The Indiana Pacers appeared to be destined for their 17th consecutive loss of the season on Monday night, as they visited the Orlando Magic at Kia Center. The Magic may not be the fiercest contending team out there, but they have a winning record and they have been jockeying for position in the Eastern Conference standings — battling hard for the sixth seed and an outright playoff spot.
But the Pacers were bound to get one win one of these days; they simply had so much talent on the roster not to at least luck into a victory. On Monday night, they finally broke their cold spell, taking an upset 128-126 victory over the Magic thanks to a 37-point performance from Pascal Siakam.
While Indiana has all the incentive in the world to keep losing games, as finishing with the worst record in the NBA boosts their odds of keeping their first-round pick this year within the top-four, it has to be very demoralizing for a locker room filled with winners to keep on racking up defeats.
At the very least, Pacers fans on social media were ecstatic to put an end to their hemorrhaging.
Pacers fans in party mode on X
This season has been a nightmare through and through for the Pacers. But there is light at the end of the tunnel, and fans are joyous to at least see a glimmer of hope on Monday night. However, as happy as fans are after this win, they want their team to lose from here on out so they could keep their 2026 first-round pick.
“WE CAN LOSE AGAIN BUT I NEEDED ONE MAN THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH,” X user @leviteight wrote.
“Monthly win quota. Get ready to lose the last 10 games 😈,” @PacersID added.
“Great W now lose out please,” @ddter23 furthered.
