Surging Pacers are a sleeping Eastern Conference giant

Indiana remained hot with a wire-to-wire win over the Timberwolves on Monday night.

The Pacers (42-29, fourth in Eastern Conference) defeated the Timberwolves (41-32, eighth in Western Conference), 119-103, for their fifth consecutive victory and seventh in their last eight games.

Pacers two-time All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton led all scorers with 24 points on 9-of-16 shooting.

He added 11 assists for his 13th game with at least 20 points and 10 assists this season, the leagues sixth-most.

( h/t Stathead ) The win moved Indiana 1.5 games ahead of the Bucks (40-30, fifth in Eastern Conference) for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Last year, the Pacers finished the regular season sixth in the East standings and reached the conference finals.

After a rocky start to 2024-25 that saw Indiana go 10-15 in its first 25 games and enter 2025 with a losing record (16-18), the team is finally resembling the one that went on last years deep run.

Haliburton has been particularly crucial to the turnaround.

He had a slow start but has picked things up recently.

In his first 42 games, Haliburton shot 44.4 percent (35.5 percent on three-point attempts) and averaged 17.9 points.

Since Jan.

23 (22 games), Haliburton has averaged 19.7 points on 51 percent shooting, including 44.7 percent from deep.

Haliburton has recorded at least 10 assists in his last 11 starts, the most in the NBA since his 11 consecutive last season from December 15, 2023, through January 5, 2024.

With the win over Minnesota, the Pacers improved to 17-13 against teams currently with a .500 win percentage or better.

According to Stathead , thats fifth-best in the league, trailing the Thunder (.771), Cavs (.742), Celtics (.636) and Lakers (.571).

Indiana won its season series against the Celtics (52-19, second in Eastern Conference), 2-1, and has split its first two games with the Cavaliers (57-14, first in Eastern Conference).

The teams meet for two games in four days on April 10 and April 13.

Following its difficult start, Indiana looked like it might have been a flash in the pan.

Instead, its surging at the right time and appears as though it could spoil either of Clevelands or Bostons excellent seasons.

Eric Smithling is a writer based in New Orleans, LA, whose byline also appears on Athlon Sports.

He has been with Yardbarker since September 2022, primarily covering the NFL and college football, but also the NBA, WNBA, mens and womens college basketball, NHL, tennis and golf.

He holds a film studies degree from the University of New Orleans.

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