Unbelievable: the Pacers played with only six players against the Hawks!
Injuries are ravaging the start of the NBA regular season
It is a fact that injuries are changing the NBA landscape at the start of the season. In the West , for example, although the Thunder are holding up, the three long-term injuries to three of their starters, two for the entire season , leave them with fewer chances of fighting for the title. Houston , for example, has emerged as the main alternative to the Spurs in that conference. And we are only two weeks in.
But it hasn’t only been the Thunder . There are many teams that are already missing many of their players, even league stars . And the Indiana Pacers are one of the hardest hit, so much so that they have been involved in something unprecedented in the NBA at this point in the schedule.
And, between injuries and rest—often mandatory— Rick Carlisle had only six players available to face the Atlanta Hawks in Indiana . In more than 80 years of history, only one similar case is remembered this early: the Lakers in 1948 , with five players in their third game of the season.
It is not the first time that a team has played with six players , of course. There have been several cases in recent years, but never so close to the start of the season . It is a case more typically reserved for the period near the end of the regular season and the start of the Playoffs.
Even so, the Indiana players made the Georgia team suffer, 104-108, but of course they ended the game exhausted. The player who spent the least time on the court was Quenton Jackson , 35 minutes, and Kobe Brown , who came off the bench, played 38.
The Pacers' injury list is immense: Tyrese Haliburton (hamstrings), Pascal Siakam (rest), Johnny Furphy (knee), T.J. McConnell (hamstrings), Larry Nance Jr. (illness), Andrew Nembhard (cervical area), Aaron Nesmith (hamstrings), Ben Sheppard (knee), Obi Toppin (lumbar sprain) and Ivica Zubac (ankle). Kelly Oubre Jr. was a last-minute scratch due to a knee contusion.
Put another way: the list of absences adds up to nearly 200 million in salaries , while the six players who took the court barely reach 15 million . The Pacers had to face this game with three players on two-way contracts, that is, whose careers are spent in the G League and sometimes in the NBA: Braden Smith, Jalen Slawson and Kobe Brown.
Tonight marks the first time the Pacers have played an NBA game with six players since November 20, 2004. That was the night after the " Malice at the Palace ," the monumental brawl between the Pacers and the Pistons that ended with numerous ejections and suspensions.
