The inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament ends with the championship game in Las Vegas. The Indiana Pacers will face the Los Angeles Lakers at the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, Nov. 9. The game will start at 8:30 p.m. ET and air on ABC and ESPN 2. Fans can stream the game on ESPN.com and the ESPN App.
The Pacers went undefeated in group play (4-0) and defeated the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks in the knockout rounds. Their appearance in the championship comes after missing the playoffs for the last three years. Anchoring the team is guard Tyrese Haliburton who is averaging 26.9 points and 12.1 assists per game. Last season, Haliburton reached his first All-Star game and finished the season with 20.7 points and 10.4 assists per contest.
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Haliburton is looking forward to facing LeBron James and the Lakers. “LeBron was my favorite player growing up, and it’s hard for him not to be for a lot of us,” Haliburton told reporters on Friday. “Growing up, I was a Cavs fan, then a Heat fan, then a Cavs fan again, then a Lakers fan before I got drafted. It’s just how it went. To be able to compete against him in a championship is kind of like a storybook a little bit, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
The Lakers also finished the group stage of the in-season tournament undefeated (4-0). And in the knockout stage, the Lakers took down the Phoenix Suns and the New Orleans Pelicans before reaching the finals. James has been a big reason the Lakers are playing for a title, recording 30 points, eight assists and five rebounds in the win against the Packers on Thursday.
“I think we’re starting to figure it out,” James told reporters after the win against the Pelicans. “You know, you guys have been asking me over the last couple months, what do you think about the team and what do I think we can be. My answer was realistic: We don’t know because we haven’t had our team. But we are starting to get healthy. We are starting to see what our team looks like. We know who we are going to be playing with out on the floor.”
