Green Team helps Pacers secure 50-win season — and it's WNBA Draft Day
Third unit fuels the NBA’s biggest comeback this season as Indiana caps regular season with a milestone win and shifts focus to the playoffs. Plus, a preview of the WNBA Draft and the Fever's thinking
With 8:09 to play in regulation, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle used another timeout. He subbed in Quenton Jackson and Tony Bradley for Jarace Walker and Thomas Bryant. They were down by 21 points in Cleveland and hadn’t played well most of the day, especially on defensive.
Then, some magic happened.
In Game 82 of the regular season, the Pacers’ reserves outscored the Cavaliers 24-2 over the next five minutes, forced overtime — and then another — and came away with a 126-118 win.
And not just any win. It was milestone No. 50 — their first 50-win season since that special 2013-14 season.
After starting the season 10-15, the Pacers won 40 of their final 57 games to finish fourth in the Eastern Conference. Now, for the first time in over a decade, they’ll open a playoff series with homecourt advantage.
The 27-point comeback was the largest in the NBA this season — just another example of this Pacers team’s grit and resilience. Of course, you'd prefer they didn’t need to dig out of deep holes so often, but this group has proven it can.
That comeback was fueled by members of the Green Team — players who wear green pinnies in practice, representing the third unit.
For Jackson, RayJ Dennis, and Enrique Freeman, this was their final appearance of the season, as two-way players are ineligible for the playoffs.
As the focus shifts to the postseason, games like this — where they hang in, claw back, and take control — offer valuable experience. That’s exactly what they hoped to gain two seasons ago when this rebuild began.
The Pacers came out of Sunday’s game healthy and in a good position heading into the postseason. The only major injury this season was Isaiah Jackson’s torn Achilles, which occurred just 10 days in. They also managed to get key rest days last week for Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam, with three games in four days to close out the regular season.
Now they’ll benefit from nearly a week off as the Play-In Tournament begins Tuesday.
The NBA released its Game 1 schedules: Bucks at Pacers will open the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Saturday at 1 p.m. The game will air nationally on ESPN and locally on FanDuel Sports Network Indiana.
We all want to plan ahead — myself included — so it would have been nice to have the full first-round schedule already. But it’s not that simple. The league is likely waiting on Play-In results to finalize the rest of the slate.
As for the Fieldhouse, Mary J. Blige with Ne-Yo is set to perform Monday night at The Fieldhouse. That makes Tuesday the likely date for Game 2.
The Pacers plan to wear their white City Edition uniforms throughout the first round.
The number 11 held some significance this season: that’s how many players suited up for all 82 games. That list includes former Pacer Buddy Hield, who prides himself on playing every night.
The others: Bub Carrington, Chris Paul, Harrison Barnes, Jaden McDaniels, Jalen Green, Jarrett Allen, Julian Champagnie, Malik Beasley, Mikal Bridges, Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
All 30 teams were in action Sunday, but the NBA scheduling that opposite Masters Sunday? Not ideal — especially given how things unfolded in Augusta.
Rory McIlroy is finally a Masters champion. Like the Pacers on Sunday, he needed extra time to get it done, defeating Justin Rose in a playoff.
You couldn’t help but root for McIlroy. He had been so close before, only to fall short. Not this time. There were so many lead changes, swings, and dramatic moments down the stretch — and McIlroy came through. Just as Caitlin Clark predicted going into the weekend.
Sports really are the greatest reality show. That had to be a top-three Masters Sunday in my lifetime.
WNBA Draft Night
One year ago, the Fever were preparing for a franchise-altering night. It was that — and then some. More than 17,000 tickets were claimed and over 6,000 fans showed up to The Fieldhouse as the Fever drafted No. 22 to No. 1.
"Caitlin Clark is coming to Indianapolis,” Lin Dunn, then GM and now team consultant, said shortly after making the pick. “She's going to have a huge impact not only our city, but our franchise too."
Clark accomplished her stated goal of getting this team back to relevancy — and back into the playoffs, where they belong.
Now, the goal is a championship. The team was overhauled this offseason with a new front office, coaching staff, and revamped roster. But the three foundational pieces remain: Clark, Aliyah Boston, and Kelsey Mitchell.
Tonight, the newest draft class will realize their professional dreams at the WNBA Draft, held at The Shed at Hudson Yards in New York City.
ESPN will televise the event beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET. It wasn’t too many years ago when the even was low-key, simply held at the network’s studios in Bristol, Connecticut.
About 2.5 million tune into last year’s draft, more than four times as large as the audience for 2023 (572,000). And that’s with everyone knowing Clark was going No. 1 to Indiana.
This year, UConn’s Paige Bueckers is expected to go No. 1 overall to Dallas. Washington owns three of the top-six picks.
Top 5 picks:
Dallas Wings
Seattle Storm
Washington Mystics
Washington Mystics
Golden State Valkyries
Washington is one of three teams with back-to-back first-round picks, along with Connecticut (7, 8) and Chicago (10, 11).
So, what about the Fever?
Note: I will be going live on YouTube at 3:15 p.m. ET to discuss the Fever offseason and how much different draft night is one year later.
Their overhaul completed over the last few months, centered around the additions of DeWanna Bonner and Natasha Howard.
“Looking down the line in free agency, just really excited,” said GM Amber Cox. “When the plan comes together, you feel really good about it. Again, it looks great on paper. We've got to get everybody on the court, but overall, really excited about the roster.”
The Fever are on the clock with picks 7 and 8 in the second round, then pick 8 in the 3rd. (That’s No. 19, 20, and 33 overall.)
During the women’s Final Four two weekends ago in Tampa, there was a combine held for about 30 players. Teams also had the opportunity to conduct interviews.
Fever leadership — including President Kelly Krauskopf, Cox, Dunn, head coach Stephanie White, and others — were in Tampa conducting player meetings at the J.W. Marriott, just blocks from the arena.
“You've got to be prepared for anything in that situation,” Cox said of their picks. “Just looking for people who can come in here and compete. We'll look at free agents that might be available to come into camp and compete. But we want to have a really competitive camp. And I think we will be. A lot of new pieces, new coaching staff. So really getting reps for this new group is going to be really, really important.”
If the Fever keep their picks, they’ll go best available. As they should.
Camp opens on April 27, then their first of three exhibition games is on May 3 against Washington.
For Pacers fans… a fun name to keep an eye on is Megan McConnell. Yes, that’s T.J.’s sister.
She just wrapped up her fifth season playing at Duquesne at home in Pittsburgh. She was voted Atlantic 10 All-Conference First Team and Defensive Player of the Year.