{"id":513470,"date":"2026-01-03T07:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T07:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/513470\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T07:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T07:22:15","slug":"rick-carlisle-reveals-indianas-killer-in-loss-to-spurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/513470\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Carlisle reveals Indiana&#8217;s &#8216;killer&#8217; in loss to Spurs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For how good the 2024-25 season was to the <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/indiana-pacers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Indiana Pacers<\/a>, their <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/indiana-pacers\/pacers-news-rick-carlisle-blasts-refs-being-against-indiana-all-year\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2025-26 season has been just as brutal<\/a>, perhaps even more so. Their putridity this season couldn&#8217;t even be chalked up anymore solely to Tyrese Haliburton&#8217;s absence, as one would think that a team with Pascal Siakam and Andrew Nembhard leading the way wouldn&#8217;t be bad enough to lose 11 games in a row.<\/p>\n<p>But that, indeed, is what happened to the Pacers as they suffered their 11th consecutive defeat on Friday in a 123-113 loss to the Victor Wembanyama-less San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n<p>After the game, Pacers head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/tag\/rick-carlisle\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rick Carlisle<\/a> was honest about <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TylerSmith_ISL\/status\/2007287557063881089?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">what killed his team<\/a>, which was evident considering how well Indiana played otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTough game. Second quarter was the killer. We&#8217;ve got to look for more consistency throughout the game. We&#8217;ve been playing good teams virtually every night. In our situation, we&#8217;re still down a couple guys. Execution has got to be better,\u201d Carlisle said, per Tyler Smith of IndySportsLegends.com.<\/p>\n<p>The Pacers organization knows that the 2025-26 campaign was already a lost one to begin with amid the team&#8217;s injury problems. But they have to be disappointed that they&#8217;ve sunk this low just months after making it to the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n<p>Pacers&#8217; season from hell continues<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3595731\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Pascal-Siakam-in-action.jpg\" alt=\"Indiana Pacers forward Pascal Siakam (43) in the first half against the San Antonio Spurs at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\"  \/>Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>The Pacers were not expected to compete for a title after losing some of their key contributors this past offseason, either to free agency or to injury. However, being the worst team in the NBA at 6-29 wasn&#8217;t what they expected, and even Siakam has been concerned in recent weeks that this losing stench may end up sticking with them for some time if they don&#8217;t take urgent action.<\/p>\n<p>At the very least, the <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nba\/indiana-pacers\/pacers-news-draft-trade-pelicans-before-nba-finals-game-6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pacers have their 2026 first-round pick<\/a> courtesy of a shrewd deal they pulled off with the New Orleans Pelicans to re-acquire their first-rounder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For how good the 2024-25 season was to the Indiana Pacers, their 2025-26 season has been just as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,113,126,3866,6,114,1714],"class_list":{"0":"post-513470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-indiana","10":"tag-indiana-pacers","11":"tag-indianapacers","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-pacers","14":"tag-rick-carlisle"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115829967725548349","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}