Rick Carlisle is annoyed by the behavior of his Pacers

A little improvement in the last days of November and the first of December goes a long way for the Pacers. The defeats are back and the one against Orlando is the tenth in a row. The 2025 finalists record now stands at 6 wins and 28 losses, the worst in the league…

But what occupies Rick Carlisle’s mind is not the failures, but the attitude of his players.

“The real question is why we scored 68 points in the first period and only 44 points in the first period », comments the Indiana coach before providing an answer. “That’s because in the second half we played together, supported each other and didn’t act like strangers. There are too many little stupid things during games that we have to eliminate.”

Fighting for nothing: a good or bad sign?

Rick Carlisle didn’t mention any specific examples of his players’ unhelpful behavior against the Magic, or names, limiting himself to general criticism and wanting to highlight a slightly more successful second half.

“We were unique. We were focused on the present action and the next action, not who is touching the ball or who is shooting or not, or anything like that.”analyzes the coach. “The franchise is not like that, and neither is the team. The owners haven’t brought this up in four decades. I mean all the little distractions with the referees and the like that have to go away. Obviously we have no room for error. We’re distracted by unnecessary things that have nothing to do with the urgency needed in the NBA.”

Aaron Nesmith doesn’t necessarily see it in a negative way. “There are many small useless things, but it comes from good intentions”the Pacers player evaluates. “Competitive spirit was important in this match and sometimes it showed in disagreements with whistles or defensive assists. We can take something positive away. The boys are tired of losing.”

This is confirmed by Andrew Nembhard. “We lost so naturally the boys will be competitive: we want to win. We will fight a little bit because, deep down, we want to win this match. It showed in the second half, where we were more united, more connected. We have to focus on this for the future.”he announces.

			Shots			Rebounds
Players	MJ	Min	Shots	3pts	LF	Off	Def	That	Pd	Bp	Int	Ct	Ft	Pts
Pascal Sakak	32	33:47	47.9	37.3	67.8	1.8	4.9	6.7	3.8	2.1	1.3	0.4	2.6	23.4
Benedict Maturin	22	10:30 p.m	42.9	37.0	86.1	0.9	4.7	5.5	2.1	2.3	0.7	0.2	2.9	18.3
Andrew Nembhardt	25	31:31	42.1	35.4	83.3	0.4	1.9	2.3	6.7	2.4	0.9	0.1	2.4	17.1
Aaron Nesmith	13	29:00	37.8	39.2	79.5	1.5	2.9	4.4	1.6	0.8	0.7	0.5	2.4	14.8
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
That is McConnell	21	16:46	55.5	33.3	100.0	0.3	2.2	2.5	4.5	1.1	1.1	0.2	1.1	9.8
Capricorn Walker	33	24:09	34.6	31.3	78.9	0.5	4.1	4.5	1.9	1.8	0.5	0.4	1.6	9.0
Jay Huff	33	19:44	41.9	29.8	83.3	1.1	2.9	4.0	1.3	0.8	0.3	2.4	2.4	8.1
Quenton Jackson	13	16:09	47.0	39.1	74.4	0.5	1.8	2.3	2.0	1.3	0.6	0.1	1.7	7.7
Isaiah Jackson	29	18:17	58.5	0	74.2	2.5	3.4	5.9	0.8	1.1	0.7	0.8	3.0	7.3
Ben Sheppard	22	24:57	35.4	27.3	78.9	0.8	3.3	4.1	2.0	0.7	0.6	0.1	2.0	6.5
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
Ethan Thompson	13	19:28	39.1	33.3	66.7	0.8	1.3	2.1	1.8	0.7	0.5	0.3	2.5	5.3
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
Johnny Furphy	15	15:00	52.7	34.6	50.0	0.7	2.0	2.7	0.3	0.5	0.5	0.0	1.6	4.8
Micah Potter	3	13:40	44.4	25.0	100.0	1.3	1.3	2.7	2.3	0.3	0.0	0.7	1.3	4.7
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
Tony Bradley	27	10:49	57.7	0.0	72.7	1.6	1.0	2.6	0.5	0.4	0.1	0.1	2.0	4.2
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
Cam Jones	5	6:00 a.m	58.3	25.0	0	0.2	0.2	0.4	0.6	0.0	0.4	0.0	0.4	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
Taelon Peter	20	6:06	29.4	28.1	66.7	0.3	0.7	1.0	0.7	0.5	0.2	0.1	0.4	1.7