And Indiana collapsed

We are in the middle of the third quarter. Pascal Siakam scores the basket he allows Pacers to lead by 15 points (70-85) 18 minutes from the end of the match. Continue afterwards surprising success against the Thunder then it looks increasingly likely for Indiana.

Except Rick Carlisle’s men are going to have a serious meltdown, with no more sound or picture. Then they will concede 25-7 in just six minutes!

“We finished this third quarter very badly”, laments coach. “We were ahead by 15 points and trailed by 4. It was a decisive moment. We were not good, we made bad decisions, missed. They were the opposite, made the right choices and shot.”

A vicious circle

This losing streak would continue with a 7-0 Atlanta run early in the fourth quarter. Sure, it’s a shy 6-0 reaction, but Pascal Siakam and company can’t stop the waves. The result: In the final 18 minutes of the game, Quin Snyder’s men outscored the poor Pacers 61-31 to take it away.

How could the Pacers stop this bleeding? “Keeping our system, our style of basketball”answers Rick Carlisle. “A good offense helps us to have a good defense. When we are strong offensively, the defense has big problems and that happened in the third quarter.”

This defeat is undoubtedly one of the most frustrating of recent weeks for the 2025 finalists, who were totally in the match for 30 minutes.

“We have to do better, learn from this experience and not lose sight of the good things we achieved in certain moments of the match. All in all, we have to do better”asks the technician.

			Shots			Rebounds
Players	MJ	Min	Shots	3pts	LF	Off	Def	That	Pd	Bp	Int	Ct	Ft	Pts
Pascal Sakak	44	11:55 p.m	48.3	38.5	67.7	1.6	5.3	6.9	4.0	2.2	1.1	0.4	2.6	23.8
Benedict Maturin	24	32:10	42.3	36.6	87.6	0.8	4.7	5.5	2.2	2.4	0.7	0.2	2.9	17.8
Andrew Nembhardt	36	32:02	45.1	36.4	81.5	0.4	2.3	2.8	7.3	2.4	0.9	0.1	2.2	17.7
Obi Toppin	3	27:20	41.7	17.6	100.0	1.0	5.7	6.7	1.7	2.0	1.0	0.0	2.3	14.0
Aaron Nesmith	25	30:26	35.9	34.9	80.6	1.5	3.6	5.2	2.2	1.4	0.7	0.6	2.8	13.3
Capricorn Walker	46	23:22	38.1	36.3	76.8	0.4	3.8	4.2	1.9	1.5	0.7	0.3	1.7	9.6
That is McConnell	33	17:13	52.9	31.4	92.3	0.5	1.8	2.2	4.9	1.2	1.2	0.2	1.2	9.6
Jay Huff	46	19:33	46.9	31.6	83.3	1.0	2.7	3.7	1.3	0.8	0.5	2.0	2.4	8.4
Quenton Jackson	22	15:49	43.7	37.0	78.4	0.5	1.4	2.0	1.9	1.2	0.6	0.2	1.7	7.3
Micah Potter	15	17:28	44.1	36.2	93.3	0.9	3.1	3.9	1.4	0.7	0.3	0.3	1.5	7.0
Isaiah Jackson	33	17:15	58.3	0.0	70.8	2.4	3.2	5.6	0.8	1.2	0.6	0.7	2.8	6.7
Ben Sheppard	35	22:29	37.7	32.3	76.5	0.6	2.6	3.3	1.8	0.5	0.6	0.1	1.9	6.4
Mac McClung	3	11:20	38.9	20.0	75.0	0.0	1.3	1.3	0.3	0.7	1.7	0.3	2.0	6.3
Johnny Furphy	28	17:51	49.2	36.8	46.4	1.0	3.3	4.2	0.9	0.8	0.6	0.2	1.8	5.4
Garrison Mathews	15	13:04	40.4	37.0	82.6	0.1	1.0	1.1	0.7	0.2	0.4	0.2	1.3	5.2
Ray Dennis	13	12:55	30.6	31.6	88.9	0.6	1.0	1.6	2.0	1.1	0.2	0.3	1.2	4.9
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl	17	17:39	34.9	24.2	92.9	1.9	3.3	5.2	0.7	0.6	0.4	0.1	1.4	4.6
Ethan Thompson	19	16:03	35.8	28.6	66.7	0.6	1.3	1.8	1.4	0.6	0.5	0.3	1.9	4.4
Tony Bradley	38	10:57	55.7	50.0	74.4	1.5	1.3	2.8	0.5	0.4	0.2	0.2	1.6	4.0
James Wiseman	4	14:30	60.0	0	50.0	1.3	0.8	2.0	0.8	1.3	0.0	0.3	2.5	3.3
Monte Morris	6	10:50	35.0	25.0	50.0	0.2	1.0	1.2	1.5	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.5	3.0
Cody Martin	4	13:45	20.0	0.0	50.0	0.3	3.3	3.5	0.5	1.0	1.0	0.5	1.3	1.8
Kam Jones	12	7:15	35.7	10.0	0.0	0.3	0.5	0.8	0.9	0.3	0.3	0.0	0.3	1.8
Taelon Peter	22	6:19	30.0	27.0	66.7	0.3	0.8	1.0	0.7	0.5	0.3	0.1	0.4	1.7