Biggest X-Factors For Pacers Entering Series vs Cavaliers

On Sunday, May 4, the 50-32 Indiana Pacers (54-33 including the playoffs) will open their Eastern Conference semifinals series on the road against the 64-18 Cleveland Cavaliers (68-18 including the playoffs).

Cleveland will be the heavy favorite to advance to its first Eastern Conference Finals since 2018. Indiana, of course, achieved the feat last season as a No. 6 seed, capitalizing on injuries to star players in both of its first two playoff series.

This year, the Pacers are relatively unchanged from their 2023-24 iteration, beyond the growth of their sharpshooting wings.

game on 💥

our Eastern Conference Semifinals schedule is set. pic.twitter.com/7M4E2SSgwL
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) May 3, 2025

So how can the Pacers shock the world and best Cleveland?

Let us count the ways.

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1. Tyrese Haliburton Has To Remember He's Tyrese Haliburton

Haliburton's scoring fell off mightily in the Pacers' five-game first round series victory against the Milwaukee Bucks, and he focused on being more deferential and upping his distribution.

The 6-foot-5 Fresno State product averaged 17.6 points on .421/.268/.813 shooting splits, 11.6 dimes, 6.0 boards, 0.8 steals, and 0.8 blocks a night. The scoring in particular represents a notable dip from the 20+ points per game he averaged in each of the prior two regular seasons, 2022-23 and 2023-24.

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The fact that he's had some regression as a scorer is not ideal. While the Pacers' role players will be counted on to nail jumpers, Haliburton's first step is a lethal weapon, as he proved while closing out Milwaukee in the fourth quarter and overtime periods of Game 5 on Tuesday.

2. Myles Turner Needs To Make His All-Star Defenders Pay

Indiana's 3-and-D center is going to be one of the most intriguing free agents on the market this summer if he keeps playing the way he did against the Bucks.

Outside of a stinker offensive performance in the Pacers' lone defeat of the Bucks series, Game 3, Turner showed Milwaukee just what they were missing with his counterparts, Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis.

Lopez, himself a generally respected 3-and-D big, was rendered virtually immobile by the quicker, more athletic Turner. Portis couldn't hope to contain him, although he could at least score against Turner in space.

Turner averaged 16.8 points on .509/.375/.826 shooting splits, 4.8 rebounds (remember, he was playing away from the basket much of the time), 2.2 blocks, and 1.6 assists in the first round. He'll need to continue drawing whichever big man is assigned to him — either Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley or former All-Star Jarrett Allen — out of the post to clear up driving lanes for Haliburton and the Pacers' quicker wings.

3. The Pacers' Wings Need To Keep Making Treys

The Cavaliers have been dominant from deep this postseason, connecting on a league-most 44 percent of their league-most 43.8 triple tries a night. Indiana's 39.3 percent rate from distance has been the second-best in the NBA during the playoffs, but the team has taken "just" 36.6 triples, good for just the eighth-most among 16 squads.

To get away with this disparity in shots taken from deep, Indiana's role players need to keep nailing their 3-point looks.

Shooting guard Andrew Nembhard had a great run against Milwaukee, upping his scoring average to 15.0 points on .492/.500/1.000 shooting splits. That 50 percent conversion rate arrived on 4.4 long range tries. Nembhard will also prove critical on the other end of the court, where he'll be called upon to contain six-time All-Star swingman Donovan Mitchell. Thankfully, he's an upper-tier perimeter defender.

Andrew Nembhard can defend pic.twitter.com/c49d0hFIo3
— BBall Index (@The_BBall_Index) May 2, 2025

Small forward Aaron Nesmith improved his scoring, too, averaging 14.8 points on a .538/.519/1.000 slash line. That 51.9 percent triple rate arrived on 5.4 looks from distance per. These two — and Myles Turner — will need to keep connecting at an elite clip to have any chance against the deep Cavaliers.

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For more news and notes on the Indiana Pacers, visit Indiana Pacers on SI.