The 1969–70 Indiana Pacers season was Indiana's third season in the ABA and third as a team. Near the end of the regular season, on April 12, 1970, the Pacers would record an ABA record-high 177 points scored in a match played against the Pittsburgh Pipers at home; as of March 27, 2025, their 177–135 win against Pittsburgh would be the highest overall scoring game the Pacers ever had when you include their history in the ABA (if you exclude it, however, their highest-scoring game happened on March 27, 2025, against the Washington Wizards in the NBA with a 162–109 blowout win). In fact, the Pacers' 177 points scored would be a professional basketball record for the most points scored by a team (either in the ABA or the NBA) by one team until both the Denver Nuggets (the current iteration of the Denver Rockets) and Detroit Pistons (who previously won the lowest-scoring NBA game ever recorded back when they were the Fort Wayne Pistons) would break the Pacers' ABA record on the same night on December 13, 1983, with Detroit winning the highest-scoring NBA game recorded (as of 2025) over Denver with a 186–184 triple-overtime score, as well as remain a record for the highest scoring effort by a team without going to overtime in either league and would still remain the third-highest scoring effort ever recorded by a current NBA team if the ABA's records were to count alongside the NBA's records. The Pacers finished first in the Eastern Division and won their first ABA title in their second ABA Finals appearance in franchise history after previously losing the ABA Finals the previous season to the Oakland Oaks (who would move to Washington, D.C. to become the Washington Caps following that season's conclusion due to financial troubles on the Oaks' end).

In the Eastern Division semifinals, the Pacers swept the newly created Carolina Cougars, who were born following new ownership for the previously existing Houston Mavericks agreeing to move that team following their final season under that name to the state of North Carolina as the ABA's first ever regional franchise, in four games. In the Eastern Division finals, the Pacers eliminated their stateside archrivals, the Kentucky Colonels, in five games. The Western Division champion Los Angeles Stars (who made it to the ABA Finals unexpectedly to many people following the team due to them expecting another losing season at the time and only barely making it to the 1970 ABA Playoffs after making it as the #4 seed in their division by the end of the season) appeared in the ABA Championships for the first time, with the Stars being defeated by the Pacers in six games in what later turned out to be the Stars' final games in the city of Los Angeles. Following this season's conclusion, due to over half of the ABA teams from this season moving and/or rebranding their squads to start the 1970–71 ABA season, the Pacers would move from the Eastern Division to the Western Division (which included the recently moved and rebranded Utah Stars, who would become divisional rivals for the Pacers until they folded operations during the 1975–76 ABA season) for the rest of their ABA tenure (excluding a majority of the 1975–76 ABA season leading to there being no divisions at all following the folding of three teams, including the Stars, by the start of December 1975), with them not returning to play as an Eastern team until the 1980–81 NBA season.

Offseason ABA Draft

Player School/Club teamWillie McCarter Drake University (Sr.)Dick Grubar University of North Carolina (Sr.)Tony Masiello Canisius College (Sr.)Bob Arnzen University of Notre Dame (Sr.)Bill DeHeer Indiana University (Sr.)Dave Golden Duke University (Sr.)Billy Keller Purdue University (Sr.)Gerald McKee Ohio University (Sr.)Ron Peret Texas A&M University (Sr.)John Jamerson Fairmount State College (Sr.)Jim Stephenson University of Maine (Sr.)

Roster

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Regular season ABA Schedule Game Date Opponent Result Pacers points Opponents Record 1 2 1969–70 Indiana Pacers Games – Basketball-Reference.com

Season standings + 1969–70 ABA Eastern Standings Western Division W L PCT. GB Indiana Pacers 59 25 .702 – Kentucky Colonels 45 39 .536 14 Carolina Cougars 42 42 .500 17 New York Nets 39 45 .464 20 Pittsburgh Pipers 29 55 .345 30 Miami Floridians 23 61 .274 36

Awards, records, and honors 1970 ABA All-Star Game Roger Brown Mel Daniels Freddie Lewis Bob Netolicky

Player stats

Regular season PlayerGPMPGFG%3P%FT%TRBAPGPPGRoger Brown 84 41.6 .498 .333 .813 7.4 4.7 23.0Bob Netolicky 82 39.3 .483 .286 .683 10.7 1.5 20.6Mel Daniels 83 36.6 .473 .000 .675 17.6 1.6 18.7Freddie Lewis 81 35.5 .421 .266 .790 3.4 3.6 16.4John Barnhill 77 30.8 .394 .261 .664 2.2 4.1 11.4Art Becker 82 18.3 .521 .000 .810 4.6 0.5 8.9Bill Keller 82 18.1 .397 .273 .850 2.1 2.9 8.7Barry Orms 9 15.9 .425 .000 .654 4.1 1.4 5.7Tom Thacker 70 14.5 .330 .256 .551 3.0 2.6 2.7Steve Chubin 32 11.9 .441 .500 .833 1.3 2.2 4.2Ollie Darden 26 11.1 .388 .250 .696 3.5 0.5 4.3John Fairchild 3 8.7 .167 .500 3.0 0.7 1.0Jay Miller 52 8.0 .449 .000 .719 1.5 0.3 3.7Bobby Edmonds 3 4.0 .200 .333 1.3 0.0 1.0Dick Grubar 2 4.0 .667 0.0 0.5 2.0Jerry McKee 1 3.0 .000 0.0 0.0 0.0

Transactions October 9, 1969 Traded George Peeples and Ron Perry to the Carolina Cougars for Arthur Becker, Spider Bennett and Tony Jackson. October 28, 1969 Traded John Fairchild to the Kentucky Colonels for cash. November 11, 1969 Traded cash to the New York Nets for Stephen Chubin. Waived Bobby Edmonds. January 22, 1970 Drafted Rick Mount in the ?? round (?? pick) of the 1970 ABA Draft. January 31, 1970 Claimed Ollie Darden on waivers from the Kentucky Colonels. March 9, 1970 Signed Rick Mount. March 17, 1970 Stephen Chubin claimed on waivers by the Kentucky Colonels.

ABA Playoffs ABA Eastern Division Semifinals vs Carolina Cougars Game Date Location Result Record Attendance 1 April 18 Indiana 123–105 1–0 6,123 2 April 19 Indiana 103–98 2–0 6,341 3 April 22 Carolina 103–98 3–0 3,381 4 April 24 Carolina 110–106 4–0 5,211 Pacers win series, 4–0

ABA Eastern Division Finals vs Kentucky Colonels Game Date Location Result Record Attendance 1 May 1 Indiana 114–110 1–0 5,939 2 May 2 Indiana 110–121 1–1 7,007 3 May 3 Kentucky 114–110 2–1 3,024 4 May 5 Kentucky 111–103 3–1 3,476 5 May 6 Indiana 117–103 4–1 5,453 Pacers win series, 4–1

ABA Finals vs Los Angeles Stars Game Date Location Result Record Attendance 1 May 15 Indiana 109–93 1–0 7,881 2 May 17 Indiana 114–111 2–0 9,014 3 May 18 Los Angeles 106–109 2–1 5,780 4 May 19 Los Angeles 142–120 3–1 7,027 5 May 23 Indiana 113–117 3–2 10,548 6 May 25 Los Angeles 111–107 4–2 8,233 Pacers win championship series, 4–2

References

Pacers on Basketball Reference

External links RememberTheABA.com 1969–70 regular season and playoff results