11 hours ago
How the Pacers plan to keep Game 4's disappointment from costing them Game 5 vs Thunder
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. -- At this stage of the season, Tyrese Haliburton said, simply moving on from defeat is not an option.
The Pacers can't try to avoid the sting of what they gave away on Friday night in Game 4 of the NBA Finals when they entered the fourth quarter with a seven-point lead and seemingly all the momentum pushing them toward a 3-1 lead in the series. They were instead outscored 31-17 in the final period to lose 111-104, evening up the series heading toward a pivotal Game 5 in Oklahoma City on Monday night.
Between Friday's game and Sunday's media availability, they had no choice but to relive it in excruciating detail.
"I think once you get to the playoffs, I don't think it's so much about flushing things," Haliburton said. "You've really got to take every game, see where you did well and see where you can do better and learn from that. I think in the regular season, it's different. You play 82 games. You play a team in Game 10 that you don't see again until Game 60. So, all right, flush it and move on to the next. In the playoffs, it's different. You don't get the right to flush games. You have to learn from everything and watch film and see where you can get better."
The Pacers have proven to be very good at that process, which is why they haven't lost two games in a row at any point in these playoffs and why they have a 14-6 record overall in the postseason. In each of the first three series en route to their Eastern Conference championship, they immediately followed a double-figure loss with a double-figure win, yet another data point that speaks to the resilience that has allowed the Pacers to go from being a 25-win lottery team in 2021-22 to an NBA Finals team just three seasons later.
"When your back is against the wall, that's typically, I guess, when we show what we're made of," veteran center Myles Turner said. "That's typically where we get our best basketball."
The Pacers' backs aren't against the wall quite yet with the series even, but to keep it from getting there they have to find a way to beat the team with the NBA's best regular season record at their place. They pulled it off in Game 1 with a late-game rally that culminated in Haliburton's game-winning jump shot with 0.3 seconds to go. However, the Thunder have lost just two home games in these playoffs and they were 35-6 in the regular season. Counting the regular season and playoffs, they have lost exactly one home game in each calendar month since November, which was the last time they lost two games in the same month.
The Pacers' loss in Game 4 means they have to find a way to beat the Thunder a second time in June, either in Game 5 or Game 7 or both, and that will obviously require better offense than they had in the fourth quarter of Game 4. After starting the game on fire with a 35-point first quarter, they wilted in the fourth with 17 points on 5 of 18 shooting including 0 of 8 from 3-point range. It was their lowest scoring quarter since the Eastern Conference semifinals as they posted a horrendous efficiency figure of 0.70 points per possession.
The Pacers were fairly guarded about pointing out what exactly went wrong in the period, but repeatedly mentioned the lack of tempo.
"Keep playing fast," Turner said. "Keep playing with pace. That's how we play, and that's how we made our mark. It's not coming off our principles."
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle noted that their lack of ability to play with pace on offense came in part because of issues on defense. They committed 10 fouls in the fourth quarter that led to 14 Thunder free throws and they also allowed four offensive rebounds that turned into eight second-chance points including a pair of put-back dunks by Thunder center Chet Holmgren.
"The problems that hindered us in the fourth quarter were an inability to rebound the ball, unnecessary fouls," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. "Those things have us taking the ball out of bounds after they score or having to take it out after a free throw, and then they can really set their defense. Then the game becomes slower. Doing better in those two areas, the rebounding and the fouls, that will help us. But it's a challenge. They put a lot of pressure on you in the fourth quarter. They have got some great, great players that cause major problems."
They also have to find a way to better involved one of their best players. All-Star forward Pascal Siakam scored 20 points in the game, but took just one field goal attempt in the fourth quarter and that came with more than 10 minutes remaining. Siakam led the Pacers with 20.2 points per game in the regular season and is averaging 20.6 points per game in the playoffs. He's a threat to score inside and out and is clearly the Pacers' best isolation scoring option because of his ability to score out of the post, either by turning and getting to the rim or hitting turnaround jumpers.
"That can't happen," Carlisle said. "He is a guy that if we are not playing through him, he needs to touch the ball more."
That's been driven into their heads for two days and on Monday they get a chance to apply it. Neither of the two teams involved in this series has lost back-to-back games in these playoffs and the Pacers are trying not to be the first.
