Pacers looking to end wild stretch of Eastern Conference Finals misfortune

The Pacers have won three championships in their 57-year history, but those all came between 1970 and 1973 in the American Basketball Association (ABA) days. Indiana has only made the NBA Finals once since the 1976 ABA-NBA merger, falling to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games in 2000.

The Pacers only made the playoffs twice between 1977 and 1989, losing in the first round in 1981 and 1987.

After being eliminated in the opening round four times in a row from 1990-93, they finally broke through and advanced to the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals in Hall of Famer Reggie Miller's seventh season. Indiana fell to the New York Knicks in a seven-game classic though, and also lost in seven games in the 1995 conference finals to the Orlando Magic.

The team made back-to-back conference finals runs during Larry Bird's brief head-coaching tenure but fell to Michael Jordan's "Last Dance" Chicago Bulls in 1998 and Patrick Ewing and the rival Knicks in 1999. After Bird led Indiana to an appearance in the 2000 NBA Finals against Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and the Lakers, another Hall-of-Famer in Isiah Thomas took over on the bench.

The Pacers had three consecutive first-round exits under Thomas from 2001-03 before Rick Carlisle began his first tenure as the team's leader during the 2003-04 campaign.

Despite finishing as the top seed in the Eastern Conference in 2004, Jermaine O'Neal, Metta World Peace (then known as Ron Artest) and Miller (in his penultimate season) lost to the third-seeded Detroit Pistons in the 2004 conference finals.

After a pair of early playoff exits in 2005 and 2006, Indiana failed to qualify for the postseason from 2007-10 and was knocked out in the first round in 2011 and the conference semifinals in 2012.

Under the guidance of Frank Vogel, two stacked Pacers teams led by Danny Granger, Paul George and Roy Hibbert ran into Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and the Miami Heat in both the 2013 and 2014 conference finals. Despite Lance Stephenson's best efforts of getting in the head of King James, Indiana fell short both times.

The upcoming matchup against the Celtics will be the Pacers' first time back in the Eastern Conference Finals since 2014. They missed the playoffs in 2015, were eliminated in the first round five straight times from 2016-20 and missed the tournament again from 2021-23.