​INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – MAY 11: Aaron Nesmith #23 and Tyrese Haliburton #0 of the Indiana Pacers celebrate in the second quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers during Game Four of the Eastern Conference Semifinals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on May 11, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)Getty ImagesINDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Pacers have only played seven games in the 2026-27 season, yet the defining characteristic of their early-season games has already been decided: Poor health.Sunday night, the Pacers fell to the previously-winless Brooklyn Nets and scored just 90 points. Asked postgame about offensive struggles in the loss, head coach Rick Carlisle brought up the injury report.“We’re missing a lot of guys,” he said. “That makes it hard.”In that outing, the Pacers were without Tyrese Haliburton and Ivica Zubac, two of their top players and key starters. Their projected bench group was missing T.J. McConnell, Ben Sheppard, and Obi Toppin. Reserve forward Johnny Furphy, who suffered a torn ACL last season, is still sidelined.With six of their 17 players out, the Pacers don’t have as much high end talent and are missing much of their depth. That depth, plus Haliburton’s brilliance, made their winning ways possible in recent seasons.While a few of their injuries happened at clear moments in basketball settings (Furphy’s ACL, Zubac’s ankle after landing on a teammate, Toppin’s back avoiding a flying basketball during a shootaround), most of the team’s ailments are hamstring issues. Haliburton and McConnell are both currently out due to hamstring injuries. Quenton Jackson, Larry Nance Jr, and Aaron Nesmith have also missed time with hamstring problems for the Pacers this year.The Pacers changed their offseason approach to conditioning in an attempt to avoid this specific outcome. They didn’t make the playoffs last season and had a long summer, so the team designed a longer ramp-up approach to the 2026-27 season. “I think just the way we prepared through the summer, tracking our load management stuff,” Haliburton said of the differences from past offseasons. “Obviously dealt with a lot of soft tissue stuff over the last year and a half, two years. So just trying to manage all those things the correct way.”The Pacers could be without as many as 10 players tonight against the Atlanta Hawks. This is the second-straight season in which the opening weeks of the campaign have been defined by absences. And hamstrings have been the majority of those injuries.What, exactly, is the cause of this? The Pacers want to find out, especially after they tried to avoid this problem. “I guarantee you every team’s looking into it and studying it as best they can,” Carlisle said.NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA – OCTOBER 21: Head coach Rick Carlisle of the Indiana Pacers looks on during the second half of an NBA game against the New Orleans Pelicans at Smoothie King Center on October 21, 2026 in New Orleans, Louis