Indiana Pacers NBA Finals Media Availability | June 10, 2025
hi coach from espn brazil uh i know a win is a win and the series tied but how concern is it for you that your team has been leading this series for just 1 minute and 56 seconds uh you know everything that’s already happened doesn’t matter other than the score of the series and so we’re going to move forward there’s a lot of things we have to do better we realize that we’ve uh we’ve i think we’ve lost at least on the by the scoreboard um six out of eight or seven out of eight quarters and so um we’re playing a great team and so we’ve got to make it make adjustments and we got to play better tim here on the left reynolds with the ap rick along the lines of things that don’t matter so i apologize but you’ve you’ve been in indianapolis yes please i’m sorry at least i apologized first um you’ve been in indianapolis before before this tenure does and like you said when you guys won the east and 49 49 other states it’s just basketball does does the energy with the game feel different this time as opposed to your first couple of times here just because of this is a very good team right now because of caitlyn because of what the fever have done does it just seem like it’s gone to even a new degree of energy just the the love affair this city the state has with the sport perhaps yeah i think it’s i think i think you’re making a a valid point about um the fever and caitlyn being here and um you know both both teams are are teams that are you know work working their way up and and getting better and so uh you know the level of level of interest is high um we’ve always had great fans here you know it’s it’s always been this is and this is the third time i’ve been here i was here as an assistant coach for three years with larry in the late 90s i was a head coach for four years in the early 2000s and then you know went to dallas for 13 years and then and then came back and so this is my fourth year in the second stint and you know this has been a different kind of endeavor because it turned into a a pretty significant rebuild but um you know the fans the fans have have stayed have stayed with us through the rebuild um uh the trade for tyrese and buddy heield you know three and a half years ago was was something that that’s that sparked a reinterest in in the franchise and and things have gone from there so uh but look this is if you’re talking about pure basketball um i i say both fan bases are really exceptional that way i think indiana’s reputation uh because of hooers because of you know bob knight in indiana university and um you know the history that this franchise has with the aba teams and all that um and you know one prior finals appearance it’s it’s you know it’s a big deal joe up front couple of tyrese questions for you um he was limping noticeably after game two and i know he was out there at practice today but is is he hurt in any way and then assuming that he plays which i’m sure he will is there um is there anything that you want to see from him that you haven’t seen in games one and two well you know this at this time of year i don’t know if anybody’s feeling perfect joe how do you feel you feel you feel all right yeah so uh he practiced and um he went through everything um i know he has some um some some discomfort he feels it but each day it’s getting better uh i don’t think you’re going to hear him making a big deal out of it um this is the time of year where you know it just doesn’t get any better than this um you know the the the atmosphere the interest the opportunity um you know coming back and being at home i mean there’s just there’s just so much to be excited about so um you know we we’ve got a couple guys that are you know slightly under the weather but i don’t think anything’s going to keep these guys from playing in the game jamal next question up front uh when you evaluated um tyrese is saying in the last couple series a lot of pressure you know teams face guarding him trying to take him out of the game the cavs the knicks are there similarities when you sort of evaluate the way that the thunder have tried to approach that and um you know do you feel like he can draw from the previous two series the way he sort of broke out of that this there are similarities um you know the difference is oklahoma has more people to throw at a great player and really at both of our allstars you know i mean um they can throw different they can throw bigger smaller medium guys at at tyrese and at pascal and so it’s one of their strengths and so you know we’ve we’ve gone through these situations many times not only during the playoffs but during the regular season um not just this season but prior seasons and so um we’re going to have to adjust and create better situations we’re going to have to be um we’re going to have to be better over here vince rick uh vince goodwill yahoo sports uh miles since he’s been in this league his name has been in trade rumors about how he would fit as a missing piece to other franchises puzzles how have you seen him sort of block that out through the years and what has he meant to you through this playoff run as people have kind of discovered how important he is to the franchise and how good he actually is yeah miles is a professional um and he’s extremely loyal and he’s he he he has a great ability to focus on what’s important and so um over the years you know i think all players that are that are that are really good players at some time or other likely have their name involved in trade rumors whether it’s leaked by another team whether it’s somebody that’s just throwing stuff on the wall creating content you know whatever it is and i’ve just really admired his loyalty to the franchise um his ability to focus on what’s important to him and his family and to keep soldiering on you know so um you know i i haven’t heard his name in rumors lately so i don’t know what you’re talking about you’re talking about free agency but you know we’re not going to get into any of that i mean that’s a fine um so i’m gonna avoid that but miles is a special player and he’s a guy that’s very important to us alvaro final question in the middle alvin martina vidmo coaches spend a lot of time uh prepping their teams not to commit turnovers but your team is very adept at once committing a turnover minimizing the cost of it as a coach wouldn’t you begin to pick up the value of that and how’s if your philos philosophy has changed over the years about minimizing the cost once you commit to turnover yeah i mean some of our turnovers have been so violently bad that oklahoma hasn’t even had a chance to catch the ball so and look there’s there’s some merit to doing that and and and not having a live ball situ situations are the worst for every team in the league um and look there there are a lot of symptoms of high turnovers um usually it’s disruptive defense along with probably poor spacing and other things so you know you try to address those things as as best as best as we can um you know ty tyrese has been historically great uh with with ball security and you know this this team that we’re playing now presents um unprecedented challenges because of they’ve been turning everybody over through the entire playoffs so look we’re going to have to um have really great spatial awareness with everything that we’re doing um you can’t play too careful against oklahoma otherwise you’ll never you’ll never get a basket you got to be aggressive and there there are going to be some some mistakes but um our bounceback ability from mistakes is really key and uh and our response and and certainly we want to we want to avoid those mishaps as much as much as possible hi pascal gillan from espn brazil uh in game two uh there there were situations where when you guys received the ball and tried to read what the defense was doing there was time for them to re reset and the times you guys attack right away you guys were able to to create some advantage especially in the last quarter uh is that a thing that you guys have been working on the last two days um well i mean we just we got to be we got to be better um i get into the paint obviously um but yeah they they do a good job of just converging and and being there you know in position and stuff so um it’s going to take a lot of work and and again we gota we got to continue to get better at it straight ahead hey pascal we are from spain and we are trying to tell your story to your fans over there um what do you think the young pascal would say who went to the first basketball camp in cameroon if you say that you are here today fighting for your second championship in the nba yeah um yeah that’s a good question um i i just i don’t know i just tell him to be patient um trust your instincts like um you have a good read on like what’s happening so just trust it um believe in yourself no matter what um there’s going to be a lot of down periods but you just got to keep fighting and um and and you’re going to get an opportunity to do something special so um that’s yeah that’s just what i i would tell my younger self and and i think that’s just a just looking at my journey and and how how it was it wasn’t always just a smooth selling you know it was it was a lot of rough times but um also a lot of great memories and and um it took a lot of adver like a lot of just getting through adversity and and all that so i’ll just tell him those things dan on the left side dan devine yahoo sports uh rick was just in here talking about the nature of the thunder defense says like if you’re not taking a risk against them you might never score um you have had some opportunities to you know duck in get seals it’s obviously hard work down there but how do you balance trying to find like hunt those smaller opportunities versus staying in the flow of the offense right yeah know you just got to balance it out uh obviously like you said they do a good job of just just packing everything and and making everything disruptive and um so we got to be stronger with the ball obviously but also just um be decisive whatever we decide to do just do it mike in the front uh michael pena in the ringer uh pascal you guys only allowed four fast break points in game two uh and you’ve had such an excellent transition defense this entire season just what goes into being so effective in that area for you guys yeah i mean we got to get stops right so you get stops you get in transition um that’s the first thing and we got to also get rebounds like so um it’s if you can’t do those two things like i don’t think you can be successful in transition we know we can run like that’s what we do but um it’s it’s not really possible to run if you’re not getting stops or um if you’re not getting rebounds ne next question over here on the third row on the left hey pascal um tensson from china um so we all know that the pacers is wellrounded team throughout the whole season and uh but does it bother you at all that the team is yet to have anyone score more than 20 points in the series so far um not really it bothers me that we didn’t win last game that’s yeah that’s that’s probably the only thing that bothers me right now u we want to win that’s all we really want to do anyone alvaro last question in the middle on one go ahead yeah i say last night was last night um aldo martine last game yeah alo martine ridmo when i presume you’ve looked at the tape of the 2019 nba finals and seen yourself play when you look at young pascal jun the young pascal what’s what’s your reaction and what what’s what’s on your mind as far as boy have come a long way in these areas well yeah it’s i i think i’m i’m focused on right now you know i haven’t really i haven’t been watching those tapes because i’m i’m really in the moment right now focus on like what we can do to to win um but just me as a young player overall um it’s just again just the growth like i started all i could really do was just run and play defense and just dunk you know like there’s there was there was there was nothing else so uh just looking at myself now i just like a little bit more well-rounded like skill-wise um maturity wise i mean my i was like probably 200 lb when i when i first like you my my rookie year or whatever so um just being a man like i think that’s that’s pretty much it like and my and my skills just developing thank you pascal als been in trade rumors and when you got here for sabonis it kind of opened things up for him in a way can you almost speak to knowing what it’s like kind of to be in his shoes and what he has meant to you your your sort of tandem since you guys have gotten here and risen through the east yeah i uh can’t really speak on knowing what it’s like to be in his shoes honestly um i think since i’ve gotten here he was hurt when i got here and i think that that you know he got to watch me play and felt like you know the success that i was having that if we were playing together that it would be a lot more you know so um our first like experience playing together has been you know a lot of fun and um we feel like our synergy and our connection has just grown over time we constantly are sending each other clips of how we can be better in pick and roll how i can help him how he can help me whatever the case is uh we get along really well and i think that that has given us a lot of success and like to be honest with you like when i first came to the league and i uh my big was rashawn holmes and i love i love rich um you know rich was much more he’s not a pop guy he’s a roller uh had a really has a really good like floater push shot um and i always thought you know in my career i was going to be best with a guy who plays above the rim and a picking real real role threat well now having experience playing with miles for so long um you know i feel like he just unlocks a lot more of what i do um and it’s been an interesting dynamic to play a long time because miles isn’t this guy that’s um going to catch a ton of lobs or or anything thing we’ve probably thrown like three alleyoops in in the years we’ve played together but um you know it’s been really a lot of fun a fun experience to play play with him and and and get to know him better and um you know it’s it’s different our league is different he’s a pop guy more times than not but when he does roll he really opens things up for me as well so um it’s been a lot of fun dyson back left dyson daniels here nba correspondent um i was a question what goes into the mental game for you before a game like the finals you know with the atmosphere and the buildup and stuff like that and has anything changed for you from the regular season to the finals in your routine or you try to keep it the same no i try honestly i try to approach everything the the same way i feel like uh if i try to do something different i’m not like superstitious or anything but i feel like just you just try to treat every game the same way honestly um i still eat goldfish at 60 minute on minutes on the clock i still go to chapel uh on the road though i don’t go to chapel as much i kind of do like a private chapel session that’s really the only thing that i uh that i change but um yeah everything’s pretty much the same just try to treat it the same because the minute that i try to switch it up or put more pressure on on myself or our group than there really is or or then that needs to to to be applied then i feel like uh guys can you know get nervous or whatever the case is let’s just be loose play basketball in the front on your right jeff zilate usa today tyrese when someone’s at your level we often hear that there’s not a defense you haven’t seen so i assume you’ve seen everything oklahoma city is doing with you but what makes them different and you how do you try to combat that in you know such high stakes here game after game after game yeah i just i feel like at the point of attack um you know they got more more guys than you know most teams in the nba that are high level at the point of attack um you know they’re really connected on the defensive end and i feel like they they they mix up coverages they they i think coach dagnull isn’t afraid to just kind of do things on the fly you know he he he doesn’t do everything that’s like very traditional he will you know if you’re trying to get a 33 he’ll come double like just out of nowhere you know that then they’ve really done that all year um but i just feel like they’re willing to mix things up and um you know i think the biggest thing is just personnel like their personnel is different than than everywhere else but um you know i think playing two games against these guys is really good it gives me more film to watch see where i can be better um feel like i haven’t been great by any means the first two games so um you know i’m just trying to uh take what i can to prepare me for game three and uh just trying to be the best version of of of myself so just keep watching film see where i can get better um you know the the answers always lie in the film dustin up front hey ty uh what’s keep going on that note just how important is offball execution these guys and just to try to keep the swarming of the defense out of the paint yeah you got to mix things up you know you can’t give these guys the same dosage the same look of of anything if you just try to run high pick and roll all game they just crawl into you and really pack the paint and nothing’s open and uh so there’s got to be a mix of things got to be off the ball uh got to be playing off the pitch got to be coming off ball screens got to be you you can’t run the same thing consistently against these guys you got to mix it up so um we got to do a much better job of that i felt like um you know i probably got caught in too many high high pick and rolls you know where they could really pack it in and then we’re getting shots late against the clock especially in the first half of both games so um you know we got to do a better job there and that starts with me just getting us in better positions playing out of different spots all those things so um yeah definitely got to mix it up against these guys joe up front here we saw you limping pretty good after game two and just a couple minutes ago rick confirmed that you were feeling some discomfort where are you feeling discomfort what happened and i assume you’re good to go for for game three but just if you could tell us what’s what’s going on yeah i’m i’m fine um you know really just a a lower leg thing i i’ll leave it at that i don’t think there’s anything more to elaborate i feel fine and uh be ready to go for game three jamal up front uh tres you and rick i think have both talked about what you after the trade the guys had a dinner rick basically put the ball in your hands um that’s not always been come easy for him or been sort of his uh ethos just what do you remember about that conversation and you know to have a coach give you that kind of confidence and trust like what what did what did that mean to you yeah um i think when he told me that he didn’t want to call well really the first dinner we ever had uh was when i first got traded here me buddy tristan and him uh at prime 47 and um you know that was just more getting to know us more more things than not um and i think we just especially that year like we weren’t very good we weren’t going to make the playoffs or anything so um more times than not i feel like coach really just was letting us play and learn as young guys which i think is important you know we had we played a lot of young dudes um so he was just kind of it was like baptism by fire almost there was a couple um experiences that year where just had to figure out how we were going to be at our best and then going into the following year before training camp he met with me and said that he didn’t want to call plays anymore and um i was surprised because i know uh what the you know the conversation around coach was especially from from players and point guards specifically and u when he gave me kind of that nod that was like the ultimate respect that was like the ultimate um trust that i could get from from anybody because he is such a brilliant basketball mind has been around such great um guards great players and um so for him to give me that confidence i think you know has really taken my career to another level and um you know he’s just a basketball savant like he’s just uh we we meet we talk all the time um and i think he’s really helped me learn how to watch film which i think is important i think uh that’s something that’s not talked about enough like especially young basketball players like you can just watch film but if you’re just watching and trying to find your highlights then that’s much different than really trying to dissect things like i feel like when i first came in the nba i would like get them to clip you know clip my shots and clip my assists that and clip my counting stats that doesn’t really do anything you know what what are the possessions where i’m getting nothing you know where i’m holding the ball for 15 16 seconds getting off it and now somebody else has to make a play against the clock uh and coach has really helped me learn how to watch film the right way and watch the whole game not just my minutes watch the other minutes see where i can help other guys all that stuff is really important and really help take my career you know to another level so really appreciative of him and uh yeah our relationship’s going to continue to grow michael up front michael p of the ringer uh ty you guys only allowed four fast break points in game two um and you’ve been excellent with your transition defense this entire season just what goes into being so effective in that area uh just next play mentality you know i i feel like you could say that around you know why we’ve had you know these comebacks through the course of the year um you know you could just say i i i think that we try not to dwell on things i think as nba players or just as basketball players in general it’s easy to make a mistake and dwell on it and give up a bucket or whatever uh but i feel like we do a great job of just getting to the next play coach always preaches that uh it’s really important here in our organization so uh we just talk about that a lot and honestly if you make a mistake as a basketball player the first response should be how to fix it you know and more times than not if you turn the ball over um or make a dumb play offensively if you get it back defensively you know that kind of makes up for it a little bit i guess so uh yeah i feel like we’ve been good transition d all year uh we’ve had a good series that way um we got to figure out how to be better in transition offensively uh we got to figure that out as well um but i think we’re doing a great job you know guys have taken charges we’ve really hustled back and made them have to play you know get back into into actions and things so um i don’t think there’s really a scheme or anything it’s just that next um i mean they present you know that the smaller defenders but they swarm the ball you know what i mean so what looks open may not be open the next section so it’s just a matter of uh a lot of them are bang bang plays and um it’s just finding the moment you know when the moment presents itself um it’s multiple things just just being aware of who their attackers are and being aware of uh you know who their main threats are um getting back trying to get out the paint you know as fast as possible and then um uh obviously scaring the rebound so a lot of stuff goes into it what was that third quarter stretch for you and working with you guys next um yeah i think you know it’s kind of back against the wall mentality you know we got to have that tight mentality from the beginning of the game but it was good just to have a little bit of litness test there you know this time of the year this again you don’t want to you know look back you know few years from now just you know regretting stuff so it’s a matter of just make stuff happen you talked a little bit about the importance of screening and everything when it comes to just getting the ball how critical is overall off the ball action to make sure you guys have yeah yeah just just freeing guys up and um again you just said it like they know they sworn the ball so well have multiple defenders on the ball so just um you know making our breaks practice on your home court the nba finals everywhere after 10 years how good you know smooth man i think that um you know this city’s been waiting for an opportunity like this you know i expect to you know held an environment tomorrow you know i know what it’s going to be and um you know exciting times just for everybody just to experience the finals here in indianapolis what’s the key adjustment you guys make need to make to make sure you can win a game uh we have our adjustments you know i can’t can’t put them all out there but um you know just stick to our game plan and um you know uh just just as we go part of the conversation like you guys have won a game for you does that come up in in the lock at all that’s that’s y’all that’s y’all i say that’s not us miles what does the home court do for you um just being back it’s good energy man being back in front of our home fans is big you know i think that being able to stick to your regular routine you know sleep in your own bed you know get your own meals all that type of stuff is a big factor and um you know i think it’s going to be important for us to you know protect our home court johnson kind of energy and wisdom this man it’s it’s immeasurable you know he’s someone who um he’s a he’s a ultimate confidence builder you know it just um someone who’s going to you want to get shots up you know he’s going to be the one that’s there um you know he’s a he’s got so much experience obviously through the years so he sees stuff where it even happens i mean and he can still play you know y’all don’t get to see it as much but you know he’s still playing one-on-one with guys you know all the time after practice and um just being that big veteran voice you know out there for us and off the court whatever you need he’s there you know he’s been to his house multiple times for dinners so a little stuff like that you know adds up rick was talking about everybody needs to do more for game you said that after game two how do you assess that and how do you put that on the floor on yeah he’s absolutely right you know it’s just it wasn’t good enough our effort wasn’t um i think what it needed to be for the nba finals and um you know we had to you know just uh pick that up tomorrow game three m the dunk you did on hardest time um did you dream about it or is that something you lose after especially after you lose game um not necessarily it’s not the first time i’ve had a postseason dunk you know it’s just um something that’s normal to me um i guess some people have never seen me do that before so you know good for them woke to the party but you know still it happened and cut the lead to 19 so it’s not like it was anything super special how important is it to win game three in this series um every game’s you know important i can’t look at game one two three four five you know we got to look at it as a you know one game mentality so i can’t yeah they’re all important you faced shay now four times this season what can you guys do to make it a little more difficult for him um yeah that’s a we we got to put on display tomorrow not going to just put all our secrets out there how how tough though is he to defend because he’s so sneaky with things he does yeah you know he’s had a good first step you know he’s obviously you know great to pick and roll dynamic player so um he’s he presents his own challenges um there’s a lot that goes into it you know they they really sell out the swarm in the paint shot making is huge this time of the year you know i think that’s be ultimate you know difference maker you know between game to game um screening has to be better and then um getting downhill you know just like they only had like four points in the paint the first half and that’s not our brand of basketball i know they they are experts in attacking it blowing it up so what’s the challenge of being as precise as your game in terms of the level of the screen and how you want to set it and how you want to roll off of it yeah yeah you know they’re um they have unique defenders you know what i mean each individual one presents their own challenges um you know just not getting offensive fouls is huge obviously being able to line guys up and get a clean hit cuz you know he could hit him and he’s still able to get back on the guard so just uh being able to line them up the right way guard getting a good setup and just fundamental stuff you know so it seemed like you had at least a couple like kind of restraint situations i think once you kind of hit the same play what you like it’s all about creating separation i think that’s the biggest thing if you get separation from your defender and then um you know the guy obviously that’s on the ball and whatnot then good things happen what does basketball mean in indiana oh man um you know i think the big the big thing going around now is you know 49ers of the states just basketball but here man you know people live breathe and die by this stuff man you you go out everywhere there’s going to be a basketball court you know someone’s someone’s home you know whether it’s out in the farms and what the the fields or what not it’s going to be a basketball court up there i mean people just um it’s like a religion out here that’s the best way i can describe it you know i think that um it’s immeasurable but something you have to experience in person you know they got some of the biggest high school basketball arenas out here and then um college basketball is obviously an amazing scene but you know i think that when you experience you know basketball here in this gamebridge fieldhouse change your whole perspective how have you experienced personally since being drafted here like how have you experienced this man it’s all i know at this point you know i think that um um when i go to other arenas or even just other i don’t know other states it just doesn’t really compare you know it’s hard to describe it in person it’s it’s an experience if anything i think that’s what indiana does a good job of doing is providing a basketball experience so you got to get out here to experience it man um i mean i feel like it’s one of those things mindset wise that you don’t really want to play from behind um there’s a lot of things that we could have done better um we can’t rely on you know coming back from leads at the end of games it’s just it’s not how it works um we got to be better in a lot of areas and we fixed a lot of stuff today okay speaking about you know i don’t know if you’ve seen it but like the win probability of you guys winning some of the games you have have been really really small they’ve been really you know historic comebacks in some sense do you guys are talking about that do you talk about that like this is not sustainable this is sustainable like how do you how do you guys kind of you know discuss the the degree to which you guys have had to come up with yeah i mean we’re not we’re not necessarily talking about it in practice it’s kind of one of those things in the moment where we just got to keep playing um and we’ve done a really good job of that but like i said we can’t rely on it we’ve got to we’ve got to be better anyways can i ask you about the depth of both teams it’s kind of unusual for finals to both teams and 10 to 11 rotation how’s that impacting you um i feel like both teams are very deep and um they play their bench a good bit and and so do we and um and both teams rely on it so um i think it’s about you know which which guys can you know sustain that the longest both the bench and the and the starters and they did a good job with that last game and we have to respond i know okc like keeps kind of daring you to shoot the three couple of times i’m wondering what did you did you guys like practice to like take advantage of that uh opportunities that you get um i mean we just got to take good threes they’re leaving us open no matter who it is we just got to line it up and shoot it it’s as simple as that and uh hallebertton recently got a new nickname called the moment i’m curious what are your thoughts on it and has it caught on in the locker room till now or what do you guys think about it uh that is the first time i’m hearing of it um so it has not caught wind in the locker room so um you know it’s it’s funny how can you uh get into the pace more than you have in the first in the first two games um i feel like just just different ways being unselfish cutting um you know we’ve talked about it a little bit obviously don’t want to divulge too much but um we we got to be better in that area and we will and we clean stuff up like that today do you feel like after two games you’re more comfortable in like understanding okay here are the angles or how we can attack that defense i feel like a series is ever changing so comfortability isn’t really a thing but just different ways like you said that we can get into the paint and you know you kind of know some of the coverages they’re that they’re playing you just got to read and react first home game since game six against new york how did that series preparing you guys to come back home again to uh to face today tomorrow yeah i mean i feel like every series that we played uh in the playoffs has prepared us um to come back here i know our crowd’s going to be fired up and we need them more fired up than ever uh we’ve got a great homec court advantage and we just got to focus on taking it one play at a time do you think it’s more personnel or scheme why okc is so good at keeping you guys out of the paint i mean their defense is is historic um it’s it’s really good they’ve got guys that can guard at every position so um just being unselfish moving the ball and you know trying to get to the painting um i know it’s difficult but um we got to like i said read and react and be better in that area josh got a big award just can you speak about what his contributions have been corb yeah um i feel like our training staff is the best in the league and um anytime someone in that department gets an award i feel like it is um very deserving so really happy for him what do you think is the biggest takeaway from from game two that you guys will try and focus on moving forward yeah we just didn’t we didn’t play well we didn’t play hard enough uh we just we have to be better in a lot of areas and and we and we’ve cleaned that up today when you look back at film what is your process to review it specifically um you know i don’t really look at the stuff i did well obviously when you watch the game you notice that stuff but it’s the stuff that you can clean up um the stuff the areas you need to be better in um and i try to watch that over and over and um and then try to just do my best to clean that up and help our team win so you’re looking at more cuts versus like the entire game yeah i mean i i watched i watched the whole game and um you know but i’ll watch cuts of of plays that i want to see and um i’ve watched the whole game for sure who is the guy inside the locker room who used to speak to everybody in moments like now you are fighting for a title and you lost the last game you won who’s that guy i feel like it’s it’s everyone you know miles speaks up tai speaks up um james johnson speaks up pascal you know we’ve got a lot of voices in this locker room that have a lot of experience um so when someone speaks no matter who it is we listen do you have any kind of leading players i mean obviously has lots of things to say but sometimes it happens right yeah i wouldn’t say we had a a players only type meeting i think you know in practice if you see something you kind of talk to somebody about it and um you know but we’re listening to what coach is saying and and adjusting to the mistakes of the game how old is to be playing the finals and be sleeping your bed and yeah i mean i don’t think there’s been a finals game here in 25 years so i know our crowd is going to be really fired up and um we’re really excited to play in front of them it’s been a it’s been a little bit so we’re excited to get back out here and play in front of our home crowd how long have you had the chance to to be in oklahoma with friends or family but obviously here you had that chance to go home and eat with your your kitchen and your yeah i mean get back into a routine back at home um you know with my wife and kids but um really just trying to focus on the task at hand which is uh game three what does basketball mean in indiana um i think there’s the saying it’s in 49 states it’s um just basketball but it’s different here um this place loves its basketball and we love our fans that i think they’re the best in the league and um we love playing in front of them so we’re excited have you been able to experience it a bit on a personal level you know like to go to high school games or this kind of experience no i haven’t you know really ventured out to see a high school game i’d like to but uh you know obviously go see an iu game or a butler game and you know check out some high school games just haven’t had the opportunity yet but um it’s something that’s talked about a lot and when you’re a pacer player you know like do you feel that you have that connection with the fan that could be different from some other team yeah i mean i feel like like i said they love their basketball here and they love the pacers um you know i don’t get noticed too often in public if that’s what you were asking i i blend in pretty well um but when i do it feels good you know feels appreciated um you know just really good people here and between you know the old game last year the fever obviously getting new in the finals i mean do you feel there’s something happening right now for the basketball yeah i mean i feel like city’s buzzing a little bit after everything you just said uh for good reason just trying to make the proud anything you can do to jumpst start the offense in the in the first quarters given how the first two games went yeah i mean just we got to play our game and that’s fast um i don’t think we really did that very well um obviously everyone knows we play we play fast but that shouldn’t stop us from doing that tj i’ve seen you walk in with the coaches i know your dad was a coach did you ever see yourself being a coach one day or not um you’re going to have to ask my wife that question um i don’t know how she would feel about that um but um kind of one of those things where maybe but cross that bridge when we get there type of answer 10 year veteran what do you guys bring to the table with a group of young guys and young pers and also what’s the most enjoyment of the nba finals yeah i mean it’s one of those things i know i’ve never played in the finals but um you know leading up to here just if i see something say it um from my experiences being in this league and um just trying to be genuine in everything that i do but you know when it comes to this um there’s a lot of external noise just trying to have everyone block that out and just play our game the first thing we found yesterday when we arrived at the airport is a huge picture of kyl right there in the corner the finals yeah what makes kylen from the city how can you explain uh what’s happening with her in the last two three years i mean she’s an unbelievable talent um you know and i’ve met her a couple times she’s a great person uh so i feel like she’s beloved here and deservingly so she’s been incredible uh she’s helped you know navigate the fever to what they’re doing and uh you know all the all the credit that she gets is very deserving she’s a great player a great person so we’re happy to have her here how crazy is the situation that as i said you arrive to a city and discussing the finals the nba finals and then big picture big there is tough to you don’t see the for example in the airport and probably it’s happening in other places in the city just shows you how popular she is here so like i said something like that is very deserving um and happy for her honestly the team is 7 coming to the first row do you believe in those kind of stats or what was the record the paces are 70 when she’s coming to to see the game here in the first row do you believe in those kind of stats or so she i hope she doesn’t miss another home game then you know what i’m saying talk about coaching uh how would you describe coach busk role in the team because a lot of people are are getting to know her now in the finals how would you describe her role um she’s she’s been unbelievable me and her have kind of connected from the moment she’s gotten here um she just has so much experience in this in this business she’s a former player um i think the thing i respect most about her is she’s doing this as a single mom as well um which is incredibly difficult to navigate through our schedule um so to see her do that and see her in that light has been awesome but then you know x’s and o knows why she’s as smart as they come so um everyone respects her loves her and we’re happy she’s here i want to ask a question one of the popular memes on social media right now including you allegedly saying that you’re doing this for your uncle kobe ryan and it’s getting millions of engagements on social media all over instagram and facebook um do you want to make a comment about that publicly to clarify anything about that no cover my cousin in game and you’ve been such an excellent transition defense this entire season just kind of what goes into having such a formidable transition as a team uh talks about our crashes and uh our ability to communicate and talk and get back quickly uh put a lot of pressure of our guards to communicate and get a lot of pressure and transition is on our bigs to be there as well you know for any pick and roll status or us talking and being up to make sure that you know everything goes accordingly to playing but you know we we allow our certain type of crashes and our communication in that standpoint to help us in our transition defense when you talk about crashes what what are those certain type of crashes you know certain type of crashes if you know if we have a chance to go crash if a certain if a certain man has a has a chance to crash if we’re low enough you know corners you know if they’re not boxing us out a few times those are a lot those are the opportunities where we got to crash or anything everything else we have to get back and try to communicate and talk to transition thomas what’s been so good about their paint defense what can you guys do better to get the shots that you like in that in that area they’re good because they swarm you know they do it for they do they have a really tight paint protection of the paint right there uh the thing about us we have to we have to keep moving the basketball side to side you know and make them work and we have to screen you know we have to screen their defense make them give up some open lanes and take advantage of them what do you need to do better or differently if they are doing all that stuff to generate offense the way you guys we got to play quicker you know got to get up we got to get the ball a little bit we got to get the ball up you know play in transition a little bit more get some stops on defenses first and then that’s what help us in our transition offense right there how have you felt about the effectiveness of the bench units in this game so far uh bench unit has been good uh feel like we have to have more production to help us out a little bit more and we’re going to get that covered you know we talked about it we went through it all of us in the second unit have talked about it as well even with our first unit and we’re going to get that we’re going to get that standpoint we get nip that in the bud and make sure it’s it’s well prepared for game three apologies if you’re even asked but what’s the opportunity splitting okc have a great opportunity here what’s uh what can you say about the opportunity you guys have coming oh it’s a great opportunity man it’s a great great stance for us uh we got one in oklahoma city now we have to take business we have to take care of business at home man and that’s that’s our main focus right there going into game three making sure we handle their pressure you know and bring the pressure to them you went off in game six in the eastern conference finals what can you say about the advantage of playing at home the advantage of playing at home is because we’re at home you know we got our home crowd into it it’s going to get our home crowd into this as well uh they play a big part for us here playing at home and it’s just a familiarity of just playing at home you know we’re back we’re back where we belong we’re back where we’re familiar at you know back with our fans back with our coaches back in our own beds so that helps a lot too for those who don’t know what it feels like to have the crowd behind you what can you say about having the crowd behind you uh it helps a lot you know it helps a lot especially with the other team they get a little frazzled they can’t really hear too much you know can’t really hear what they want to do and you know we get stops we run and the crowd crowd gives us energy you know we might look tired but we never feel tired when our crowd into it appreciate that hey you got a lot of fans in mexico um know you’ve been there before just wanted to ask uh you know if you have anything you want to say to them i appreciate the fed i i appreciate the love man and hopefully i get back down there soon just to see everybody face to face great great it was good to see you thank you after game six you had like spoken about how it was the first time you had like the crowd behind you and how did that feel i just want to know if you go back to like game six how did that feel having the crowd behind you for you had mentioned the first time since uh joined the team oh it felt great you know uh just all the preparation going up to it you know uh to have that moment right there for our fans and have a moment for myself and the team to get that win was really great so you know the crowd is unbelievable man to have to have those people behind us to have the fans behind us man it means a lot how about who are your teammates you think would be a good coach teammates that i think could be a great coachable name would be tyrese tj james johnson and aaron nation why cuz they see the game they see the game not just at one level they see it at all three levels um for me they’re all three level scorers three level defenders out here and uh you know they really they really intel on the game a lot you know they give us a lot of pointers you know everybody’s talking communicating see what they can do better see what they can help each other at and that’s what i think the biggest thing is right there is just communication standpoint thomas you so talk about last time uh you made a great right there in the corner you made everybody so uh do you plan to make more like threes out of game three oh yeah if they if the if the opportunity is there i’m for sure going to take it you know my teammates believe in me to make those shots i practice those shots a lot and they they have a full confidence in me to shoot those shots so does the coaching staff and i have full belief in it as well so if they’re the opportunities there i for sure will take it gotcha thank you a lot of chinese fans want to know you more so like a lot of kids when they uh play basketball they always have their like first hero their their goat like who is your goat oh man shoot i got a few goats i’m not going to lie uh you know when i was growing up i was watching of course lebron at cleveland kobe of course shaquille o’neal uh germaine o’neal who played here at indiana who was a big part who was a big fan uh back to new yorkers of lance stevenson stefon marberry when he was uh when he was in new york as well yeah i love i love watching them uh carmemelllo anthony of course kevin garnett great great tenacity guy that i love this patch i love yeah i was saying there was a lot of ghosts that i loved watching at that time uh tim duncan as well you know just in the spurs organization of the fundamentally sounded players and everything so there’s a lot of people that i used to watch i used to love i love basketball so i i love watching any type of basketball kind of curious because it’s your first home game um your crowd is obviously amazing how long are you looking forward to see if it’s any kind of different the atmosphere because it’s not the first game i would say very very different you know but i’m very very excited uh for what’s coming tomorrow i think that the fans are going to be very very important for us so just just looking out there looking for a great game tomorrow and how much do you recognize because maybe we’re kind of expecting an indiana fever players out there courtside supporting you is that something that you do appreciate that also the female basketball players come over for sure i think it’s always great you know to have um you know the girls come through the game and support us i think i think that we we are doing the same thing so just showing love showing love for the game how do you guys handle the mental side of this series so far probably every win feeling big every loss probably everything i think the main thing for us is just to stay even kill you know whether we win a game or lose a game we go out and trying to get better for next game how have guys like rick tyrese pascal kind of helped uh i would say you know pascal’s been through there greg has been through there you know just being able to to know what to expect next game i think that’s been the biggest thing how will this game be different that it’s at on home court you can defend home court um i would say just just having the fans you know like our game is not going to you know be anything different we have to be out there and be uh we have to be relentless you know we have to have an edge to start the game and i think the fans are going to help us aaron was saying if you would have told him that you were one and one coming back home he would be happy with that how does that game one win help your confidence moving forward in the series here at home well i mean we were able to win one game i think you know we we could have you know won two games over there but we have to we have to keep that in the back and and look forward you know the opportunity that that’s that’s in front of us um just be able to win next game and the next two games but we have to focus on on the next one can you say a moment during these past two games that you said “oh man this is the finals something that happened.” um well i i can’t recall a specific moment i would just say the crowd the crowd in oki was i mean it was amazing you know just when you make a basket everybody’s bowing and stuff but uh i’m not really trying to live you know i feel like it’s hard to live in the moment and hold a camera at the same time you know as much as i would like to i would love to say i’m in the finals but like that takes you away from the game so um you know just going out there and finishing the game the right way is is the mindset as your parents are you more of a proud pop at home kind of guy or how silence kind of what are you trying to i don’t know to say like do do you enjoy the crowd popping home more or do you enjoy silencing the crowd oh uh i love silence of the crowd i i expect the crowd out here to to to cheer for me you know so just i think when we play when we play away i like to make a shot and you know everybody’s quiet you know so um i think i think that’s the that’s the best thing that’s when you know moments are tougher when you play on the road the moments are going to be tougher you know cuz you make a mistake you turn the ball over then the whole crowd is going to turn against you and that’s where i thrive the most rick said after game two that everybody has to do more how do you guys make that happen in game three um i think that we can do more by just being ourselves you know we have to you know we have to think about this you know and say that when’s the next time we’re going to be able to be in the nba finals um you know we as much as we appreciate the moment we have to make sure that in five years we’re going to be able to look back and be like “yeah like we did we did we did everything we could to win those games?” jay seemed like he was in a pretty good rhythm in game two what are the keys to maybe not stopping it but limiting it in game three uh just putting keep keep putting pressure you know keep being physical and playing the right way what do you want out of yourself more to see in game three and four um just being myself a little bit more you know uh just going out in the game having an impact you know and and just trying to help my team win some of your teammates were saying it was so loud it was hard to communicate on the court uh how do you like when this happens today again how do you try to solve that problem that you actually all in the same loop and know what’s going on you just got to speak louder yeah obviously true regardless of the outcome of the finals how do you want this this thing to be remembered uh champions to me there’s the only way to go about things this to win the games uh i don’t think if you know we lose the finals y’all going to hear from me you know what i’m saying because this this is a a great opportunity that’s in front of us you know what i’m saying so might as well uh you know finish it the right way meaning you know winning a championship been played as a visitor you know coming from a house type crowd like the madison square garden and then you guys uh been in the paycom center in oklahoma which one do you think is the most loud arena that you place a visitor as a visitor this year i would say it’s it’s been the finals finals for sure yeah well york was pretty good but the finals is definitely in oklahoma and also how did you manage the mental part of the game you know with a lot building that like the pacum center madison for garden you guys stay focused and manage the mental part of the game well pretty much just staying together you know when we play on the road you know all we have is us so just going out there and being there for each other and what do you expect this building to be like tomorrow um fire i want everybody to wear uh to wear the shirts you know i want everybody to to be in tune to the game and and uh you know there’s going to be ups and downs but we have to make we have to do everything to win tomorrow to win tomorrow’s game two three quarters last game was one of your worst two-point shooting games of the postseason i think to finishes one of your bottom three what do you contribute that what do you think contributed to that say one more time three or three quarters of game two that was your worst two-point shooting game of the postseason i think it finishes like a bottom three game for you or two points we say you you say me or the team no no the team the team oh what do you think attributed to that to that kind of poor shooting on well it’s just just knowing the game you know we just have to be more aggressive and and playing the right way talking about the t-shirts um did you recognize last game there’s several people wearing the black uh the yellow ones for the paces did you actually for sure you know i think that it plays a plays a big part in it that um you know we have to like i said the fans have to wear the shirts and that’s what’s going you know every time i look around and i don’t see people i just see shirts i just see fans supporting and stuff so that’s the be i think that’s the beauty of it just talking about something out of the game we are from brazil the last time we talked with you you said you were having portuguese classes are you still doing that yeah i’m still doing my my dual my daily dualingo you can say something portuguese to your fans in brazil what i learned two days ago uh that’s nice dub the basics thank you yes sir please uh talking about the atmosphere the city is crazy about this game how it works for you playing the first finals at home uh it’s exciting i really honestly i can’t wait to see how rocking and loud this place is um it’s gonna be it’s gonna be a special special moment for sure what what does home court do for you uh it’s a good reset you know you get to sleep in your own beds get to get back to your own you know home own game routines and kind of take a breather after being on the road for six days so you know it’ll be good does the crowd push you over the top a little bit oh yeah yeah every little run the crowd going gets hype you get hyped with the crowd it just you feed off the energy makes it tough for them you know they’ll be the only ones in the building they got to fight against you know 20,000 people in here you had no pain points in the first quarter you improved upon that what does okc do that makes things so difficult to get in the teeth of the defense um they have so many talented individual defenders that they switch on the ball so it’s hard to get downhill but you know we got to do a better job of that getting downhill and making our presence from the beginning how have you guys handled the mental side of you know every win probably feels big every loss feels heavy like how have you handled the mental side of the series so far um same as any other series you know we’ve lost in the playoffs before won in the playoffs before um you know if i if someone walked up to me and said you know you’ll be one and one in the finals going back home i think anybody in here would take that you know what i mean so just having a positive attitude about the situation and understanding we have an opportunity to do something special here at home and how have your leaders help with that like rick pascal how they help with that um just understanding the moment enjoying the moment staying even kill never being too high never being too low what does that game one win do to y’all’s confidence coming into game three um we did technically you know we did our job you know we stole one got home court now we just got to protect home court and do our job here too i was talking to miles about you guys having won a game three he said that’s all us talking about it not you guys but how does that come to your mind at all no not at all it’s another game just happens to be the order of it mhm do you think do you have extra importance on this though knowing that it’s the first home game and you need to protect home court yeah i mean all the games are important but you know you want to win every game so we’re going to go out with the mindset we’re going to win tomorrow and hopefully we’ll turn the page from that and win game four obie mentioned one of the key aspects of this team is everybody holds everybody else accountable especially when things don’t go right what’s what’s your take on that um i think we do a really good job of that and i think it’s because we’re so close we just understand what’s needed of us um like even in practice today some of our practice guys they went above and beyond just you know assimilating okc defense and helping us understanding pressure and just being better so i think everybody on our team does a good job pushing each other part of the reason maybe you haven’t lost two in a row since forever it seems right yeah i mean yeah we’re resilient group we got guys in here who understand what’s needed of each other and we understand how to get the most out of each other rick was saying after game two you know everybody’s got to do more what’s your take on that looking into game three got to do more everybody’s got to do more you know looking back at the film watch it back on the plane several plays i didn’t like that i made i thought it was more i could do and you know you just got to live with that and learn from it and be better the next time you get the opportunity shay was saying that every after every game there is a reset a mind reset how difficult is that for you guys um not very difficult you know brand new game can’t dwell on the past you just learn from it and you know you go out and fix your mistakes but uh the way they basically this the way they paint obviously it was difficult for you guys to get anything in there just how important does offball execution come in terms of just find a way to separate guys yeah just uh moving keeping them confused messing up messing up their rotations a little bit out of their swarm um there are some things we can do to be better and we’ll have to do better what i guess when you guys saw what did you guys see when you were successful i guess there were certain some places maybe you were able to get what stood out to you in terms of what worked when it did uh you have to watch and find out a lot of guys mentioned you are maybe the best player mr defense for the for the team so i was wondering this game to have some preparation for the guard how to guard the fga um there are some things we’re going to have to do better do differently than we’ve have done in the last two games just because he’s you know he’s been doing his thing doing playing at mvp level so there are things that we looked at there are things that you know i’m going to have to do differently and better but yeah in last two games you guys have too many turnovers actually and somebody says if you control the turnovers you can beat the better team so this game do you have some preparation for that um that’s just on us taking care of the basketball to be honest with you it’s not there’s not many drills we can do out here we’re just simulating holding on to the ball we just got to be better we got to win the 50-50 balls take care of the basketball and make the right plays actually i’m a fan of it because when you was lucky as a boston celtics i i watch a lot of your games so the two years i grew up a lot so look back on the days do you have something to say to all your fans uh the boston fan mhm yeah no i don’t um i’m an indie brother do you find the narrative that role players play better uh no it’s just basketball like you know anybody can have i think also specifically to our team what makes us so good is like anybody can have a big night on any given night so just cuz it’s on the home or the road doesn’t really matter it’s your first final game here at home and your your crowd like the fans alone for being so amazing are you excited to see how it is and if it feels different compared to the other ones and also do you know if any one of the ina girls will be here back again to i’m not sure i don’t know if any of the fifa girls will be here i assume they will be though um but i am super excited to see the atmosphere it is i see they’ve already changed a couple of our suites up top like i’m excited to see just how rocking it’s going to be in here it’s they’ve been waiting 25 years for this so like they got they better bring me here to be honest with you what do you think the emotions will be like tomorrow for you for me uh another game uh game three got to win it like understand the moment yeah business for usual was game one weird at all just getting into this atmosphere i mean by by now i’m sure you’re in it but was being in the finals cuz that’s the one place you hadn’t been was that any different at all to be honest with you no personally no just because i just the whole time i just made sure i looked at it it’s just basketball like you take away all the cameras you take away the stage everything i mean we’re still just playing basketball game that everybody’s played since they’re 10 years old you go out there and you play your game you trust the work you put in it is what it is was that easy to do i mean like you’re you’re wired that way obviously but i mean was that did that get any harder to do this time it builds up over the playoffs you know i think once you get to the playoffs it automatically becomes a bigger stage and the further and further you go the easier and easier it gets can you talk about the depth of both teams but it’s you know we both have a rotation of 10 11 players which is kind of unusual in the final and how’s that impacting the the series uh that’s just how we that’s just who we are and that’s what we’ve been doing all season that’s what we’ve been doing for the past couple seasons so there’s no reason to change that are you more of a guy who enjoys the the crowd pop like at home or the crowd silence i love them both i love like i do enjoy a good home crowd pop and on the road i would i enjoy watching the fans leave early more than anything so not one more than the other i maybe that i would have to say the fans leaving early what do you think the key obviously not giving away the secrets but to shutting down shay a little bit more in game three um just making his life difficult giving him different reads um and not let yeah just not letting him do the same thing every time i feel like last time he was able to get to his spots and get to where he wanted to he was real you know he was comfortable so it just make it a lot harder on him is it a matter of you know rick would talk about like just the star is going to get what he gets but stopping everybody else is that the same mentality you take against okc yeah uh like these you know guys are too good these days it’s hard to full on stop someone um it’s more about containing and keeping the other guys from having big nights they had dudes who have big nights in game two um and that’s really what beat us so we’re gonna have to be better at that but um yeah just making our life fun last question what makes him a unique cover i mean you got between you and drew you’ve been playing covering the best guys in the league for three years now but among them what makes him different they have good screen setters to be honest it’s like hartinstein sets really good screens so we got to do a good job of busting through them fighting through them and you know just being better it’s been 25 years since homes here what are you expecting i was expecting a crazy crowd you know jumping out of their seat um having fun enjoying the moment what does this home court do for you guys there’s a lot you know it’s like our sixman brings us energy uh keeps us together uh it’s going to be exciting what does okc do that makes it so difficult for you guys to get in the paint had zero pain points in that first quarter yeah i think they have individual individually really good defenders you know they switch they’re versatile they’re long athletic uh they do a good job being physical and we got to we got to combat that with being more aggressive what challenge to getting them disconnected defensively actually seem to have five guys connected pretty it’s us being connected us being aggressive us being the one that’s that’s that’s the the driving force on that side of the court their ability to kind of impact screening like how do you what’s the challenge in terms of being able to set a good screen and make sure that it has the intended effect uh setting it up and being strong with with holding the screen i think is the biggest thing when you’re coming into that interaction uh josh won a big award i’m curious can you just speak about what josh and that entire training staff has meant to you and this team oh yeah no they they’ve been a they’ve been great for us keeping our bodies right and also just having a good vibe you know every day it’s not easy walking in and working every day they they have less days off than us so um they bring a great energy and they’re essential to our success what does basketball mean in indiana basketball uh grows in indiana that’s what they say right needs more so if you had to explain to a foreign audience you know who’s not so familiar with it like how does it manifest in high school college everywhere how does it manifest in high school college here everywhere for all all levels all types of you know backgrounds people families how does sorry say that again how does you know basketball manifest itself itself in these states man i think it’s just a long history of of loving the game you know people enjoy our team success cuz we play together we have fun and and we win games so um i think it just manifests from the love of the game for real and being a facer you know when you when you’re going down and everything you see that people really like it yeah 100% the support is is real and it’s um they’re really they really ride behind us especially ever since i’ve gotten here it’s been great did you notice any major adjustments on their defense and from game one to game two and how do you guys respond i’m not sure if they adjusted much um i think they did similar stuff maybe a little bit better more physical um i’m not sure if they adjusted much what kind of extra energy wisdom does he bring to this roster yeah experience uh 16 years of a lot of a guy who’s been in a lot of different situations from starter one of the better better players on the team to bench guy to fighting to get on the roster so a lot of experience that he can he can he can uh push into a lot of our players you know and relate so uh gives that type of wisdom as well as just a calming presence on the court you know guys are a little scared of them you’ve always been an ultra competitive guy when did that start um and where does that come from yeah i mean that comes from when i was a little kid my my my my parents pushed that through me when i was young and uh having a little brother who i can compete with every day was was something that probably drove that to a next level um it’s always been there for me obie and aaron were talking about one of the key aspects of this team is the accountability you guys hold each other accountable and you don’t see that in every team what is your take on that i mean i think that’s how you how you how you produce good teams you got to be led a little bit within and guys got to be able to speak to each other and understand that it’s for the better better of the team and for the goal that we’re trying to accomplish you know so um nothing’s taken personal and everything’s for the one goal of winning part of the reason you haven’t lost two in a row in in months really it’s been a long long time yeah i think it’s why we’ve been doing well often when an mvp sits in the game the team his team sags because that player so healthy um doesn’t seem to be the case with okc all season long and also posit is there some way for you guys to exploit those minutes when he’s not on the floor um i think we need to look at that whole process whether he’s on the floor or not and see how we can win the game our minutes with him or with without him appreciate who are your teammates you think could be a good coach someday and why what teammate would be a good coach yeah and why um uh tyrese got a lot of knowledge of the game i see i can see him being the coach um whoever wants to do it you know i’m not sure okay thank you the past two games together i’d say so like i said chef you were talking to me about their connected five wall off the paint before last game two games that you guys been very low in points in the paint is there something you guys can do better do you have to attack it differently how do you approach that kind of thing i think we need to be strong with the ball uh play faster and uh find different ways to attack it um whether that’s screening away just getting downhill making it two people guard the ball yeah there’s a lot of ways but we just got to figure it out thomas mentioned pace too is that just keep it moving kind of thing why do you think that’ll help you be the be more of yourself i think if we push it and play fast and doesn’t allow set up on defense even just play faster we’ve been walking the ball what makes it look good have you felt the defense be this effective balling off the paint before is it mostly just them and their talent that they have i think it’s just them i think the best way to take away the pain and just fight their own impressive defens he’s an mvp he’s going to score he’s going to like get to his spot just got to slow down okay last game we not you have a long rotation and a lot of point so this game you have some um i’m not sure about rotation but yeah just watch [Music] home game for you think you have to describe at the fans here how will you it’s going to be wild we need them to be wild i guess okc they great fans are super loud we’re going to leave indiana to bring it tomorrow and come to your finals but have you gotten the time to what you guys have done this year i mean the paris games and all the amazing comebacks have you gotten a chance to think about how the season has been for you yeah uh i feel like we started the season not as well as we should have and like you said the ups and downs of the year and just seeing how much we’ve done something to be proud of we have more work to do as a team i feel like i’ll think about this season after this series over who are your teammate you think could be a good coach what i think there’s a lot of guys but um i choose tyrese alber just his onc court iq um his ability to lead vocally and just by actions yeah definitely got a good coaching coach what’s up man how you doing um how big of a role do you think the crowd played in in okc i know you guys are used to the pressure okay and how big of a role do you think it can be to be back home in the nba finals yeah uh oklahoma city fans are huge for them super loud high energy and it was a fun environment we’re going to need india to match that tomorrow just show up and be loud just like oklahoma city cuz we need them and um yeah it should be a good environment tomorrow i got my message we have great great coaches great players around us who who keep us uh grounded keep us level-headed and just make sure we’re staying on track with everything at the half you were down by 15 yeah and you came out in the third quarter do you think it’s what’s going to happen again what was the conversation in the in the second game yeah yeah in second game uh i mean we knew we knew the mistakes that we had uh we knew we had to come out with more energy um and yeah like we we just looked over the mistakes and and hope to get better in the second half this team’s been able to bounce back after losses all season long what do you credit that to the most from this team uh we’re just super resilient uh like i said we got best coaches best players uh on our team and uh i feel like everybody keeps each other or holds everybody accountable for for everything they do uh wrong on the court and um we just get better from it and move on they’re a heavy switch team so you guys line up sometimes with opportunities against their guards what are some of the challenges that come up with trying to post stuff when they’re going small like that um we just try to stick to our stick to our offense um uh we know what we got to do we don’t we don’t try to head hunt anybody we just we just try to uh move with the flow of our offense so what’s kind of the attention the focus going into a game three here after usually you see some changes after the first couple games yeah yeah uh we back home um got our fans now and we just got to put the other games behind us those are over with and we just got to learn from those games and get better for game three how why why does oc make it so difficult to get in the paint to get in the teeth for the defense like i think ty was talking about yeah yeah uh they’ve been a great defensive team all year uh and and they limit limit paint touches uh they crowd the paint a lot um but we just we we’ve been getting in the paint the whole season uh uh so we just got to do what we got to do to get into the paint do you buy in the narrative that role players play better at home say what do you buy in the narrative that role players play better at home uh nah we try like everybody tries to play good home in a way so but yeah along those lines like it’s going to be wild in here tonight obviously it’s really loud in okc you guys though are professionals who’ve done this in a lot of venues in a lot of time like how much does home court really matter in a setting like this being at home and the familiarity versus being on the road yeah uh it means a lot uh like i said we have the best fans in the world um and it’s been a been a while since we’ve been to the finals indiana’s has been to the finals so to have this opportunity to play in front of these fans is it’s going to be loud in here tomorrow so you mentioned the coaches help you guys what specific ways have they allowed you guys to sit down yeah yeah uh like i said before holding us accountable um uh like we’re watching film every single day uh we’re learning from our mistakes uh and we never they tell us we never want to be too high too low we just want to stay levelheaded and and worry about what’s uh what’s coming next or worry about the now but uh we know we got game three coming tomorrow uh and we’re focused on that so you guys only allowed four fast break points in game two and you had such a is that allowed you guys only allowed four fast break points in game two and you had such a tremendous transition defense this entire season just kind of what goes into that getting back yeah yeah uh i mean it’s it’s just it’s part of our defensive schemes uh we don’t want teams to get easy points in transition uh any team in transition is a dangerous team and so uh we stick to our rules and just do whatever the coaches telling us to do the three quarters of that game too that was i think your worst two-point shooting game i think by the end of the game it was like one of your worst what went into that side of it like why was why were you guys struggling uh they did a great job defensively um uh we weren’t perfect like we’re nobody’s perfect uh we’re not going to make every shot um and yeah like we looked at film uh figured out what we had to fix to get in the ball into the paint and uh we’ll we’ll get it done obie how important is it to get game three and go up 2-1 uh it’s super important um we had two games uh we was able to learn from those and and now we’re in our building with our fans and can’t wait for it to start how big will those fans be tomorrow uh huge uh like i always say we got the best fans in the world so uh to have this opportunity to play in front of them in the finals is is going to be fun was this kind of surreal practicing on your court for the nba finals today uh felt like any other other um practice for real other than the media coming in here at the end but uh it felt it felt regular uh uh we’ve been doing it all year and um we just got to learn and get better for the next games what are some of those key adjustments you guys have talked about heading into game three uh are you focused on continue to be resilient uh putting the other games in the past and and worrying about what’s next to come rick was talking about how everyone needs to do more after game two how do you see that for yourself and and the rest of the team yeah um everybody got to got to give as much efforts as they can now uh it’s the finals um you don’t want to leave no gas in the tank so uh everybody understands the assignment they have to do when they get into the game and um just to go out there and give 110 what’s the mental side of this of this series like when you know it’s the final round everyone started big every loss feels a little heavier like what what is that mental side like in this uh i mean we’re all pros um some of our first times in the finals but we want to keep it as normal as possible uh approach every day the same as we’ve been approaching it the whole season um don’t change habits or anything but um yeah just going into every day get learning from mistakes that happened in the past and getting better for it for the next ones how’s your leadership yeah uh i mean coach is the best in the best in the business uh he he wants to see everybody uh have success and uh he goes out his way to make sure everybody knows what they’re doing wrong what they’re doing right and uh same as the players as well um tai pascal miles they’re the leaders of the team but everybody on this team has a voice and is willing to hold everybody accountable for their action so in terms of making decision during the game it’s difficult or or faster now in this say it again making decision during the game it’s harder or faster now um probably the game might be moving a little fast for some people but uh like i said we we try to stick to what we’ve been doing all year um and and in in the offense and the defense and just doing whatever the coaches is telling us to do so how do you shut down shay tomorrow uh not giving all the secrets away obviously yeah yeah yeah i mean it it’s going to be a group effort it’s not going to be just one guy shutting him down obviously we have the best defenders in in drew and aaron um but it’s going to take a group group uh effort to to stop stop shay well mark you mentioned accountability point of that takes a level of transparency and vulnerability among your peers how has the accountability from this atmosphere organizations kind of change your perspective on life and basketball yeah um like i said everybody on this on this team has a voice and uh everybody holds everybody accountable and um we all we all open our ears and listen to to all the all the things that we need to fix and i feel like that’s what makes this team so so good like everybody’s willing to hold each other accountable and we’re all willing to listen and um that’s what helped us get better in every single game so
Rick Carlisle, Pascal Siakam, Tyrese Haliburton, Myles Turner, T.J. McConnell, Thomas Bryant, Bennedict Mathurin, Aaron Nesmith, Andrew Nembhard, Ben Sheppard and Obi Toppin spoke with the media after practice on Tuesday.
0:00 – Rick Carlisle
8:58 – Pascal Siakam
13:44 – Tyrese Haliburton
23:25 – Myles Turner
29:39 – T.J. McConnell
40:59 – Thomas Bryant
47:23 – Bennedict Mathurin
54:50 – Aaron Nesmith
1:03:36 – Andrew Nembhard
1:08:54 – Ben Sheppard
1:13:01 – Obi Toppin
37 Comments
π in tomorrow fellas must win game ..
We back home in Indy letβs MAKE HISTORY π«΅πΎπ«΅πΎπ«΅πΎ
Split on the road WIN at home
We like to make em feel good just to make em feel bad….. .
Whos this european guy? π
I'd like to see them win it for Turner and his great loyalty.
π¨ looking for 2 tickets to game 4. Go Pacers, from Nashville, TN!
Letβs go pacers from Sydney Australia π‘π΅ π¦πΊ
Take care of our House guys !!! Everyone has counted us out…Lock in and knockem down
All the still photos I've seen, had Thunder players with their hands all over the Pacers. I know the fouls are even in the book but damn…May hafta throw some bows to get them off ya…..if they ain't gonna callem, letem fly!!
PACERS BABY!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOH!!!! LETS GOOOOOO!!!!! YES 'CERS π‘π‘π‘π‘π‘π‘π‘π‘πππππππππ₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯π―π―π―π―π―!!!!!
Home cooking, good looking, text booking Pacers in 7
We did the hard work on not fouling but we need Hali to come in clutch not just at the end. Everybody else has stepped up but we also need ball control.
Got to find a way to win these two at home.
Letβs Go Pacers !! ππππ
no one can guard SGA goodluck lol
relax take your time and ball outt
#YesCers
Pacers in 5
Did they stop playing and interviewing Johnny Furphy?
Pacers Let's go… Dnepropetrovsk in Belive in yours! You winner Indiana. ππ»ππ»ππ»πππ
Just love Pascal. His personality is the bestβ€
LeGooo Indy!!!π―
Slap 'em back! ππ»
Hope yβall go out and play like your life is on the line, itβs the finals,, go hard or go homeβ¦β¦β¦ we have to shoot lights out, overwhelm them
Come on boys
Gainbridge about to be rockin
Wednesday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse BE LOUD π π
Ayan couch Gawin mo ulit sa game3 Yung pagkakamali mo sa game2 biruin mo pinasok mo Yung mahina mo line up sa na sobrang aga pa pinatagal mo Yung starting 5 alm mo nagistragel nayung mahina player d kapa nag time out ng Maaga at binalik mo sila hullibert na mas Maaga sa second haft ang ginawa pinatambak mo muna bgu ipasok sila hulliburt si nessmit si turner anu tingin mo sa player mo mala mj
Everyone seems to be in good spirits and ready to battle in the next game. Bring that physicality and grit fellas. You can beat these guys. You already proved it. Go Pacers!!
"The answer is Always in the video" Figure it out please!
BMath is a funny, but serious guy. He said we have to speak louder
"You gotta get out here to experience it"
-Myles Turner.
Indianapolis , Indy, Naptown, BoomBaby, YerCerβs, Pacers LETS GOOOOOOβ¦.In 49 States Itβs Just Basketball βBut This Is Indiana
just a OKC fan sending as much negative energy as possibleππΏ nah fr great series so far Indy!!
Fouliburton sucks
Let's go Pacers !
Try to get the lead early .
Play like they did in game 4 and game 6 against the Knicks… When you have a good look shoot it. And follow the shot try to get offensive rebounds so u get another shot. …hands up on defense make OKC work for their points no easy shots.
Put the Thunder away