Welcome to the Indy 500, Sixers!

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Good morning, gang!

I, myself, am not much of a racing fan—as a participant or viewer. And by “not much”, I mean give me splinters under my fingernails before you make me run in a race. But if we’re talking a race as in Fast & Furious, count me in.

As for watching, the only race-involved content I’ll dabble in is Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

If you ain’t the first Sixers newsletter, you’re the last Sixers newsletter.

Anyway, the Sixers visit the Indiana Pacers tonight, the team that literally out-ran the rest of the Eastern Conference en route to the 2025 NBA Finals.

The Pacers are back, at least in the general sense. They have Tyrese Haliburton back from a torn achilles that had them spending last season in the basement of the East. They have Ivica Zubac in the middle after Myles Turner departed for the Milwaukee Bucks two summers ago.

And they were right back in the driver’s seat during the first week of the season.

The team that rode the fastest pace in the East playoffs en route to the league’s grandest stage is out and running again.

Indiana is eighth in the NBA in pace through four games, per NBA.com.

But in the words of Jalen Hurts, the funny thing that makes me chuckle? The Sixers, with 41-year-old LeBron James and the lumbering Joel Embiid, are actually seventh in the NBA in pace through four games.

So, we got us a pair of runners on Wednesday.

Indiana’s injury report is rather extensive:

That’s 11 dudes.

Let’s narrow it down to what is most important. Haliburton, the engine behind the entire operation, is nursing a left hamstring. I cannot imagine the Pacers want to take any risks there on two different levels. First, you don’t want to mess around with a hamstring. Second, you don’t want him to over-rely on his other leg and put the repaired achilles in any kind of peril.

Then there’s the big guy. Zubac is definitively out for the game, which should make Joel Embiid’s life easier at a matchup level and open up the driving and cutting lanes more at a team level.

Pacers fans may be treated to the neon-green-light Kelly Oubre Jr. game. As Philadelphia can attest to, that can go in any number of directions. With LeBron and Jaylen Brown on the wings, it could very easily go in the direction of two or three quick fouls and suddenly one of Indiana’s last remaining offensive options is bench-ridden for a half.

Philadelphia’s injury report is much easier to digest.

VJ Edgecombe is back after missing Sunday’s loss to the Detroit Pistons with an abdominal contusion. Joel Embiid is back after resting the second leg of a back-to-back on Sunday.

The Sixers will be mostly healthy for an early-season road game before hosting the New York Knicks on Friday in the first leg of another back-to-back.

In other words, don’t take this opportunity for granted.

As for your family at Vertical 76, we will have a postgame video reacting to the game out on Wednesday night (Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss it!) and takeaways in Thursday morning’s newsletter.

See you then.