INDIANAPOLIS — If it’s not one thing, it’s another for the Indiana Pacers.

On Tuesday night, it was a 30-9 rebounding deficit in the second half. It was, after three strong quarters and a nine-point lead going into the fourth, a meltdown over the final 12 minutes.

The Cleveland Cavaliers slowly closed the gap, then grabbed its first lead of the second half with 5:46 left in the game. The Cavs’ lead started with one point, then grew to three, to five, to seven. And the Pacers’ hope for its first win in nearly a month fizzled away, as the 120-116 decision gave them their team record 13th straight loss.

“Everybody had a rough fourth quarter,” head coach Rick Carlisle said. “I don’t think anybody on our team had a great fourth quarter. That’s where we got to be better.”

Indiana had lost 12 games in a row in five separate seasons, including in 1983, ‘85, ‘89, 2022, and 2025-26. But 13 consecutive losses happened for the first time on Tuesday night, marking a new record no player or coach ever wants to hit. 

It’s been an extraordinarily tough season for the Pacers, who hold the worst record in the league at 6-31 less than a year removed from being a game away from winning the NBA Finals. The Pacers lost Tyrese Haliburton, their star, during that Game 7 push to an Achilles tear, forcing him out the entire 2025-26 season. Indiana then lost Myles Turner, a 10-year cornerstone of the franchise, in free agency. 

Indiana tried to adjust, as best as it could, to losing two of its top players in the matter of weeks. But that, along with a myriad of long-term injuries to key players like Obi Toppin and Bennedict Mathurin, put the Pacers in a bad position. 

And that has led them to this point.

“This is an extraordinary situation,” Carlisle said. “We’ve got guys that are fighting their butts off. They really are. … We’re a group that is fighting hard, and we’re going to keep fighting. And I don’t, I’m not going to really say anything else. I mean, I have zero question about this group and their character.”

Indiana is a team that, obviously, desperately wants to win. It saw the glory of making it far through the playoffs, being a game away, possibly an injury away, from a championship. It’s a team that’s trying to adjust to unexpected, sudden change.

But Indiana will have to accurately pinpoint its issues first.

The Pacers’ main struggle this season, and especially throughout the 13-game losing streak, has been putting together a full 48 minutes. Whether it be the second quarter, like when Indiana allowed 44 points to Orlando on Sunday, or the fourth, like on Tuesday night, there have always been a few minutes each game that keep Indiana out of the win column. 

The reasoning for those slumps change daily, too. It could be lackluster defense, bad rebounding, or an inability to make shots on any given night. 

“I don’t know if it’s any one particular thing,” Pacers center Jay Huff said. “And people commented tonight about the rebounding margins, I think that’s something we need to take care of a little better. Hard to pin down. Feels like every night it could be something different. And if we fix one thing, something else comes up.”

Right now, it’s about finding a purpose through this steak.

“I mean, it’s hard to do,” Huff said of finding positivity in the challenge of a 13-game losing streak. “I won’t say that we do it perfectly. I don’t do it perfectly, but I think in a stretch like this, we kind of have to, or else at the end of the day, we can still keep losing more games, but we can also turn things around, and we can win some games. We can come on a winning streak and, you know, that’s the goal. Kind of even things out a little bit. Obviously, it’s hard, but we can get there.”

Dustin Dopirak covers the Pacers all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Pacers Insider newsletter.