Indiana Pacers Media Availability | May 12, 2025

Indiana Pacers Media Availability | May 12, 2025

Did you guys What did you all Did you guys do today? Film? Did you do anything on the floor? What did you guys do today as a team? Anything on the floor? Was it all film? We We did the things that we need to do to get ready for tomorrow. When you talk about every game being harder than the previous one from a playoff perspective, is that just because of a series changing dynamics? Is that because of opposing team desperation? What to you makes it that the case that there’s that escalation? Just just competition at the highest level in this you know, one one team one team wins, one team loses, the losing team always going to come back harder. Each game’s going to have different characteristics, different stuff going on. Um, you know, maintaining the edge is a challenge. How much have you seen this group uh sort of apply lessons that that it went through last year basically in New York? Obviously, uh you had a 3-1 lead going into Milwaukee last year. Saw what that experience is like to go and try to close somebody out in game five at their place. What kind of lessons do you think you guys take from from that circumstance? Yeah, I mean it’s it’s all cumulative and uh it’s all experience. Um you know the the it’s not the where it’s the how. No, we we’ve just, you know, we’ve got to approach things um in a way that that gives us the best chance to do the things we need to do, you know, which is uh to play hard, to play together, uh to play unselfish, to take care of the ball, to to rebound better, um those kinds of things. So, um we we you know, we we have a very good idea of the kind of environment it’s going to be tomorrow, the kind of desperation, you know, they’re going to you know, they they’ll play their best game and um you know, we’ve got to be ready and and it’s going to be extremely difficult. Rick, I know you said yesterday this this is far from over. Is that something that you were really kind of stressing the guys here because we know every game is different from Friday to Sunday and just the fact that I don’t remember saying anything about anything being over at all. Um we’re staying in the present as much as we can. Um, you know, it’s it’s a seven game series. There’s three more games in the series. And so, you know, we got to approach game five the right way. Um, we got to expect, you know, a loud rockus building. Um, you know, we’re going to have we’re going to have some disagreements with officials and all that kind of stuff and so will Cleveland. Um, but that’s that’s all part of it. That’s all part of it. Uh tactically obviously when you guys kind of bust up the 3-2 zone the way that you do, I imagine you have to expect that there’s going to be pretty dramatic counter on that end. I mean, how is this another one of those games where you look at it? You have to prepare for absolutely any possible change as far as tactics concerned. Yeah, I mean, look, it’s a lot of this is the attitude you take into a game and the attitude you take when you’re attacking a certain kind of defense or a certain kind of strategy. Um, you know, there there are things that that supersede strategy. One is possession of the ball. I mean, we rebound the ball better. Um, you know, the game the game’s going to flow better for us. So, we did a better job last night and it helped. Um, you know, they’re going to put a lot of pressure on us on the boards in game five. we’ve got to, you know, continue to to work at being better each game, you know, and and and just just and just move move from there, you know, but it’s it’s whistle to whistle, timeout to timeout. Um, you know, review to review. I mean, there’s all kinds of stuff going on all the time. Um, and you know, we we’ve just got to we’ve got to navigate through all of it. What kind of lessons can be learned, not only in this series, but other series, the wild swings between one game to the next? And as you said, you’re just worried about the next game. The the previous one doesn’t really apply. Yeah, it’s just it’s normal operating procedure in the playoffs. It’s just uh uh it’s very it’s very unpredictable. It’s very wild. Um the emotions are are are very high. And so um yeah, got to maintain as best you can, you got to maintain an even temperament. um but with with a with a with a really important eye and focus on the things necessary um for each individual guy to do to help our team function the best, you know. So that’s really that’s really what it’s about. Rick, you guys have worked hard to get it to 3-1. You won there at their place twice. What is the level of sense of urgency to try to find a way to get it done here on Tuesday night? We got uh we got a flight at 3:30 and I’m looking forward to clearing security at 3:30 and by before 3:30 so I don’t get fined and um we’ll get on the plane and we’ll just we’ll try to stay in the moment as best we can. Um talking about you know resultsoriented things is uh is is foolish for us. you know, we’ve gota we’ve got to really maintain our focus on the process and it’s a difficult process. You know, playoff series very difficult. I mean, you know, after the first two games, it it seemed seemed like everything was great and then you get smashed. I mean, not smashed, obliterated, you know, and so u we bounced back well. And so, you know, now they’re going to try to smash us again. And so, um we we’ve got to be ready. We’ve got to stand strong and stand together and and uh do our best to play our game

Rick Carlisle spoke with the media following practice on Monday.