The 2001–02 Indiana Pacers season was the 26th season for the Indiana Pacers in the National Basketball Association, and their 35th season as a franchise.

Season summary

Off-season During the off-season, the Pacers acquired rookie point guard, and first-round draft pick Jamaal Tinsley out of Iowa State University from the Atlanta Hawks on draft day; the Hawks had acquired Tinsley from the Memphis Grizzlies, who drafted him. The Pacers also signed free agent Carlos Rogers.

Regular season With the addition of Tinsley, the Pacers won six of their first eight games of the regular season, but then lost seven of their next nine games, and played around .500 in winning percentage for most of the first half of the season, holding a 25–25 record at the All-Star break. At mid-season, the team traded Jalen Rose, and Travis Best to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Ron Artest, Brad Miller, Ron Mercer and Kevin Ollie. With a 37–40 record as of April 8, 2002, the Pacers managed to win their final five games of the season, finishing in fourth place in the Central Division with a 42–40 record, and earning the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference; the team qualified for the NBA playoffs for the fifth consecutive year.

Jermaine O'Neal averaged 19.0 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game, and was named the NBA Most Improved Player of the Year, and was also named to the All-NBA Third Team. In addition, Reggie Miller averaged 16.5 points per game and led the Pacers with 180 three-point field goals, while Brad Miller provided the team with 15.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per game in 28 games after the trade, and Al Harrington played a sixth man role off the bench, averaging 13.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, but was out for the remainder of the season due to a torn ACL after 44 games. Meanwhile, Artest contributed 10.9 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.4 steals per game in 28 games, and Tinsley provided with 9.4 points, 8.1 assists and 1.7 steals per game, and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team. Off the bench, Jonathan Bender contributed 7.4 points and 3.1 rebounds per game, while Austin Croshere provided with 6.8 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, and Jeff Foster, who started at center for half of the regular season, averaged 5.7 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.

During the NBA All-Star weekend at the First Union Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, O'Neal was selected for the 2002 NBA All-Star Game, as a member of the Eastern Conference All-Star team; it was his first ever All-Star appearance. Meanwhile, Tinsley was selected for the NBA Rookie Challenge Game, as a member of the Rookies team. Tinsley also finished tied in third place in Rookie of the Year voting, while head coach Isiah Thomas finished tied in seventh place in Coach of the Year voting.

The Pacers finished 16th in the NBA in home-game attendance, with an attendance of 686,537 at the Conseco Fieldhouse during the regular season.

NBA playoffs In the Eastern Conference First Round of the 2002 NBA playoffs, the Pacers faced off against the top–seeded, and Atlantic Division champion New Jersey Nets, who were led by the trio of All-Star guard Jason Kidd, second-year star Kenyon Martin, and Keith Van Horn. The Pacers won Game 1 over the Nets on the road, 89–83 at the Continental Airlines Arena, but then lost the next two games as the Nets took a 2–1 series lead. The Pacers managed to win Game 4 over the Nets at home, 97–74 at the Conseco Fieldhouse to even the series. However, the Pacers lost Game 5 to the Nets at the Continental Airlines Arena in double-overtime, 120–109, thus losing in a hard-fought five-game series.

The Nets would advance to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, but would lose to the 2-time defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers in a four-game sweep in the 2002 NBA Finals.

Aftermath Following the season, Ollie signed as a free agent with the Milwaukee Bucks, and Rogers was released to free agency.

Offseason

Draft picks

Round Pick Player Position Nationality College 2 40 Jamison Brewer PG Auburn

Roster

Regular season

Season standings

Game log

Playoffs

|- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 1 | April 20 | @ New Jersey | W 89–83 | Jermaine O'Neal (30) | Brad Miller (12) | Jamaal Tinsley (7) | Continental Airlines Arena18,555 | 1–0 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 2 | April 22 | @ New Jersey | L 79–95 | Reggie Miller (26) | Artest, O'Neal (6) | Jamaal Tinsley (5) | Continental Airlines Arena20,049 | 1–1 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 3 | April 26 | New Jersey | L 84–85 | Reggie Miller (30) | Jeff Foster (12) | Jamaal Tinsley (9) | Conseco Fieldhouse18,345 | 1–2 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ccffcc" | 4 | April 30 | New Jersey | W 97–74 | Artest, Croshere (18) | Artest, B. Miller (8) | Kevin Ollie (9) | Conseco Fieldhouse18,345 | 2–2 |- align="center" bgcolor="#ffcccc" | 5 | May 2 | @ New Jersey | L 109–120 (2OT) | Reggie Miller (31) | Brad Miller (17) | Kevin Ollie (8) | Continental Airlines Arena20,049 | 2–3

Player statistics

Ragular season PlayerC82 48 1,786 556 70 71 38 467 21.8 6.8 .9 .9 .5 5.7PG 80 78 2,442 298 647 138 40 751 30.5 3.7 8.1 1.7 .5 9.4SG 79 79 2,889 219 253 88 10 1,304 36.6 2.8 3.2 1.1 .1 16.5SF 78 17 1,647 244 62 19 49 581 21.1 3.1 .8 .2 .6 7.4PF 76 1 1,286 294 77 26 29 516 16.9 3.9 1.0 .3 .4 6.8PF 72 72 2,707 757 118 45 166 1,371 37.6 10.5 1.6 .6 2.3 19.0†SF 53 53 1,937 249 197 45 29 982 36.5 4.7 3.7 .8 .5 18.5†PG 44 3 954 70 175 57 6 302 21.7 1.6 4.0 1.3 .1 6.9PF 44 1 1,313 276 54 41 21 576 29.8 6.3 1.2 .9 .5 13.1†PG 29 0 577 56 98 26 1 158 19.9 1.9 3.4 .9 .0 5.4†C 28 28 872 220 51 24 12 424 31.1 7.9 1.8 .9 .4 15.1†SF 28 24 819 140 50 66 16 306 29.3 5.0 1.8 2.4 .6 10.9C 22 4 160 28 6 0 7 43 7.3 1.3 .3 .0 .3 2.0C 22 1 168 38 3 5 6 59 7.6 1.7 .1 .2 .3 2.7C 22 0 88 21 3 3 3 32 4.0 1.0 .1 .1 .1 1.5†SG 13 1 213 23 10 2 3 62 16.4 1.8 .8 .2 .2 4.8SG 13 0 43 8 9 2 0 4 3.3 .6 .7 .2 .0 .3†SG 3 0 4 1 1 0 0 0 1.3 .3 .3 .0 .0 .0

Playoffs PlayerSG5 5 198 16 14 8 1 118 39.6 3.2 2.8 1.6 .2 23.6PF5 5 192 38 5 4 8 86 38.4 7.6 1.0 .8 1.6 17.2C5 5 180 49 7 4 2 56 36.0 9.8 1.4 .8 .4 11.2SF5 5 167 30 16 13 3 59 33.4 6.0 3.2 2.6 .6 11.8PG5 5 88 10 25 2 0 18 17.6 2.0 5.0 .4 .0 3.6PG5 0 118 12 23 3 0 29 23.6 2.4 4.6 .6 .0 5.8SG5 0 117 10 4 1 1 39 23.4 2.0 .8 .2 .2 7.8C5 0 78 24 7 3 1 20 15.6 4.8 1.4 .6 .2 4.0SF5 0 45 4 2 2 3 6 9.0 .8 .4 .4 .6 1.2PF 4 0 59 14 2 1 1 24 14.8 3.5 .5 .3 .3 6.0SG 2 0 6 4 1 0 0 1 3.0 2.0 .5 .0 .0 .5C 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 2.0 .0 .0 .0 .0 2.0

Awards and records Jermaine O'Neal, NBA Most Improved Player Award Jermaine O'Neal, NBA All-Star Game Jermaine O'Neal, All-NBA Third Team Jamaal Tinsley, NBA All-Rookie Team 2nd Team

Transactions

Trades February 19, 2002 To Indiana PacersKevin Ollie To Chicago Bulls Travis Best February 19, 2002 To Indiana PacersRon Artest, Brad Miller and Ron Mercer To Chicago BullsJalen Rose, Norm Richardson, and a second-round draft pick

Player Transactions Citation:

References