Indiana Pacers Postgame Media Availability | December 1, 2025

Indiana Pacers Postgame Media Availability | December 1, 2025

Go ahead, Rick. 28 is the most second chance points you guys have allowed in a game this season. What did you see go faulty on the glass or with defending after rebounds? Yeah, a lot of things we didn’t we didn’t block out well. Uh they were quicker to the ball. Um certainly got to make a lot of improvements. TJ, under six minutes, I don’t think he played at all in the second half. Is he dealing with something? Was that just your decision? What what led to to that? You know, he played the back to back his first backtoback on uh Friday, Saturday. Um and he was a little he was a little sore after those two games. Um did got him warmed up and everything before the game. He said he was okay. Um but once once he started playing, he just didn’t look himself. So felt it was best just to pull the plug for tonight. Um, you know, the hope is that he’ll be ready for uh Wednesday, but there’s no injury or anything like that. How’d you just see, I guess, defense go up and down in over the course of this game? Obviously, you give up 37 in the first, you rallied a little bit in the second. Uh, we we stunk to start the game, very poor. Um, you know, our our our spirit was off. We just, you know, it was there there was a lack of connection. We had a few guys that made some very, you know, some some plays where the effort just simply wasn’t good enough. And so, look, we we we win together and we lose together and um everybody owns this tonight, I guess. Did you see an improvement of in connection as it went on? Obviously, it didn’t start well, but did you see it get better second quarter, third quarter? you know, we got down 21, I think, and then we just had a group of hard playing guys go in there and um helped us get it down to 10 or 12, you know, by halftime. And so that was um that was great. And so, you know, look, we we’ve got to look at this um be objective about it. um correct things that that need correcting and get ready for Wednesday. I know it’s not due to point out that Donovan Mitchell’s really good, but I mean how you know it seemed like every time you guys were chipping into the thing and got it to 89 or whatever, he made a play and obviously goes for 43 tonight. Just what stood out to you about Donovan tonight? Yeah, he’s a great player. Great player. and you know he he he got going and he’s one of those guys when he when he gets going um you know he can do some spectacular things and so we didn’t do a good enough job on them. Obviously Garrison goes for 15. What you know uh how was good was it to see that for him after you know just getting his second contract after you know I think he was two of 13 in the first one to get a couple going and also get some hard play from him. Yeah know he took a charge or two in the game. Um, you know, this is this is what we felt was coming that, you know, the work that he did the previous 10 or 12 days or whatever it was. Um, to get conditioning, to get rhythm, um, you know, for all that to bear fruit, you know, we we felt bringing him back was the right thing. And, uh, you know, he he did he did a lot of good things tonight. Drew, that Cavs team had 30 points really quickly in that first quarter. I know you guys had some better stretches of defense, but it came and went tonight. Why do you feel like it wasn’t the consistent level you needed to be at? Um, we talked about how the energy wasn’t right to start the game. Um, just awareness and just readiness to start the game. Um, we just didn’t didn’t come up with the right force to start the game and it uh put us behind the eightball to start for the whole game. 28 second chance points is the most an opponent’s had against you guys this year. Did you see any specific thing go wrong on the glass? Bad bounces. What What to you was the cause of that? Um they run like what they what is called red where they have most of their guys just kind of tag up and crash a little bit. Gave us a lot of problems. We just weren’t focused enough in that area of the game. Think they obviously part of that I imagine is they went pretty big from a lineup standpoint and I I know you guys even had a switch you know not long before tip off. basically was did they go bigger than you guys expected and did that did that change a lot of the dynamic of the game just how big they went? I don’t necessarily think so. I think their their scheme and our ability our inability to just figure out how to box them out and just have it in our head and do it was why we didn’t do it. What did you feel like just got better over the course of the game? You said the spirit was was off. What do you kind of feel like you guys did to fix it uh at least to get that thing reasonably competitive? I’m just bringing bringing each other together. Um playing hoops. We’re playing hoops at the end of the day trying to have fun playing hoops, you know. Right. What um you know, you’ve dealt with Donovan before. Obviously, he was pretty tough tonight. What just you know, I I know he’s always a tough cover, but just what made him particularly difficult to to slow down tonight? Yeah, he’s tough. He’s athletic. He can shoot. Um score from three levels. He’s good. He’s solid. with uh, you know, Garrison had a little bit of a tough first 10day stretch. He obviously gets going a little bit tonight. Just how nice was that to see, I guess, for a guy that’s on a 10-day deal and tried trying to hang in there to get him back to kind of being himself in this game. Yeah, it’s nice. Um, nice to build some confidence, get some get some good looks to go through. Um, and he’s he’s another offensive threat out there. So, um, yeah, happy for him. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Pascal, we’ve heard from a couple people that the energy for you guys at the start of this game just felt kind of off cap. Scored 30 points really fast. Why do you think that was the case? Um yeah, I don’t know. I thought I thought I um our energy and the things that like we we’ve been doing for the past five games like weren’t there. Um especially against an opponent like them like you know like they one of the best teams. I mean, last year was the best team in the conference and um we had some history and you know, when you play these guys like we got to come up with we got to come back with a little bit more urgency like we just didn’t have it. Um again, it’s it’s unacceptable. Um cuz I cuz again I thought our energy and our effort and everything that we’ve done for the past five games, I just thought we just kind of like you know just just kind of gave it away because our effort wasn’t there from the beginning. the rebounding like they just I thought we guarded them even with that we guarded them well enough with but every time they got a rebound you know so you just can’t can’t do that. Um so yeah we got we got to get better. I just I don’t want to be like too negative. I mean I thought I thought we had some like a good stretch of five games where like we were good like defensively and did some good things. So you know after one game just going to get a like just just forget about that. we got to come back um tomorrow, get better, practice, um get back to it and and try to get better. Like that’s again, there’s only one way out of this, you know. So, it’s going to take it’s it’s going to be doing the hard things every single day. Um so, we have to do it and and um again, I’m I’m committed to to to trying to do that every single day. So, um we just all got to regroup and and get back at it. You mentioned the rebounding in there. You they had 19 offensive rebounds, 28 second chance points. That’s the most you guys have allowed in a game this season. Did you see bad bounces, bad technique? What what went Yeah, I mean I thought, you know, there was a lot of long rebounds, like again, you know, like we had a couple of bad bounces and stuff like that, but I just thought, um, you know, we just didn’t we got to box out, you know, and and and sometimes those threes that they shoot, you know, the rebound just goes all the way over there. And so we got to we got to we got to find a way to get to that. Um, no excuse. What um I mean, did you feel like the energy got better over the course of the game? It seemed like obviously defensively the numbers get better in the second and third quarter. Donovan goes off a little bit, you know, in the second half, but what did you what did you feel like you you got right over the course of this game? Yeah. No, we did some good things. Like I thought I thought we got them well for some good periods of the time and then when we got the rebound like we got ourselves closer to the game and and every time that you know they they shoot the miss and they get a rebound and they shoot a threes. So it’s like you know it just kind of takes the energy out of everyone. Um, but I thought there was a little bit more fight in certain parts of the game just wasn’t enough. Like especially against a team like that. It just your energy and and your friction and and all the things that you want to do as a defensive team like you got to be there from the jump and and throughout the game if if you have lapses during the game like they’re going to punish you and which which they did. I guess just on that note I guess when you are behind and you’re trying to come back just how tough is it when you’re facing a guy like Donovan that seems to get a shot? No, it’s tough. Yeah, it’s tough. You make tough shots. Um he’s he’s fast. Um, sure the three can can drive like he can do everything. So it’s it’s it’s hard and and and again when we’re not right as a as a team and the communication is not there like it’s easy for guys like that to come in and score the way that they scored, you know. So um it’s we got to be right for for us to again it’s not a one job one job one person job to stop him. So we got to be right as a team to be able to do that. Is this one of those nights that drives home how small the margins are for this? Yeah, it is. It is small. There, you know, um you miss some shots, they make some shots or they miss some shot and they get a rebound and they make it. Um it’s just it it happens that way. So, we I thought again we were good for good periods of times, you know, like these past week or whatever, like it’s been it’s been some good things. We can’t just let that go away after one bad game. Um it’s the NBA. Teams are going to come in. Some teams going to play better than you some nights. Um, we just got to come back and and get better. Get get better, improve. Can’t feel sorry for ourselves. Go back at it, fight, um, and give ourselves an opportunity to win games. Just what did it mean to see Garrison Matthews get a couple uh, basically on his first day of his second 10 day, I guess, after he had some struggles in the first one to get going in this one, start to find a rhythm and that. Yeah. Yeah. No, I know he’s he’s been probably pissed a little bit, you know, missing some shots, but it’s a tough job. You know, you come into a team and, you know, you come in the game, the first play we run for you is you come out and shoot, right? Like, so that’s what you do. It’s it’s a hard thing. And um he’s he’s he’s taken it well. I think he’s good in practice. He’s a good person. Um I’ve seen him shoot like I mean he’s he’s one of the best shooters out there. So um it’s just a matter of just filling the gold in having confidence. Um feeling like the rhythm of of everything. Um I think for me just trying to find him in in good positions where he can just rise and shoot. Um but you know, I think it was just a matter of time that he start making some shots and we hope that he’s going to keep doing that. [Music] NBA problematch mindset. Thank you. You cut a 21-point lead down to six. What kept you guys from getting over the hump? Oh, man. We g we gave a lot of offensive rebounds. So, um, and it felt like, you know, we only got two kills out there, so it feels like, you know, offensive rebound was obviously the biggest thing. And then getting stops was tough tonight. They’re a tough team. So, my hats off to him. What do you like about what you did to get back in the game? Uh we started getting stops, hitting some shots, and just playing fast, playing free. Um playing with energy. You know, like second came in, we tried to play hard and started getting some stops, but again, those those offensive rebounds kill us. These 10day contracts can be some of the toughest in the NBA. Had a nice night tonight. It feel good to get that shot to go and I’m sure challenging for a really player. Yeah, it’s not it’s not easy. You know, you sit at home for a month, you know, waiting around and you know, you cannot play five on five, nobody’s there. So, uh, you know, it takes a minute to get back into it and, you know, I was fortunate enough to make some shots tonight and see if I can, you know, stay a little consistent. You feel like that’s something that can you can build upon here for this next stretch of games? Absolutely. I mean, you know, eventually my shots will fall, but thing I I got to focus on is defensively and rebounding and stuff like that cuz for me that’s that’s what I need to do to stay out on the floor. Denver in this building on Wednesday, you know how tough they are. What’s the key going to be to finishing with the winning home stand? I mean, obviously, Yoko’s one of the best players in the league, so you know, but it’s again hopefully we get him off for uh keep him off the boards and keep him at bay a little bit as best we can, but you know, just just got to play hard. Garrison Matthews, 15 points off the bench. He’s back on another 10day. JJ, thanks. Garrison, we got just a couple more. What um how have you kind of built rhythm like I guess your legs in this from game to game? Have you felt more comfortable every night? Basically, every night you get a little bit more comfortable. And like I said, man, I’m a shooter, so you know, it takes takes a minute. Um, so I was just fortunate to knock some down tonight. What when you I guess you nailed it. I think Friday when you got a couple to fall, just how big was that for confidence after you go a stretch where you can’t get one to get in? What did that mean just to get the first couple down? It was huge. I mean, it was a little frustrating to start out. I didn’t I didn’t want to start out the way I did, but you know, if as long as I can keep it going and stay consistent, stay confident, then, you know, I’ll be all right. I think Rick said Rick said in there basically they felt like they knew this was coming basically and that’s why they thought it was important to keep you on a 10day just what did it mean to get that kind of faith basically when you come to the end of it you’re not sure if what happens next I mean what did it mean for them to come and tell you like we’re keeping you a rap because we think you’re going to be able to do something yeah I was a little surprised to be honest with you because I I did not play well the first 10 days but you know I mean eventually my shot will fall and you know as long as I can hold my own on defense and try to get stops and you know that’s the thing that keeps me off the floor and you know eventually my shot will catch up. So, how do you keep your heads straight when you know it’s a finite amount of time you’re trying to prove that you belong, but you can’t do the thing you’ve done your entire career for a team? Yeah, it’s not easy. But, you know, it’s just it’s part of it, man. I’m blessed to even have this opportunity. So, you know, I’m going to try to play as hard as I can every night and let the chips fall where they make. And with all that in mind, how did tonight feel to see him go through and know that opportunity, especially like taking charges? It wasn’t just the mix. A lot of stuff went your way today. Yeah, I mean, you know, I’ve always taken charges in my career. So, as long as I can just do the little things, I mean, people know I can shoot, but as long as I can do the little things and try to contribute in other ways than just shooting the ball, then that’s the key for me. You mentioned the rebounding to Pat, but I think 28 second chance points is the most you guys have allowed in one game this year. What What went screwy on the boards for you guys today? I don’t I don’t have to watch the film. A lot of missed box shots. I know I missed probably four or five of them, which normally I try not to do. And, you know, it’s just part of it. We got to watch film and realize we got to go hit first. I mean, they get a lot of threes, so there’s a lot of long rebounds and stuff like that, which doesn’t help. So,

Rick Carlisle, Andrew Nembhard, Pascal Siakam, and Garrison Mathews spoke with the media following a 135-119 loss to the Cavaliers on Monday night.

0:00 – Rick Carlisle
3:24 – Andrew Nembhard
5:46 – Pascal Siakam
11:25 – Garrison Mathews