Indiana put up a decent fight, winning two games and playing some balanced basketball, it was clear that they were still a tier or two lower than the Heat, who dispatched them in six, including a 32-point clobbering in game five to win the series and go on to the Conference Finals against Boston.

This series is perhaps not even best known for the play on the court but rather for Lance Stephenson's antics from the bench, as despite only playing seven minutes across two games in the series, Stephenson still managed to make headlines early in his career with a "choke" gesture towards LeBron James after a missed free throw in the third quarter of a lopsided Indiana win.

Despite Stephenson being a lowly bench player at the time, LeBron and the Heat did not take kindly to this gesture, and reports came out later that three Heat players were sent to the Pacers locker room to address Lance, a rumor that has not been confirmed to be true.

With Indiana being a tier or two lower than Miami in 2012, they seemed to have closed that gap by a decent margin in 2013, as they improved their record to 49-32 in the next season, good for first in the Central Division and the third seed in the East.

After dispatching the Hawks in the first round and the New York Knicks in the second round, one of the most exciting playoff series in recent Pacers memory, LeBron and the Heat were waiting for them with bated breath.

This would, unfortunately, be the closest Indiana ever came to beating LeBron and the Heat in the playoffs, as this series went down to the wire, going seven games before a 99-76 blowout in favor of Miami decided things and sent the Heat to the NBA Finals and the Pacers packing.

While Danny Granger may have been the previous series star, this series was about Indiana's new but relatively short-lived dynamic duo of Roy Hibbert and Paul George.

Fresh off winning a Most Improved Player award, George more than held his own against James in the playoffs, averaging 19 points, six rebounds, and five assists to go along with multiple highlight plays, including the play that many consider defines the Paul George era in Indiana, a thunderous dunk over Chris Andersen in the third quarter of game three, a moment that is still talked about to this day as one of the most exciting moments in Pacers history.

While George was fantastic in his coming out party, and Hibbert was somehow even better, averaging 22 points and 10 rebounds, Indiana still didn't provide enough to beat Miami, which showed in the box scores.

Despite winning three games out of seven, LeBron James still led every game in the series in scoring, and Indiana was clearly missing Danny Granger, who missed all but five games in the 2012-13 season, including the entire playoffs. Back to the drawing board they went.

The 2013-14 Indiana Pacers were a team of high expectations, exceeding such expectations, superstar breakouts, and a monumental collapse.

After going 46-13 in the first 59 games of the season and gracing the cover of SLAM magazine, Indiana collapsed the rest of the way, going 10-13 in the remaining 23 games amid whispers of locker room turmoil around two trades, one which shipped Danny Granger away and got Evan Turner, and one that brought noted headcase Andrew Bynum to Indiana.

Despite this, and Roy Hibbert's production dropping drastically after the All-Star Break, Indiana still finished 56-26 and nabbed the first seed in the East, beating out LeBron's Heat by two games.

However, the playoffs would bring about a different story. After narrowly avoiding elimination at the hands of the eight-seeded Hawks and beating the Wizards in six games, Indiana faced James and the Heat for the third season in a row.

This time, however, it was clear the team had run out of gas, as a combination of chemistry issues and just being outmatched in a series got the better of Indiana, as they lost in six games to the Heat and watched LeBron and company make their fourth NBA finals in a row.

Despite Paul George taking another step up in the playoffs, increasing his average to 24 points per game and actually being the biggest scorer in the series, surpassing LeBron's 22.8 points per game, this series is, for better or worse, remembered for the antics of Lance Stephenson.

Most notably, this game is remembered for Stephenson blowing in James' ear in a narrow Game 5 victory for Indiana. However, this game would be the last gasp the Pacers had of being a legit contender in the Paul George era, as a 92-117 loss in Game 6 would be the final Pacers playoff game past the first round since that day.

In some ways, it's quite poetic how things ended. Miami's battles with Indiana started with Lance Stephenson's antics when he was a bench warmer and ended with even more antics when he was a legitimate starter.

The Cleveland Days: Paul George's final run and the rise of Oladipo

Following the 2014 playoffs, Indiana would stumble upon some bad luck, as Paul George's infamous injury would take them out of the 2015 playoffs, and despite returning to relatively full form, his supporting cast had gotten worse, which led to a seven-game first-round exit, in 2016 at the hands of the Toronto Raptors.

The next year would be worse, however, as Indiana once again faced LeBron James in the playoffs, this time as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Sure enough, LeBron and the Cavaliers' fortunes against the Pacers remained, as they handed Indiana their first sweep of the Paul George era, although the total margin of victory for the entire series was only 16 points.

This game, of course, included one of the worst games in Pacers history, as Indiana miraculously blew a 26-point lead in game 3 to go down 3-0 and lose Game 4 by only four points, ending the series and Paul George's time with Indiana as a result.

Despite George being gone and Indiana being projected to regress to a lottery team, Victor Oladipo and company had other plans, and the Pacers actually improved from the past season, going 48-34 and nabbing the fifth seed en route to yet another matchup with Cleveland and LeBron.

This time, however, the Cavaliers looked quite different, as Kyrie Irving was replaced with a slew of role players and Indiana looked far stronger than before. This showed in the series, as Indiana kept it close throughout, even getting cheated out of a win due to a missed goaltending call before ultimately losing by four points in Game 7.

Although the Paul George era had exciting moments and is perhaps most remembered when LeBron vs. the Pacers is discussed, this series was probably the best shot Indiana had at beating LeBron James in a playoff series.

This series would bring the final hurrah of Victor Oladipo as a legit star player, as he averaged 22 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and two steals on 42/40 shooting splits while having countless clutch moments, including a 28-point explosion in a game-six blowout to tie the series 3-3 going into Cleveland.

In the end, it wasn't meant to be, and that game six win was the last playoff game the Pacers have won as of December 2023.

Current day fortunes and overall thoughts

Following this series and the Cavaliers' Finals loss to the Warriors, LeBron would move to the Los Angeles Lakers, and battles with the Pacers became more scarce as time went on, with James going 5-5 against Indiana in his Lakers tenure.

That is not to say that the rivalry has not had its moments though. Most notably, the second most recent game on November 28, 2022, was one of the most exciting Pacers games in recent memory. Of course, most people know about Bennedict Mathurin's comments on LeBron following draft day 2022.

Although some took his quote at face value, Mathurin still backed up his talk with actions, outplaying James on the night as Indiana won off an Andrew Nembhard buzzer-beater.

Overall, LeBron James has a total regular season record of 40-24 against the Indiana Pacers and a dominant 20-10 record vs Indiana in the playoffs. Indiana has notoriously never been able to get over the hump of a LeBron James-led playoff team, and with James turning 39 at the end of the year, this might be Indiana's last chance to get a meaningful win over the all-time great before his career comes to an end.

Indiana fans have been very vocal about their dislike of LeBron James over the past decade or so, but there has always been an element of respect there. Regardless, Pacers fans would like nothing more than to rain on LeBron's parade one last time and snatch the inaugural tourney championship away from the Lakers.

One thing is for sure, though: win or lose, Saturday's In-Season Tournament final should be a great game, and if Tyrese Haliburton can get a big win over James and company, he only furthers his status as the next golden boy of Indiana.