After ruling out forwards Obi Toppin and Kelly Oubre Jr. for Monday’s game against Atlanta, the Pacers were down to just six healthy players, which meant that each of those six players logged at least 35 minutes of game action, with forward Jarace Walker playing a team-high 45 minutes.
According to Bobby Marks and Matt Williams of ESPN (Twitter link), it was the earliest in a season that a team has used six or fewer players since the Lakers did so in their third game in 1948.
Indiana ended up losing, but the game went down to the wire before the Hawks secured the 108-104 victory, and head coach Rick Carlisle was thrilled by the effort he saw from Walker, Jalen Slawson, Jay Huff, Quenton Jackson, Braden Smith, and Kobe Brown, none of whom would be starters when the roster is healthy.