Pacers team president Kevin Pritchard talks Tyrese Haliburton injury
Pacers team president Kevin Pritchard discusses Tyrese Haliburton’s injury and future on Monday, July 7, 2025, in the Ascension St. Vincent Center in Indianapolis.
The Pacers will reportedly not be involved in the NBA’s Christmas Day schedule again this year despite their NBA Finals run. Presumably, that marks the first sign of the effect of All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton’s torn Achilles tendon will have on the Pacers’ level of national television exposure in the 2025-26 season.
ESPN’s Shams Charania posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account Friday that there will be five games played on Dec. 25, all nationally televised on ABC, ESPN. According to Charania, the New York Knicks will host the Cleveland Cavaliers in the only game involving Eastern Conference teams. The Pacers beat the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals in the 2025 playoffs and then beat the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals before losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, the game in which Haliburton suffered the injury that will keep him out all of the 2025-26 season.
Christmas is considered one of the marquee events of the NBA’s regular season calendar. The Pacers haven’t been on the Christmas Day schedule since 2004; only Sacramento and Charlotte have gone longer without playing on Dec. 25.
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The NBA champion Thunder will play on Christmas Day, hosting the San Antonio Spurs, who didn’t make last year’s playoffs but have the draw of sensational center Victor Wembanyama. In the other three games between Western Conference teams, the Houston Rockets will play the Lakers in Los Angeles, the Golden State Warriors will host the Dallas Mavericks and the Minnesota Timberwolves will play the Nuggets in Denver. Involving those teams assures some of the league’s biggest stars will be involved, including Houston’s Kevin Durant, Los Angeles’ LeBron James and Luka Doncic, Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Denver’s Nikola Jokic and Dallas’ Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft.
Charania also reported that the Pacers will not be part of the opening night schedule on NBC on Oct. 21. The Rockets will play the Thunder in Oklahoma City and the Warriors will play the Lakers in Los Angeles.
In early prognostications, the Cavaliers and Knicks have been considered the favorites to win the Eastern Conference in 2025-26. The Pacers, who also reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 2024 were expected to be favorites to repeat as Eastern Conference champs before Haliburton’s injury and the departure of center Myles Turner to the Milwaukee Bucks in free agency. Prognostications so far have them slated to be a play-in team or worse.
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