Six Pacers Suited Up. They Nearly Beat the Hawks.

There is a box score you frame, and there is a box score you cannot quite believe. Indiana produced the second kind on Monday night. Six Pacers suited up, and they nearly beat the Hawks — six players total, for 48 minutes, on the second night of a back-to-back, against an Atlanta team that made 23 three-pointers. And with 43 seconds left, Indiana had a chance to take the lead.

Atlanta won 108-104 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and the Hawks earned it, but that score does not carry the night. What carries it is everything Indiana did not have. Eleven players were sidelined: Tyrese Haliburton (left hamstring strain), Pascal Siakam (rest), Johnny Furphy (knee/ACL repair), T.J. McConnell (right hamstring strain), Larry Nance Jr. (illness), Andrew Nembhard (cervical injury management), Aaron Nesmith (left hamstring management), Ben Sheppard (left meniscus surgery), Ivica Zubac (left ankle sprain) and Kelly Oubre Jr., a late scratch with a bruised knee shortly before tip. Obi Toppin (lumbar sprain) dressed only so Indiana could meet the eight-dressed minimum. He did not play.

Coach Rick Carlisle called it, via the Associated Press, “a perfect storm” and “injury management.” He expected seven until Oubre scratched, leaving six. All five regular starters were out. About $193 million in salary was sitting, and about $15 million was playing, per the AP.

Six names, no bench to speak of

The six were starters Jay Huff, Quenton Jackson and Jarace Walker, plus two-way players Braden Smith and Jalen Slawson. Two-way player Kobe Brown was the lone reserve. Only three — Huff, Jackson and Walker — hold standard NBA contracts. Only Walker makes more than $3 million this season among those who played. On Monday, there was nowhere to hide and nobody coming to relieve them.

So they just played. Walker logged 44 minutes, 41 seconds. Smith played 42:13, Slawson 40:39 and Huff 40:06. Brown played 37:51 off the bench, Jackson 34:30. Every Pacer finished between 34 and 45 minutes, and every Pacer scored in double figures. Huff led them with 22 points and eight rebounds. Jackson scored 20. Smith, a second-round rookie and former Purdue standout making his first career start in his fifth career game, delivered 19 points and 10 assists. Brown added 16, Walker 15 and Slawson 12.

This was not one hot hand dragging five tired teammates behind him. It was six players sharing the ball and somehow keeping their legs deep into the fourth. Indiana also kept its fouls down — the Pacers shot 23 free throws and made 20, while Atlanta shot only eight and made five.

A 15-point hole, then a real game

Indiana trailed by as many as 15 in the second half, where a game like this is supposed to end. Instead the Pacers kept coming. Jackson converted a three-point play at 7:36 of the fourth to make it 93-90. Atlanta answered with an 8-0 run capped by a Nickeil Alexander-Walker three. Game over, again, in theory.

Indiana answered with a 9-0 spurt, capped by Huff free throws at 2:24, to get within two. Then Jackson stole the ball from Alexander-Walker and laid it in with 1:36 left to cut it to 106-104. A building that had come expecting a makeshift loss was suddenly watching a genuine finish.

The final minute pushed it even further. Smith grabbed a defensive rebound, started hopping and grabbed his upper left calf. “Cramp,” he mouthed, according to the AP, and he subbed out for the final 58.7 seconds. Indiana was down to five. Jackson still got his look — a three with 43.1 seconds left that would have given Indiana the lead. It fell short. Onyeka Okongwu scored with 10.2 seconds left to seal it, 108-104.

Atlanta had to actually win it

Credit the Hawks, because they did not sleepwalk through this. Alexander-Walker matched his career high with nine three-pointers and scored a season-high 34 points. CJ McCollum finished with 13 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds. Corey Kispert and Luguentz Dort scored 14 apiece, and Okongwu had 13 points and 10 rebounds. Atlanta shot 23-of-51 from three, 45.1 percent — shooting that usually buries an opponent early. The Hawks were shorthanded too, missing Jalen Johnson (sprained left ankle).

Hawks coach Quin Snyder, quoted by the AP: “It's a really good win... We knew we were going to be in a dogfight-type game... Hopefully, the Pacers can get healthy.” Everybody knew it should not have been competitive, and was.

“They played their hearts out”

Carlisle knew it, too. “These guys all played too many minutes. But they played their hearts out,” he said, via the AP. “The guys left everything out there and our fans got their money's worth, even though we weren't able to win the game.” He added: “It illustrates the power of hard play and the power of hard, unselfish play and putting a real competitive spirit on a game. I'm very happy for our fans that they got to witness this kind of competition.” And: “People are still talking about that game. And they will talk about this game for a long time.”

Smith sounded like a rookie who had just lived through something he will tell people about for years. “I don't think I've ever been a part of a game where six guys have dressed... I'm just proud of everybody and how everybody responded,” he said, via the AP. He walked into his first start because there was literally nobody else, played 42 minutes, ran the offense and only left because his calf seized up with the game on the line.

A night that echoes 2004

The history makes it heavier. This was the first time Indiana used only six players since Nov. 20, 2004 — the night after the “Malice at the Palace” brawl, when suspensions gutted the roster. Carlisle coached that team too, and he drew the comparison himself. Per ESPN Research, it was the earliest into a season a team has used six or fewer players since 1948, when the Lakers used five in their third game. The previous low this season was eight, by Philadelphia on Oct. 25.

Indiana is 2-6 and has lost five straight. The Pacers go to Memphis on Wednesday, with the whole league off Tuesday for Election Day and Indiana also off Thursday and Friday. But some losses tell you more than a routine win does. For the full picture of a wild Monday, see Monday’s full 15-game roundup, and keep up with the league in our NBA coverage. The Pacers lost. Nobody who watched it will remember it that way first.