Indiana Pacers News

Home

Quizzes

Watch

Newsletter

Jun 16, 2025; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA; Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) drives to the basket past Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort (5) during the third quarter in game five of the 2025 NBA Finals at Paycom Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Pacers Appear to Be Haunting Eastern Conference Head Coach

Originally posted on Indianapolis Pacers on SI
By Alex Kirschenbaum | Last updated Aug 8, 2025 11:00 AM ET

The Indiana Pacers were the story of the playoffs this past spring.

After sneaking into the Eastern Conference Finals as a No. 6 seed in 2024, no one was sleeping on Indiana heading into the playoffs this year, per se, but a shaky 2024-25 season start had led pundits to underestimate the ceiling of this chippy, athletic, sharpshooting pace-and-space team.

So the Pacers advancing all the way to the NBA Finals as a No. 4 seed and pushing the 68-win Oklahoma City Thunder to seven games wasn't on many bingo cards outside of Indianapolis.

Now, the Pacers are haunting a rival Eastern Conference head coach they ousted on their march to their first NBA Finals in 25 years.

More news: Pacers Urged to Sign All-Star Free Agent as Tyrese Haliburton Replacement

During his first season as the Cleveland Cavaliers' head coach, Kenny Atkinson guided his club to a stellar 64-18 record and the top seed in the East. But injuries and pacing issues ultimately grounded Cleveland in the second round of the playoffs for the second straight season,

This year, the favored Cavaliers were usurped in a brisk, five-game "gentleman's sweep" by the lower-seeded Pacers.

Atkinson clearly isn't over it.

On the latest episode of the "Wine and Gold Talk" podcast, Cleveland.com's Chris Fedor revealed that the reigning Coach of the Year has been rewatching the Cavaliers' futile second-round playoff series loss to Indiana "so many different times trying to study" during the offseason.

“Kenny Atkinson was with the team in Las Vegas,” Fedor said. “He spent some time with Evan Mobley and DeAndre Hunter out in Los Angeles. He spent some time with Darius Garland going through the whole recovery plan with the doctors and stuff like that. He went out to see Sam Merrill. He went out to see Donovan Mitchell."

“He even told me he has rewatched the Indiana series so many different times trying to study that and learn from that,” Fedor added.

More news: Pacers' Pascal Siakam Embracing Indiana Culture in Major Way

Atkinson has received some injury karma heading into the 2025-26 season.

Three of his top East rivals have been decimated by Achilles tendon tears to All-Star players suffered during the postseason.

More news: Pacers Summer League Standout Predicted to Have Shot at Cracking Roster

Then-Milwaukee Bucks nine-time All-Star point guard Damian Lillard ruptured his own Achilles in an eventual five-game first-round playoff loss to Indiana this spring.

Scrambling Bucks GM Jon Horst opted to stretch and waive Lillard's contract to poach Pacers starting center Myles Turner in free agency. It was a solid recovery, but Milwaukee has yet to truly address its loss of Lillard in the backcourt, and doesn't seem nearly ready to conted again.

More news: Pacers Forward Already Trash Talking Rookie Top Pick

Indiana, meanwhile, is without All-NBA superstar point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who tore his Achilles in Game 7 of the Finals. Haliburton has already been ruled out for the entire 2025-26 season, which may have inspired the Pacers to be less-than-aggressive in re-signing Turner.

This summer, te 2024 champion Boston Celtics traded away multiple veterans to save money after six-time All-Star power forward Jayson Tatum went down with his own Achilles rupture in a second-round playoff series.

Now, the Cavaliers and New York Knicks are looking like the class of the conference by default. On paper, anyway, Atkinson may not need to fear a Pacers squad that hasn't found equivalent replacements for Haliburton or Turner in its first five.