0.000009 percent.
That's what ESPN says the Pacers' chances were to complete all four of their late-game playoff comebacks: down seven versus Milwaukee, down seven versus Cleveland, down eight versus New York and down nine versus Oklahoma City.
When you consider that two resulted in overtime victories, three came in the final fifty seconds of regulation, and all four finished with a Tyrese Haliburton buzzer-beater, those odds become unfathomable. But the underdog nature of the Pacers' run to the Finals, albeit their Game 7 defeat, goes way beyond wins and losses. This team was a small-market masterpiece, forged out of overlooked talent and humble personalities.
We may never see another team like the Indiana Pacers
Take the 6-foot-1, 33-year-old TJ McConnell, who originally went undrafted in 2015 and arrvied to Indiana in 2019 on a two-year, $7 million deal. The Pacers' spark plug off the bench, McConnell takes very few 3s and likes to run circles around defenses in very chaotic fashion, driving through the paint back out to the perimeter before the dishing the ball away or driving back to the rim. During the Finals, McConnell led the Pacers in defensive rating, had a scorching 42.3 assist percentage, and in Game 3 became the first Finals player to record 10 points, five assists, and five steals off the bench in one night.
Or take the soft-spoken Andrew Nembhard, a former second-round pick paid seven million dollars less than the average NBA player. During the playoffs, the scrappy guard shot 46.5 percent from 3 (including the game-winning 30-footer in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals), averaged 12.5 points and 4.7 assists, and typically took on the toughest defensive assignments. In the Finals, he helped hold MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to a pedestrian 44.3 percent shooting clip (24.2 percent from deep), and led the Pacers in minutes played.
What about energetic small forward Aaron Nesmith and athletic wing Obi Toppin, two former first round picks that were traded away by Boston and New York, respectively. Languishing on the benches of the big market teams, these two found a home for themselves in Indianapolis, serving as two key pieces in the Pacers' hard-working, up-tempo approach. It was Nesmith who made five straight threes versus New York, and who shot 49.2 percent from deep in the playoffs. It was Toppin who scored 20 points in 23 minutes in Game 6 of the Finals, and dunked all over Lu Dort's face in Game 3.
Led by a player voted by his peers to be the most overrated in the league, the 2024-25 Pacers were a team that was two games below .500 at start of the New Year. This was a team with a bottom-10 payroll. This was a team that was supposed to lose to Cleveland, lose to New York, and get swept by Oklahoma City.
This was a team that defied the odds, every step of the way.