Pacers Edge Pelicans 123-120 as Haliburton Returns

The Indiana Pacers opened the 2026-27 season with a 123-120 road win over the New Orleans Pelicans at Smoothie King Center, and the night belonged to Tyrese Haliburton. Back from injury, Haliburton starred late and got emotional in his postgame interview — a defining storyline on a night when the Pacers, a 19-win team a season ago, justified being road favorites.

Premium pick: Under — cashed. The game landed at 243 combined points, well below the inflated number. The reasoning held: two bottom-tier defenses and two uncertain offenses didn't produce the shootout the market feared.

Prop card:

• Jeremiah Fears over 11.50 points (-104) — cashed. His 14.26 season average and 31.8 last-five average made this the best number on the board, and he cleared it comfortably.
• Zion Williamson under 21.50 points (-118) — cashed. Williamson's recent trajectory (17.0 average over his last five, four of five under this line) held. His 22-point outlier game didn't repeat.
• Pascal Siakam over 20.50 points (-114) — missed. Siakam's stable scoring (23.95 average, four of five over 20.5) didn't carry over in the opener. The Haliburton return reshaped Indiana's shot distribution, and Siakam fell short.

Takeaway: The Under was the right read on two flawed defenses, and the prop card's process — leaning on recent form and role — held up on two of three. The Siakam miss is a reminder that an unsettled rotation around a returning star can suppress individual volume even when the underlying scoring profile looks stable. For future picks, weigh role and usage shifts more heavily than season-long averages in openers.