The Pacers Are Starting a Pro-Am Squad Tonight and the Math is Ugly

The Indiana Pacers are rolling out a starting five on Monday that sounds less like an NBA lineup and more like a randomly generated Pro-Am squad on NBA 2K.

According to Underdog NBA, Indiana is officially starting Braden Smith, Quenton Jackson, Jalen Slawson, Jarace Walker, and Jay Huff.

"Underdog NBA tweeted the lineup alert confirming the massive changes."

If you just had to search three of those names to make sure they were real people, you are not alone. This is what happens when an injury report reads like a CVS receipt. With Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard, and Obi Toppin all ruled out, the Pacers are essentially holding open tryouts against the Atlanta Hawks.

The betting markets reacted exactly how you would expect, pushing the Pacers to 9.5-point home underdogs. When your primary offensive engine is sidelined and you are replacing him with a guy whose daily fantasy projection just spiked 358 percent in three hours, the math gets ugly fast.

Quenton Jackson is at least coming off a 15-point showing in Friday's blowout loss to these same Hawks, so he has a pulse. Meanwhile, Jalen Slawson has been averaging a whopping 5.4 combined points, rebounds, and assists over his last five games. Asking this group to keep pace with an NBA offense is like bringing a water pistol to a tank fight.

This is the grim reality of the NBA regular season grind. Indiana is currently riding a brutal stretch that includes dropping 145 points to the Miami Heat and managing just 90 points against the Brooklyn Nets. Now they are throwing a G League roster to the wolves just to get through the week.

Do not expect a miracle turnaround tonight. The only real drama left is seeing which of these emergency starters can string together enough highlights to earn a permanent rotation spot before the actual NBA players get healthy.