• The Pacers have won 13 of their 16 games in 2025 and are 29-21 overall, fourth in the Eastern Conference.
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LOS ANGELES — After the Indiana Pacers erased a 22-point first-quarter deficit by the end of the second quarter but then watched their own 13-point lead disappear before the end of the third, they found themselves stumbling at a point where they couldn’t afford to.

For most of the first half of the fourth quarter at Intuit Dome, they had matched the Clippers shot for shot and free throw for free throw, but just a few slip-ups allowed Los Angeles to build a two-possession lead. A 3-pointer by Kawhi Leonard put them up 103-98. The Pacers answered with driving layup by Obi Toppin, but they squandered a Pascal Siakam steal with two missed free throws and didn’t get back fast enough to prevent the second miss for going for an easy transition Derrick Jones Jr. layup that made it 105-100.

But all it took for the Pacers to take the lead for good were three plays by their two best players.

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Siakam, the newly-minted three-time All-Star, got a fortunate bounce-and-roll on a 3-pointer that cut the deficit to two. After a timeout and a stop, Tyrese Haliburton hit a step-back 3 to give the Pacers the lead. On the following play Haliburton outmuscled the Clippers’ Norman Powell to steal a pass from Los Angeles center Ivica Zubac and took it the distance for a layup. Those plays kickstarted a 14-0 run that allowed the Pacers to close out a 119-112 come-from-behind victory that counts as one of their most thrilling of the year.

The win followed an ugly defeat in Portland on Tuesday night and it gives the Pacers wins in 13 of their 16 games in 2025 and a 29-21 overall record, good for fourth in the Eastern Conference and a 1 1/2 game lead on the fifth-place Bucks.

Perhaps as much any win this season, this victory was a direct result of their two max contract players taking over when the Pacers needed them to.

“You get down in to crunch time in an NBA game,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said, “your great players have to make plays for you.”

In a sense, the performances of the two All-Stars on Thursday were microcosmic of their seasons to this point.

Siakam was steady throughout, and he was the player the Pacers leaned on when they were struggling. In the first quarter when they were outscored 42-22, Siakam scored eight points with a pair of 3-pointers. He and second-year guard Ben Sheppard, who also scored eight points, combined for 16 of the Pacers’ 22 points and five of their eight field goals. He did enough to keep the Pacers from losing touch completely and to keep them functioning, just as he did in the season’s first two months when they started 10-15.

“The guys know what I can do out there on the floor,” Siakam said. “For me, I just try to be that voice and that calmness for everyone, just knowing that no matter if we’re up 20 or down 20, we’re going to keep playing. For me, I just have to keep that steady mentality throughout the game and pick up the guys when things are not going the way we want them to go.”

When Siakam’s teammates started picking their games up, Siakam took his to another level as well. In the second quarter when the Pacers outscored the Clippers 42-19, he scored 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting including 2-of-2 from 3. He went into halftime with 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting including 4-of-4 from deep. He then went 5-of-5 from the floor in the third quarter for another 10 points and had 30 going into the fourth. The 3-pointer that started the 14-0 run was his only bucket of the fourth quarter, but he still finished with 33 points.

Siakam continues to have the best 3-point shooting season of his career, making 41.5% of his attempts, but as usual he was also a threat from all over. He scored five of his 13 field goals near the rim and three more from the mid-range outside the paint with one being a long 2 that was initially ruled a 3. He is a problem out in transition, out of post-ups and facing the basket, which is why he’s leading the Pacers with 20.7 points per game on 53.4% shooting.

“Pascal did some spectacular things,” Carlisle said. “His 3-point shooting was out of this world tonight but he did a lot of damage around the basket too.”

And he also did a lot of damage on the defensive end where the Pacers continue to ask more from him, and he continues to deliver. For their increased emphasis on full-court man-to-man to work, it can’t just be the guards who follow opposing ball-handlers wherever they are on the floor for 94 feet. Forwards and centers have to be willing to do the same to keep opponents from using a big man to bypass the pressure.

Siakam has done that on a nightly basis, and it was particularly impressive Thursday because of who he was defending. The Clippers are loaded with perimeter talent, so the Pacers had to use Eastern Conference Defensive Player of the Month Andrew Nembhard on seven-time All-NBA pick James Harden and third-year wing Bennedict Mathurin on All-Star snub Norman Powell. Siakam therefore had to guard Kawhi Leonard, who was NBA Finals MVP when Siakam and Leonard won an NBA championship together in 2018-19 with Toronto.

Siakam harassed Leonard up and down the floor. Leonard managed to score 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting but had five turnovers against four assists. Siakam had two steals and also grabbed 11 rebounds, all on the defensive end.

“That was fun,” Siakam said. “Obviously we shared some amazing memories together, but he’s one of the greatest players I ever played with or against. Any time you play against guys like that, you just want to continue to compete… At the end of the day I was just trying to make it as difficult as I can on him.”

While Siakam was a steady force from beginning to end, Haliburton had to work his way through struggles just as he has for most of this season.

After going scoreless on 0-of-3 shooting against the Trail Blazers in Tuesday night’s double-digit loss in Portland, Haliburton went 0-of-3 in Thursday’s first quarter. He didn’t score until the 1:44 mark of the second quarter and he actually had a 3-pointer waved off in the third quarter due to a shot-clock violation discovered on replay. He finished with a modest 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting including 2-of-7 from 3-point range.

However, Haliburton got himself going with defense, which isn’t always his strong suit. He studies the game intensely and he’s always been able to procure occasional steals by reading an opponents’ plays, but Carlisle and the Pacers’ staff have challenged him to be a sturdier man-to-man and team defender and to actually get in opponents’ ways when they attempt to drive on him.

On Thursday he did that more than usual and that resulted in four steals, his second-highest figure of the season. He turned three of those into fast-break buckets. He helped spearhead a Pacers defense that recorded 13 steals and caused 19 turnovers, which they turned into 32 points.

He also blocked a shot and had three rebounds.

“I love that he was really solid defensively and put himself in a position to make those steals from a position of being solid,” Carlisle said. “… Tonight defense was the calling card.”

The Pacers are trying to get Haliburton up to the level of the rest of their starters on defense and and they’re making progress, though he admits it’s not always on a steady trajectory. They still do tend to look for the easiest matchup on which to hide him. His slight build has never been a problem for him offensively — at least it hasn’t kept him from from being one of the most creative point guards in the league — but it doesn’t help him keep opposing ball-handlers in front of him. The Pacers have been looking for ways to make him effective in spite of that.

“I’m just trying to be the best team defender I can,” Haliburton said. “I know what I lack physically or individually, I can make up for with team defense. Just trying to stay in the system. Me and Rick have constant conversation. We watch all of my defensive clips every game. So he’s always on me, holding me accountable. The trust that he has in me offensively allows me to do what I do. That trust is earned by doing what he needs for me to do defensively.”

His defensive contribution kept him from getting too much in his head when he missed shots, so he still had confidence to step up and hit the big 3-pointer when he needed to and come up with two big steals down the stretch. That in itself is a sign of growth and a sign that he’s continuing to weather what has individually been a tough season.

“He’s battling,” Siakam said. “It’s easy to get yourself in your head when you’re missing shots or this or that. But as long as you play the game the right way — which he was doing today, getting steals, being in passing lanes, getting blocks, he did everything out there. So, when you do that, you’re going to get rewarded.”

And the Pacers are rewarded too by having two stars they can trust in crunch time, even as one has fought through struggle.