Ivica Zubac and the long walk back: a Pacers debut framed by injury, change, and a season’s hard math
At 7: 10 p. m. ET on Thursday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, ivica zubac is set to step onto the floor for the Indiana Pacers for the first time, in a home building that has recently seen more frustration than relief. He arrives not with the noise of a playoff push, but with the quieter weight of a return—coming off a left ankle sprain suffered in December and a trade that reshaped the team’s present and its plans.
What is happening Thursday night with Ivica Zubac?
Indiana announced on Thursday that Ivica Zubac will make his debut for the Pacers against the Phoenix Suns. Zubac, 28, had been listed as questionable for Thursday’s game. Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle told reporters on Tuesday that Zubac was close to returning from the left ankle sprain.
The matchup is scheduled for Thursday, March 12 at 7: 10 p. m. ET at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. The broadcast listings include FanDuel Sports Network Indiana for the Pacers and Arizona’s Family Sports for the Suns, with radio coverage on 1070 The Fan for the Pacers and KTAR for the Suns.
Why the debut matters in a season already tilted toward the future
The Pacers’ record underscores the stakes and the scrutiny surrounding any rotation decision. Indiana is 15-50 and last in the Eastern Conference. The team has also been fined, along with the Utah Jazz, for violating the league’s player participation policy—an institutional pressure point that can turn even late-season minutes into something more than “development. ” Using Zubac late in the season, despite the record, might help prevent the Pacers from facing further punishment under that policy.
On the court, the game arrives amid a difficult run. Indiana has dropped 10 straight and 14 of its past 16 since February began, and this contest is set to be only its second game of the month in front of home fans. The Pacers are 10-22 at home and 4-20 against Western Conference opposition. Phoenix enters after a 129-114 win over the Milwaukee Bucks and is 16-14 on the road and 13-11 against Eastern Conference teams.
In that context, Thursday becomes a hinge moment: not a promise of immediate turnaround, but a first look at how Indiana intends to deploy a new centerpiece at center while the season continues to slip away in the standings.
How Ivica Zubac got to Indiana: the trade and the roster that follows
Zubac’s debut is also a debut for an idea—the one Indiana bought into at the trade deadline. Zubac was traded to the Pacers along with Kobe Brown in a deal that sent Bennedict Mathurin, Isaiah Jackson, two first-round picks, and one second-round pick to the Los Angeles Clippers.
The move comes with a new roster reality. Zubac now appears set to be the Pacers’ center of the future after the team lost Myles Turner to the Milwaukee Bucks in free agency this offseason. Indiana’s next version is also shaped by the health of its stars: Zubac will team up with Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton and forward Pascal Siakam. Siakam was an All-Star this season, while Haliburton has been out so far this season after suffering a torn Achilles in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals.
For Zubac, the transition is not just between teams but between identities—leaving the only NBA city he had known as a pro. He spent his entire career in Los Angeles, initially drafted by the Lakers in 2016 before being traded to the Clippers in 2019.
What kind of player is ivica zubac right now?
The Pacers are not introducing an unknown. In Los Angeles, Zubac had become a reliable role player over the past few seasons, with a major jump last year. He was named to the second-team NBA All-Defensive team for the first time, averaged a career-high 16. 8 points and 12. 6 rebounds, and finished sixth in Defensive Player of the Year voting.
This season, his numbers have decreased, but his production remained steady: 14. 4 points and 11 rebounds per game in 43 games, a double-double average. For a Pacers team navigating injuries, losses, and a shifting timeline, that consistency is part of the appeal—especially at a position that often becomes the emotional barometer for effort: rebounding, rim protection, and screening through contact.
The question Thursday does not have to be answered in one night. But the first minutes matter for how Indiana frames the rest of the season: whether it looks like a slow build around a new center, or a temporary patch on a year defined by absences and penalties.
What are the immediate responses and what comes next?
The immediate response is simple and procedural: Indiana has cleared Zubac to make his debut after listing him as questionable, following Carlisle’s statement earlier in the week that he was close to returning. The organization’s broader response—implicit in its choices—will be measured over the remaining games in how consistently it puts its available players on the floor amid league oversight of participation.
Beyond the game itself, Thursday offers a public first look at a post-Turner center rotation and a new partnership that the Pacers hope can stabilize the court when other foundations have been shaken, including the absence of Haliburton.
And it arrives with the blunt arithmetic of the standings in the background: a team sitting last in the conference, playing a Western Conference opponent on a night when the home crowd is being asked, again, to invest in what is next rather than what is now.
Back at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, when the ball goes up at 7: 10 p. m. ET, the scene will hold two stories at once: the Suns visiting with momentum, and a Pacers team trying to make meaning out of a difficult season. At the center of it stands ivica zubac, taking his first steps in a new uniform—an arrival shaped by injury, trade math, and the hope that a debut can be more than a footnote.
