Tyrese Haliburton walked to the podium in Madison Square Garden about 40 minutes after he and the Indiana Pacers set multiple playoff records. In a Game 7 win against the New York Knicks to conclude the 2024 Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Pacers couldn’t miss – they canned a postseason-best 76.3% of their shots in the first half and a record 67.1% overall in a 130-109 win.
Haliburton had many reasons to smile. His team was heading to the Eastern Conference Finals, and he was seated between his two best teammates in Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner. In front of Haliburton, who was wearing a sweatshirt that featured a picture of Reggie Miller doing his iconic choke gesture at Knicks superfan Spike Lee, sat a Lemonade flavored Prime sports drink. Turner, to Haliburton’s left, had sunglasses on indoors. Siakam, to the right, wore his post-series victory smile.
The Pacers were excited about their triumph. Suddenly, though, Haliburton’s mood shifted as he fielded a question about his team’s play style during the postseason. Specifically, he was asked about his opponents suggesting that the game slows down in the playoffs and what pace has meant to Indiana throughout the postseason.
“Do you think that we have slowed down a lot?” Haliburton responded, indignantly tapping the podium during the question. “It’s just the old school way of thinking that you can’t play this fast in the playoffs.”
The Pacers had just outrun the hobbled Knicks, both that night and throughout the series. In Game 7, Indiana averaged 15.55 seconds per offensive possession – a full half-second quicker than the Knicks. For the series, the blue and gold finished with an offensive pace of 14.7 while New York’s was over 16.7. That two-second difference was more obvious in Pacers wins, but it was present every night. In the first round last year, Indiana beat Milwaukee and had a similarly large seconds-per-possession gap (14.63 to 16.67), and they were the faster team in five of the six games.
In the 2024 Eastern Conference Finals, Indiana finished the series with a much faster pace than the Boston Celtics, but couldn’t topple the eventual champions. It was a 4-0 sweep – though Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla thought that battling the Pacers was more difficult than any other opponent on his team’s title run. “That Indiana series was by far the toughest series,” Mazzulla said last fall..Even in victory, opposing teams walked away from their battles with the Pacers stunned by their speed.
The repeatedly uttered phrase is that the game slows down in the playoffs. The Pacers don’t.
The adage about slower games in the postseason has existed for years. Legendary head coach Phil Jackson had his own phrase for it: “Put them in the grinder, we say.” As two teams get to know each other, it’s only natural that pace falls. It takes more effort, and time, to beat a prepared opponent – especially one that has built a specific defensive game plan to stop one team, and even more so as they have multiple games to fine-tune it over the course of the series
There are countless reasons why teams have a grinding tempo on the biggest stage. Some teams prefer it and slow to a more deliberate pace on purpose. They call rehearsed plays and walk the ball across the timeline. The Pacers, meanwhile, are offended by the idea of slowing down. Haliburton was twitching just at the thought of doing so last year. This year, even after postseason wins, they can’t help but think about playing faster.
“Playing faster, being who we are,” Haliburton said after Game 1 of the Pacers’ first-round series against the Bucks when asked about attacking. Indiana had won,yet still yearned for a more effective pace. “I think we’re the hardest team to guard in the NBA when it comes to transition offense.”
Backup center Thomas Bryant noted something similar after a win later in the series. Every time the Pacers want to adjust their cadence, they choose faster. They are comfortable racing around the court, and doing so gives them the best chance to win.
Bryant backs up Myles Turner, who has been with Indiana for his entire 10-year career. Turner has played on slower teams guided by head coach Nate McMillan but has adjusted well to his new, faster reality. He, too, thinks up-tempo play is vital in the postseason. “Our depth is huge. We’re able to play 10 to 12 guys in the playoffs series. It’s really unheard of,” Turner said of his team playing fast in the postseason. “But we have the roster to do so. It just comes back to our training. We have role clarity, guys know exactly what they’re supposed to do.”
Haliburton agreed, and he isn’t even sure if the common thought about the game slowing down is accurate. “I think the playoffs call for more physicality, scouting what teams like to do, all those things. It’s just human nature. I think all these games are really close as well. So down the stretch of games, the game gets slowed down. You want to get the best shot available every possession. I think it’s true to a sense,” he said of the overused idea. But then, his mind went back to the Pacers. “I think our identity is how fast we play. We talk about playing with controlled chaos. I think at the same time, we’re not only fast in transition and in the full court. Our halfcourt offense is fast as well… I feel like it’s maybe overblown a little bit, but I understand where it comes from.”
Entering the conference finals, the Pacers have the second-fastest pace of any playoff team still alive (99.3). Only the Oklahoma City Thunder are playing faster. The rest of the top-seven has been eliminated. Quicker teams are largely struggling.
Then there’s the 8-2 Pacers, who finished the regular season ranked seventh in pace. In 2023-24, the blue and gold were second in the metric during the regular season, then finished sixth among playoff squads. The five teams ahead of them all lost before the Conference Finals, and only one of them (OKC) won even a single round. That’s what the Thunder and Pacers are showing once again – playing fast and winning isn’t typical, or easy, in the postseason.
Sprinting everywhere and executing an up-tempo system doesn’t lead to postseason wins for many teams. For the Pacers, it’s the primary way they know how to succeed. They wear teams down until the best-of-seven is over. Their offensive sets are quick. But it’s the little things that make playing against Indiana exhausting.
When the ball goes flying out of bounds during live play, for any reason, the Pacers are quick to retrieve it in an attempt to jump-start their next possession, fast break or not. They demand the ball from the officials ahead of inbounds plays, often hopping with nervy urgency while waiting for the rock. When their opponent makes, or misses, a layup, the Pacers are off and running. They know that a member of the opposing team is under the basket after a shot from in close – turning the play around quickly often leads to an open chance.
Indiana’s foe knows these rapid moves and anxious plays are coming. But they can’t stop it or handle it – Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell noted that while the Cavs did talk about the Pacers’ tempo when prepping for their best-of-seven set, it was hard to simulate it in a practice setting. The Pacers ended up winning their series against the Cavaliers in five games.
Opposing coaches know the challenge the Pacers present. Mazzulla made that clear. But other coaches have detailed exactly what is so hard about stopping the Pacers and their speed in the playoffs.
Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers explained that he’s never believed the old truism about it being harder to run in the playoffs. “Did anyone watch the Magic Johnson Lakers? I don’t remember them walking the ball up the floor. Did anyone watch the [first] 11 titles the Celtics won? All they did was run and push the ball up the floor,” he said. “I will say (playoff basketball) does slow a tad, but not enough to affect the teams,” Rivers concluded.
Rivers’ team tried to use tempo to their advantage by slowing the game down in this year’s first-round rematch. A slower speed would have favored Milwaukee. But it didn’t work, and the Pacers beat Rivers and the Bucks in five games, setting up a date with the Cavaliers.
The Cavs are coached by Kenny Atkinson. He, too, wondered if the common thinking about the game slowing down is actually correct, especially when it comes to the Pacers. “They have the opposite philosophy. ‘We’re going to go faster,’” Atkinson said of the Pacers’ speed and how they think about it as a team. “We have a pretty good half court defense. Their adjustment was [to] push it. Push it ever faster at them. They have the personnel to do that.” As Mitchell, one of Atkinson’s star players, noted above – preparing for a series vs Indiana is challenging.
Indiana’s style wouldn’t work for every roster, but the pulse increase is leading to victories. The blue and gold are 8-2 in the playoffs this year and just took down a 64-win team – only the fourth team in NBA history with at least that many wins to lose before the conference finals. It was the Pacers and their juiced-up, physical style that knocked Cleveland out.
That’s another area where the Pacers take things a step further. Typically, teams that play fast are considered to be more finesse. They don’t get the physical label. Indiana is starting to earn that tag in this postseason – Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson repeatedly discussed the physical nature that the blue and gold had against his team in the second round, and Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle smiled at his team being called a physical group. It’s a rare combination of traits for a team to possess. Not many race by while bruising opponents along the way.
Haliburton is the central part of all this. He can move himself and the ball, in tandem, better than just about anybody in the league. Atkinson shared this month that Haliburton’s movements remind him of Steph Curry, who Atkinson coached as an assistant with the Golden State Warriors from 2021-24. Indiana would play a different style if their star had different strengths. They certainly wouldn’t play this fast.
Haliburton’s arrival in Indiana coincided with the team’s shift toward a more up-tempo style. Since that day, almost every acquisition made by the Pacers front office has been a player who is comfortable getting out and running. Obi Toppin was brought in via trade, then Siakam a few months later. T.J. McConnell and Andrew Nembhard had their contracts extended. Turner was retained and Aaron Nesmith was acquired. A certain level of dedication and focus is needed to play for the Pacers right now given their methods, and the collective buy-in during the postseason makes their up-tempo thinking work.
Very few players on this roster prefer to stop and face up. Benedict Mathurin and Siakam can put points on the scoreboard playing that way – they are both talented isolation scorers. But the Pacers are better when all five players on the court are fast and connected. Those two have adjusted their styles to fit in and make sure the team can always play fast.
As the NBA turns to slower play almost by default in the playoffs, the Pacers do the opposite. They are very intentional about their pace – fitting for a team with their name. They have raced past opponents to a second-consecutive conference finals berth, and have an NBA Finals trip on their minds after taking down Cleveland. If Indiana’s style can best the Knicks one more time, then the Pacers could zoom right on to the biggest stage the NBA offers – and simultaneously past several old-school and outdated basketball philosophies about pace in the process.
