Tyrese Haliburton’s return to the Pacers lineup after missing the entire 2025-26 season with an Achilles tear has hit a speed bump, as the All-Star guard deals with a hamstring strain four games into the year.
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Wednesday that after meeting with doctors, Haliburton would be considered “week-to-week” with his hamstring strain and is unlikely to play in the next two weeks.
“It’s not good news, but it could be worse,” Carlisle told reporters (via the Indianapolis Star).
Haliburton, who sat out all of last season after suffering a torn Achilles in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, has been terrific for the Pacers in his return to the court, averaging 21.8 points, 9.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game on 51.6/37.0/86.7 shooting splits over Indiana’s first four games. After hitting some clutch shots in the opener, Haliburton was overcome with emotion thinking about his journey back to the basketball court, and now he will have to find that patience once again as he waits for his hamstring to heal enough to play again.
How will the Pacers deal with Haliburton’s injury?
The Pacers will be without Haliburton for a big game on Wednesday night against the 76ers, with games against the Heat, Nets and Hawks up on the schedule over the next week.
Indiana will try to navigate that stretch not only without their star guard, but with Ivica Zubac and TJ McConnell as players also listed as out on Wednesday’s injury report, while Andrew Nembhard is questionable with a neck/back injury.
That’s a considerable amount of Indiana’s guard depth that either can’t play or will be playing at less than 100 percent, along with their top center. That shifts Pascal Siakam back into a lead role offensively and forces the Pacers into more small-ball lineups with Obi Toppin at the five.
For a team trying to get back into the conversation in the Eastern Conference after a lost season in 2025-26, seeing injuries pile up early in the year is extremely frustrating and disheartening. The Pacers were a half of basketball away from winning a championship when Haliburton tore his Achilles in Game 7 against the Thunder and have spent more than a year waiting to get him back to try to make the climb again.
While Carlisle noted in a radio interview on Wednesday morning the hope was Haliburton’s hamstring wouldn’t be a long-term injury, soft tissue injuries always bring some concern. The Pacers will have to balance patience with the desire to not fall too far behind in a suddenly stacked East.
Haliburton joins growing list of injured stars
Haliburton’s injury continues a frustrating trend in the early NBA season, which has seen a tremendous number of top players listed on injury reports. The list of stars currently on the shelf with injuries is staggering, with the likes of Anthony Edwards, Jalen Williams, Paolo Banchero, Kawhi Leonard, Jaren Jackson Jr., Chet Holmgren and Alperen Sengun all currently listed out for games on Wednesday night. That’s not to mention players like Brandon Ingram, Jimmy Butler, Kon Knueppel and Kristaps Porzingis who have yet to make their season debuts.
While it feels like an absurd number of injuries this early in the season, it’s much closer to par for the course than the NBA would probably like to admit. Stars being injured has become a constant concern in recent years, but there isn’t an obvious solution.
The NBA schedule is often discussed as a reason for the volume of injuries, but this early in the season, it’s hard to point to the wear-and-tear of an 82-game grind. Instead, it feels more like a byproduct of a style of play that pushes players to their limits. The speed of the game is tremendous now and players are pushing their bodies to play faster and more explosively, which raises the potential for injuries.
That’s an even harder thing to solve than schedule reform — which the league and players aren’t particularly interested in — because playing with pace and maximizing possessions is proven to be the most effective style in the modern era.
