The Pacers play their first home game of the pre-season tonight against the Atlanta Hawks.

After Tyrese Haliburton's busy summer with Team USA, the team elected to give him "scheduled rest" during the first two games. However, he's expected to make his debut tonight in front of the home fans. Myles Turner is also expected to return to the lineup after sitting out in Houston, meaning we should get our first glimpse of the projected starting five of Haliburton, Brown, Mathurin, Toppin, and Turner.

That lineup started for the White Team in the FanJam scrimmage on Saturday, which ultimately lost to the "reserves" Blue Team.

Whether that group continues to be the starting lineup is a question of production. According to Carlisle, the competition for spots is still very much alive.

As far as the Pacers' opponents, the Hawks come to Indy looking to improve on a somewhat disappointing season last year. The team finished .500 and made the playoffs as the 7th seed through the play-in process, where it was bounced in the first round by Boston. After making the Eastern Conference Finals two years ago and investing heavily in Trae Young and Dejounte Murray, who they signed to a four year extension in July, the Hawks are hoping to get back to winning playoff series.

The team finally traded John Collins to Utah this summer, opening up the forward rotation for some of its younger, cheaper players like Saddiq Bey, Jalen Johnson, and Onyeka Okongwu.

The Hawks also added former Pacers coach and Butler legend Ronald Nored to Quinn Snyder's staff this offseason. I'm sure he'll get a warm welcome from the team and fans when he takes the court.

The only Pacers player expected to be unavailable due to health is Andrew Nembhard, who is still working his way back into game shape after having a kidney stone removed late last week. This should be the last game he misses, as Carlisle expects him to go full-speed starting tomorrow.

Fan Jam

The underdog Blue Team pulled the upset on Saturday behind the stellar play of Buddy Hield. Hield led the game with 18 points on 50% shooting from deep. After losing in a scrimmage on Friday to determine which team would use the home locker room, the Blue team said that it made defensive adjustments to limit Tyrese Haliburton.

T.J. McConnell, who Hield credits with "[controlling] the game early and [setting] the pace,” believes that "being in the visitor’s locker room certainly gave us some motivation.”

Elsewhere, the rookie did their thing in the talent show.

For more on the FanJam experience from the players' perspectives, check out their interviews below.

How To Watch

With the Pacers playing the final two pre-season games at home, local fans will be able to tune in to Bally Sports as usual. If you're out of state, the game will be on NBA League pass. The radio broadcast is on FM 93.5/107.5.

Tip-off is at 7:00 PM ET.  

See ya in the comments!

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