Setting The Pace: A Pacers Podcast · Blue Wire

Top 10 Pacers Wins This Season + Jaden Ivey Controversy

March 31, 2026·54 min·5 clips

The Bulls waived Jaden Ivey over anti-LGBTQ comments, a player Pacers fans desperately wanted in the 2022 draft.

"Nobody else wanted that win." The conversation turns a simple ranking into something funnier: which wins actually count, which ones were weird enough to remember, and which ones get marked down because the stakes were all crooked. They call one game a tank-off, and one host keeps coming back to how the Pacers won while looking like they were trying very hard not to. Siakam and Neesmith were out, the rotation was patched together, and the names start flying. Ethan Thompson gets his 15 points off the bench. Talon Peter gets the plus 22 and four-of-10 from three. Quentin Jackson gets the poster dunk that Tyrese was tweeting about. Nobody tries to turn it into some heroic memory. The joke is that nobody seemed to want the win, and Cam Jones still somehow walks away with an oddly epic little moment. Then Sacramento gets its turn. The December eighth win feels more legit because it came before full tank mode took over the mood of the season. Matherin is the reason it sticks. His 25 points and four-of-nine from three make it feel like one of the last vintage versions of him in a win. Andrew helps the case too, because 28 and 12 gives the pick enough heft to beat out stranger, later-season chaos. The charm is in the judging. They are not only naming favorite wins. They are weighing motive, roster context, who sat, who barely played, and whether the team was really trying. It stays loose and sharp. A throwaway ranking segment becomes fan archaeology, where every odd rotation choice gets treated like evidence in a friendly living-room argument. Nothing gets too grand. It is fans sorting memories the way fans do, half laughing at the mess and half defending why one December win still deserves respect.

As heard by us

A fan-first win ranking that feels like a couch argument, not a recap.

The episode plays best as a win ranking conversation. The hosts move through the Pacers' season highs with an easy, lived-in back and forth, more like two people trading memories than building a tidy list.

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Why you'd press play

If you want Pacers wins ranked by people who remember the weird games, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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