Indiana Pacers Media Availability | May 16, 2025

Indiana Pacers Media Availability | May 16, 2025

challenge of this preparation basically when you have basically a long gap in between and also you’re not sure who you’re Yeah, we we’ve got it scheduled. Um we’re mixing rest and work and so uh you know we we’re going live today and tomorrow. We’ll take Sunday off and practice Monday and Tuesday and travel. What’s Yeah. What have you learned about finding balance in those situations about how to guess make the most of the time? Yeah, it’s you gota um see where things are kind of at with your team. Um you know being done Tuesday night, we knew there would be a little bit of a time. So made sense for Wednesday and Thursday to be Wednesday was off. Thursday was a was a what we call a pro day, which is, you know, you got to come in and get treatment, lift, and and get some shots. Um, but you know, I talked to the staff about it. I take the temperature of the players and you know, this this seems to be what’s best for us. Rick, how do you keep a bit of an edge with these guys when you’ve got this many games between game five? uh with practice and uh you know with with doing things um still live and with some edge and you know practice this time of year um is super important because you’ve got to get the right balance between live activity and um trying to avoid an unnecessary injury, you know, to be honest. And so, uh, you know, we’re we’re working on the formula as best we can. How played each of these teams, uh, in the in the playoffs last year, and obviously don’t know who’s going to win yet, but what impresses you about each of them, and how do you feel like the challenge, uh, with each team has changed over the course of They’re both great teams. They both have tremendous star power. Um, they’re both very deep. um they both present problems with rebounding, you know, which is an ongoing challenge in every series we’ve been in. And so, uh you know, we’ll the game tonight will be very interesting to watch. Um obviously, super competitive situation and and uh you know, very very interested to see it. Rick, when teams are building after a lottery pick like you had with Matherin a couple years ago when this about Mad when teams are building the question is are you on schedule, ahead of schedule, behind schedule, two straight Eastern Conference Finals, where are you in terms of the schedule? Yeah, I’m not talking about that. Um there’s no there’s no point really. I mean right now we have to concentrate on each individual day. Um our focus has got to be solely on the next game. Um, and and that’s it. I mean, know, you know, I understand the question. I mean, I understand where where you’re coming from, but it’s just that kind of stuff is is not in my wheelhouse right now. I don’t know if it’s rat poison like saving would call it, but my my question is kind of you guys seem to be ahead of schedule. Two straight conference finals is not what people thought on paper was going to happen two years ago. Yeah, it’s Listen, I I came here and I remember you wrote a story joking about me talking about, you know, getting to the conference finals in the championship and, you know, you got to have big dreams and you don’t know how often you’re going to be in this position and so a lot of a lot of uh talk about, you know, where you’re at and the timeline and all that kind of stuff. Not healthy right now, you know. We’re right now it’s it’s Friday and we’re playing w we’re playing next Wednesday, you know. Um we got to practice tomorrow. We’re off Sunday. Um we’ll find out who we play. Whoever it’s going to be is going to be is going to be extremely difficult. Um but that’s where we’re at with I hate to make you look back again. I feel bad about that. However, you can you can ask Oh my gosh, that’s right. The game in Minnesota, there were a lot of moments during the season, but I was wondering if that that victory in Minnesota was a moment in which you could envision this. Explain that. Look, I I have a strong belief in our entire roster. And you know, that particular game, we had we had some guys dinged up. We had some things going on. And what made sense was what we did. and we we decided that we were going allin with the guys that were available. Um they were depth guys that were going to get an opportunity and um our guys jumped on it and it was it was an important moment in the season but I don’t like looking backward very much. Um you know we we are we are where we are. A lot of things happened to get us to this point. Um talking about those things and I don’t know. Spending a lot of time on him isn’t very constructive really. You know, I I respect your question. Both game fives, you guys just seem to have kind of a killer mentality to close the series out. How does that evolve with this group? Kind of just take advantage of those situations when they come. Yeah, I mean, you know, you want to win win win every game that you can and you want to if you have an elimination game in your favor, you want to win it. So, you know, yes, I agree with you. I got one more. This kind of looks back on more philosophical. We talked about this. You talked about what led you to give your players more freedom. What made you more of a believer in randomizing in the idea of not having sess and believing in flow and what could what that could do for how do you kind of playing for the Boston Celtics in the 80s [Music] that that was that was the big thing for me. Um it was a simple system with there were great players there you know um but you know and and as as I’ve gone through the years as a player and as a coach um you know you anytime you take a job as a as a head coach you know regardless of the situation you don’t often get a great job. You know, I mean, my first job in Detroit was a 32- win team, right? But we talked about playing a playoff style, and part of a playoff style is you’ve got to be able to play a random unpredictable game um or a flow game as a lot of people have called it over the years. Um because running plays in that kind of situation with so much scouting and everything else, so much pressure and intensity and time between games, it just doesn’t work. So you got to develop you got to develop that style. You got to you got to acquire players that you know can do that that can that can handle the the trust involved with that responsibility and privilege really. And um look, it helps to have great point guards. You know, we’ve got three of them. We got Tai and and uh and Drew and and TJ. And you know, Pascal’s really a fourth point guard, you know, as a guy that can handle and make plays. So, you know, that’s that’s a long answer. I guess I feel like experience is making this better. Oh, I mean, I think just you learn always learn from experience. I think like that’s everything. That’s not even just basketball, it’s life. So, when when you you go through life and there’s things that you experienced before automatically in your brain, you know, it just gives you not only comfort, but it can help you know how to deal with it, you know. So, I think it’s just the fact that we’ve been in these situations. We’ve been in hostile games. We’ve been in on the road, you know, had to find a way to win. Um, you know, we’ve been down, like we’ve been up, like we’ve seen it at the highest level. So, I I I mean, it doesn’t matter. You still have to go through it. Uh it doesn’t mean that we’re immune to whatever is going to happen, but I think we have a better experience because we know we’ve seen it before. Would you say it’s confidence? You feel more confident in all those situations? I I don’t know. I wouldn’t say confidence. I mean, it is confidence, but it’s all the things. Just again, just the fact that you’ve seen it. It doesn’t even have to be confidence. Just that, you know, if if you’ve seen something before in your life, when it happens again, you know, you have a different understanding of it. Maybe you approach it differently. Maybe, you know, um it just it just depends. Pascal, why are you guys so much better this year than you were facing the same group of teams, Knicks or Celtics? You’re better. Why? What’s happened? You think we’re better? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, that’s good. But I think for us, we just continue to get better as a team. Um we continue to improve on every facet of our game. Um and and the experience is helping us. I think we just got to, you know, stay grounded, continue to work hard, um, be who we are, and that’s that’s the mentality. I was listening to a podcast last night. They kept calling you the Indiana passers because of the passing skills that this team has. How unique is that, the unselfishness and the number of passes you have at possession. Yeah. I mean, that’s what we preach, right? Like that’s, you know, from the first day I got here, that’s, you know, it’s always been about that, moving the ball, um, and and playing team basketball. If you’re being honest, was there any point last year when you got to this point that you were like on this team as a whole was like we’re happy to be here as opposed to now you guys expected? I mean I I don’t know. I mean I think for me I’ve always had the mindset of like you know we obviously it’s goals that you want to continue to knock off and and um that was one goal but I always thought that you know we were talented enough to continue to you know improve and win. So, um that’s the mindset that we have and um and and it’s it’s hard to continue to just look back, right? Like we have to look ahead and um and the things that are in front of us and and and we got to we got to be ready for the challenge that’s coming and that’s that’s what we’re preparing for. How much more of an edge is your ability to wear teams down? I mean, even last year, obviously you pressed a lot and that was a big strength for you going into these playoffs, but how much more do you feel like you rely on that now? How much like are you seeing a difference of how you can exhaust when you guys play. I I don’t know to be honest. I think we just got to do us, continue to play our game. Um and and you know, there’s there’s a lot of work going through it, you know, training camp and and and everything, you know, so we just got to continue to be us, man. Like I again it’s I don’t want to get into all the you know, like it is what it is. Like we we are the Pacers. We play our brand of basketball and and we got to focus on that. What’s important for you guys to do in these couple of days and in these four or five days before you play? Yeah. No, it’s it’s a good time to, you know, get back out there, you know, um some of the core things that we do as a team, continue to um amplify it, um work hard and um and it’s it’s a good time to, you know, recharge. Obviously, you sleep on your bed, you know, you you get to, you know, just just get that juice going again. And um and and we you know we have hard practices and and you know it’s it’s it’s by no means like rest time you know at the end of the day like it’s it’s work time and and and and getting better and and improving and getting ready for um what’s coming. Did you practice? Huh? Did you practice? Me? Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh cuz I don’t look like I practiced. Well you change quickly. Nah, man. I I get my workout in before, you know, so I can after practice, I can shower and be ready to go home. So, Oh, there you go. I don’t know, man. All right. My bad. My bad. Next time I’ll come and practice gear, so maybe that get you the idea that I practiced today, you know. All good. What uh real quickly, what impressed you about Boston, New York, obviously? How you see them as different than they were? Great teams. Great teams. Um, obviously New York addicted, uh, Andre Towns, like they play great basketball. Boston as well, obviously. Um, you know, sad for Jason Tatum, you know, sending my prayers, um, for him and, you know, it’s it’s crazy what happened to him. Um, just how talented he is as a player and, um, it’s a brotherhood. So, you know, yeah, sending my prayers for him and but but Boston just they have the talent. They have the talent level. They have the guys to to do it. Um, they play fast, they shoot threes. like obviously we lost to them last year. So um two amazing teams go going at it and um and and again wherever we play it’s going to be a battle. You don’t even know who your opponent is at this stage. Yeah, I mean uh I think we’re more worried about what we have going on internally, you know, take care of where we can improve and get better. Um obviously between Boston and New York, they share uh many similarities and many differences. Uh so just harping on the you know the main things of that and uh you know it’s more I think today is more about you know worrying about us where we can improve and how we can be better throughout throughout this run. Talk about having experience has made you better from last time. What does that feel like? What specific things like I’m more equipped for this playoff thing because uh I think just moving on to the next play think throughout the course of the playoffs. There’s missed calls. There’s calls that you don’t agree with. There’s there’s crazy things that go on through the course of the game. those guys who are making shots that you aren’t accustomed to. There there’s many things that can happen in a playoff game. Uh but I think as time goes on and more experience I get there in in the playoffs, I think the more I’m equipped to just move on to the next play, just be ready to, you know, take whatever whatever comes with the game, you know, there’s so many different things that can happen through a course of a basketball game and especially in the playoffs. So just ready for whatever. You just talked about having to work on yourself and after two series when you win by five, what were the things that you did focus on? You said, “Okay, I still wasn’t as good as it needs to be.” Yeah, we obviously got to do a much better job rebounding the ball. Um, you know, Cleveland dominated on us on the glass for three games really. And uh, you know, we don’t know who it’s going to be between New York and Boston, but um, we know both those teams rebound at at a high level. So, uh, that’s the biggest thing is how can we match that physicality and, you know, rebounding the ball um, and then offensively just being who we are. But defensively, this series is going to whoever we play is going to come down to who can get enough stops. And um that’s where you know we got to we we’ve taken a big jump from last year but um that’s where you know this game these uh these games and these series will be won. Obviously you played both of them last year. How do you see the difference between each other in terms of how they’ve evolved? Of course obviously one thing just not having right now. How do you see each of those teams being different? Yeah, they’re both uh they both present different challenges uh different in their own ways. Um, you know, I think Boston without Jason is obviously a different team, a team that, you know, Jason’s just been such a staple and it feels like he never misses games. Um, you know, so they’re they’re a different team, you know, and, uh, so you got to be prepared for for whatever that will present. Um, obviously they’ve started a different lineup. You know, Cornet played a lot last game. You know, they could they could run a lot of different lineups. So, we got to be prepared for whatever that is. If it’s New York, um, you know, obviously they’ve added male from from from last season. Mr. Robinson’s healthy, wasn’t healthy last year. Cats obviously a huge addition. Um, so we got to be prepared for whatever it is. And uh, yeah, we played both these teams what, three times during this season, so we got good film. I’m playing against both these teams. So, um, you know, you you can watch as much as you can right now to be prepared for whoever that is, but um, like I said, I think more of the preparation right now is about how can we improve internally, keep the edge that we have, uh, moving forward and um, just be prepared for whoever it is. Tyrese, as Justin said, you played them both last year, and he asked how they’ve evolved. How have you guys evolved? You’re clearly better. How have you guys evolved? I just think we’ve improved in many different ways. I think we’ve taken a really big jump on the defensive side of the ball. Um, you know, that’s really I think jump started what we’ve been able to do this year is just the jump we take on that side of the ball. Offensively, we are who we are. We’re always going to play with high pace. We got so many guys that could, you know, have big games, make shots, whatever the case may be. But I think what we’re doing defensively is, uh, where we’ve taken our biggest jump. So, just got to continue to do that. And going back to last year just a little bit, media day this year, Chad Buchanan was talking to us and said, “These guys, y’all feel slighted.” He said they know that outside people think that your Eastern Conference Finals run was injury related and all that. And he said, “These guys are hungry.” I’m guessing you’re not full yet, but were you slided and how good does this feel to do it again? Yeah, I mean, I think everybody felt that way a little bit. Um that’s just the commentary around the run was based on that and um you know I I think that we’ve said many times you can’t control who’s in front of you. You know you just got to be ready to go whatever the case may be and we’re not going to we’ll never apologize for what who we play. You know it is it is what it is. Um but yeah we definitely felt that way coming into the year. Uh wanted to you know prove people wrong and the doubters wrong but I think we also wanted to prove ourselves right that we u you know that last year wasn’t a fluke. Obviously, it’s been an up and down year. We started the year pretty rough, but we’ve been able to, you know, really change things around and, uh, here we are today. So, we’re not done. We still got a lot of a lot of basketball left in us, but, uh, yeah, definitely excited what we’re doing and, um, just part of, you know, building, uh, what we want to build here. Tob you read a lot. You’re on social media. Are you getting sense now that Indiana has respect? Uh, sure. I mean, I think to a to a level, you know, I think that as basketball players, you know, I don’t I don’t think as NBA guys, I don’t think anybody ever feels like you get the respect that you’re that you’re due necessarily. Um, but yeah, I think the biggest thing for us is that our peers who we’re playing against know, you know, it’s going to be a challenge. Uh, I think the biggest I mean obviously you guys heard coach Missoula this year say Indie was our toughest opponent and that was that kind of became like a like a meme like a participation award to a sense but uh I think that that’s the most respect you could get is from you know who you’re ultimately competing against and are they they know that they have to prepare uh to play against us the right way and that we we pose a threat. So um yeah, I think we’re getting that from our peers which I think matters the most. But I do think at the end of the day, uh, respect and notoriety and all those things of, you know, next year, what days are we are do we get to play in the marquee matchups and the big days and the big games, all that comes from winning. So the more that we win, um, we’ll get more respect from the league, the public, whatever the case may be. But, uh, we just got to control what we can and you know, it all comes with winning. So if you win, all the, uh, individual accolades, respect, all that stuff come with winning. So we just got to take care of that. the silly followup is does that feel good because you can always have the chip on your shoulder when you’re the underdog and like you know everybody gets us and that’s a good rally but when you’re known and you’re respected is it yeah sure yeah I think so uh I think you know I think everybody can you can feel good when people are talking positive about you which um there’s a lot of that going on around this group right now there’s a lot of uh public and uh media people talking very highly of us. U but I think the trick is you don’t want to rest on that for the next week and then play whoever we play and get your teeth kicked in, you know. So I think the biggest thing is you can see it, right? And you can feel feel good about it or feel however you want to feel about it, but at the end of the day, we’re not done. We know we all have a bigger goal at mind. Our goal wasn’t just to get to the Eastern Conference Finals and be done. Our goal is to win a championship. So, uh that’s what matters the most to us. And yeah, it feels good to, you know, like anybody else, if anybody was talking positive about anybody here, you feel good about it. Uh, but we know there’s a lot more that we want to accomplish. So, uh, we don’t want to rest on that. Uh, we know we we got a lot more to chase and, uh, we’re going to continue to do that. You you tal a lot about just the organized chaos that makes the offense work. How do you make that work as a team? Like, like year-over-year, practice over practice. Like, how does that come together to create a team that’s really? Yeah, I I think trial and error. I think um you know working on that through uh you know working on that through practice, working on that through games, uh just many different opportunities to do it. Uh we all watch a lot of film, talk a lot about what we’re seeing in today’s league and and things that we can implement to what we do offensively. We have great basketball minds on our staff uh that continue to add new things. I have a running we have a running joke that coach Carlile has to add a new play every day. Um, but I feel like every day we’re adding something new or working on something different. And uh, we just put a lot of work into it. It’s not something that is easy to just get good at. You know, we’ve we’ve all been here for some time now. I think I got this is technically what my third full year here. U, but I feel like we’ve worked on it a lot and we do a lot of, you know, defensive breakdown, offensive breakdown, uh, working on playing against our interns. Um, and right now with, you know, our 2A’s not being able to play, we play against those guys. Um, and seeing different things that we can implement. Um, so it all it all comes with with work on it and, uh, you know, I think a big kudos to our front office for keeping our group together. Um, you know, so coming into the year, we knew who we were offensively. Uh, we didn’t necessarily have to add a ton or work on a ton of things. It was more about just keep getting better at what we do so well. Um, so I I think there’s many different things that play a part in it, but I do think the biggest the biggest part of it is just working on it consistently and trial and error. You know, offensively, we have games this year where we look awful, you know, and and and you see so many different coverages in today’s NBA that that’s the best part about it is you get to see so many different things, especially in our conference, right? You play Boston, sometimes they want to switch all the way down the line. Uh, you play Cleveland, they run too big, so they guard it more traditional most times. But when Allen’s out and Mo’s at the five, they switch everything down the line. Teams like Brooklyn, they switch everything down the line. Milwaukee, they play a more traditional with Brooke at the five and he’s more in a traditional drop, but when he comes out and Bobby and Giannis are at the five, they switch everything. So, there’s so many different coverages that you see through the course of the season. Uh, that I feel like that allows us to work on it. And, uh, fortunately, knock on wood, we’ve been relatively healthy to have a group to consistently play against different things and see different looks, you know. So, I think Cleveland, they guarded us where they they guarded me full court, fullcourt deny. We’ve seen that, you know, Memphis did it a couple different times throughout the course of the year. There’s just many teams that have uh the Lakers, I think back to the inseason tournament. Last year, they did that to me at the same time. So, I think we’ve just seen so many different coverage. I feel like we’ve seen a little bit of everything that we’re just accustomed to it and and know how to attack it the right way. And if we we have a bad game, game three, where we don’t attack it the right way, uh sometimes it can feel like the world’s falling apart and everybody wants to talk so negative. And the funny part about the playoffs is when you win, it feels like you’ll never lose. And when you lose, it feels like you’re never going to win again. So that’s the funny part about it. But uh we we study and we do a lot of different things. And uh I feel like I place a partner.

Rick Carlisle, Pascal Siakam and Tyrese Haliburton spoke with the media after practice on Friday.

0:00 – Rick Carlisle
7:57 – Pascal Siakam
13:03 – Tyrese Haliburton