The Pacers endured an injury-riddled 2025/26 season en route to 19 wins, the fewest in franchise history. The ’26/27 campaign wasn’t much better than the fortnight.
Eight players are listed as out for Monday’s game against Atlanta, the second game of a back-to-back. tweets Tony Izzy of Circle City Spin. Larry Nance Jr also listed as questionable due to illness for now Obie Toppin doubtful with lumbar (back) dislocation.
As East points out, the Pacers need Toppin (or Nance) to be active on Monday, even if he doesn’t play, just to meet the minimum requirement of having eight active players. Standard list of participants Jay Huff, Kelly Oubre Jr, Jarras Walker and Quenton Jackson should be available tonight along with two-way players Jalen Slawson, Kobe Brown and Braden Smith.
Having so few players available is reminiscent of last Nov. 9 against Golden State, when the Pacers lost by 31 points, East adds (Link to Twitter).
The Pacers fell to 2-5 on Sunday with a home loss to the previously winless Nets, raising questions about who the team can beat without as much offensive firepower. Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (subscriber link). And it was with Pascal Siakam, Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nembhardt are playing – they will all be released on Monday.
Tyrese Halliburton (Sprained left hamstring), TJ McConnell (Right hamstring strain), Johnny Furfee (right ACL operation) and Ivitsa Zubak (sprained left ankle) remain sidelined. Indiana can’t claim a hardship exemption because the team’s standard roster is only 14 players — it can’t currently add a 15th man because it’s so close to its first apron.
Here’s some more NBA injury news:
- The Clippers received both good and bad news on Monday. The good news is that Max Strus — who was practicing 5-on-5 with the team’s G League affiliate in San Diego on Sunday, per Ohm Youngmisuk (Link to Twitter) — makes his season debut after missing the first six games with a partial rupture of the plantar fascia in the right leg. Brandon Ingram (right heel surgery) and Yannick Conan Niederhauser (right Lisfranc surgery) were both also assigned to the San Diego Clippers, notes Lou Murray of The Athletic (via Twitter), and have since been withdrawn, although they will remain on the sidelines on Monday. The bad news is that the starters Derrick Jones Jr (right knee soreness) and Rui Hachimura (right quad soreness) both were out for the second night of back-to-back games in Los Angeles’ loss to Golden State on Sunday.
- Kyrie Irving seems unlikely to be active for Monday’s game against Sacramento, as Mavericks downgraded from Doubtful to Doubtful tweets Mark Stein of The Stein Line. Irving’s injury is dealing with his left knee — he missed all of last season with a torn ACL. Dallas has won three games in a row, while the Kings are the NBA’s only winless team (0-6).
- Wizards center Alex Sar (left knee soreness) has been downgraded from questionable to out before Monday’s game against Orlando, the team announced (via Twitter). Washington also announced (Link to Twitter) that two-way guard Reese Beekman will be re-evaluated three weeks after the right acromioclavicular joint injury. The AC joint is the joint at the top of the shoulder.