Indiana Pacers will play Los Angeles Lakers in In-Season Tournament Finals

LAS VEGAS — After taking down the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday and advancing to the NBA In-Season Tournament Finals, the Indiana Pacers now know who they will face in the Championship game.

By defeating the New Orleans Pelicans, the Los Angeles Lakers will be the Western Conference representative in the title game. The Pacers and Lakers will face off in the first-ever In-Season Tournament Finals on Saturday night. It's a rematch of the 2000 NBA Finals — the only Finals that Indiana has ever played in.

The Pacers reached this moment behind two big games this week. They took down the Boston Celtics on Monday to begin their ascent, and they were ready for the spotlight in a victory over the Bucks yesterday. Indiana hasn't looked like a young, inexperienced team this week.

Their final test will be the Lakers, and perhaps the greatest player of all time in LeBron James. "We've got a lot of guys that want to compete for something and play for something bigger than ourselves," Indiana's star guard Tyrese Haliburton said Thursday.

Los Angeles crushed New Orleans 133-89 last night, and James finished with 30 points and eight assists. They have been a great team since most of their team returned from injuries and will present Indiana with a ton of challenges, especially defensively.

"They are a good ballclub. We were actually talking about maybe last week that they score a lot of points," Lakers star Anthony Davis said of the Pacers. "They are young. They are scrappy. They get out and run, and they play the right way. So it's going to be a test for our defense, for sure. But it's going to be an exciting game," he added.

The Lakers are 14-9 while the Pacers are 12-8. They have not played each other yet during the regular season, and this title game does not count as a regular season game. Both teams will resume their normal schedule early next week after this title game.

They will worry about that later. For now, both squads have to practice ahead of a rare December game with a ton of buzz and consequence. It will tip off at 8:30 pm EST on Saturday night on ESPN. The Pacers will hope they are ready for it.