Pacers prove their NBA Finals run was not a fluke

No franchise in the NBA better exemplifies the old "basketball is a team sport" adage than the Indiana Pacers. 

Last season, Rick Carlisle's squad became the first team in NBA history to have eight players score 200 or more points through a postseason run, as they came one win away from hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

No Tyrese Haliburton? No problem for Pacers

Two of those eight players, Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner, won't be suiting up for the Pacers this season. While Haliburton (Achilles) is ruled out for the entire season, Turner took his talents to the Milwaukee Bucks in free agency. 

Surely, those losses ought to hurt the Pacers, right? Think again. In their season opener Thursday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Pacers pushed the reigning NBA champions to double overtime in a 141-135 loss.

Indiana Pacers simply don't quit

The remarkable thing is that Haliburton and Turner weren't the only heroes of last year's Pacers team missing in action on Thursday.

Pacers sparkplug guard T.J. McConnell was sidelined with a hamstring injury, and Andrew Nembhard, Haliburton's replacement as point guard, left the game in the second quarter with shoulder soreness.

That's not all — Aaron Nesmith fouled out with 6:08 left in the fourth quarter, and Bennedict Mathurin, who led the Pacers with 36 points, fouled out with 4:11 left in the second overtime period. Mind you, Mathurin was the one who forced double overtime with a clutch three with 12.6 seconds left in the first extra period after regulation.

Despite running out of all those bodies, the Pacers kept fighting until the end, proving again why they are the most team-oriented franchise in the NBA. 

It was a reminder to 29 other teams that it doesn't matter who suits up for the Pacers — when you face them, you're in for a dogfight. The Pacers could field a group of G Leaguers, and they would still push the pace, play an agenda-free style of ball and fight to the finish.