Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle speaks to the media prior to Pacers-Bucks in Las Vegas for the In-Season Tournament.
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00:00 >> I think we're good.
00:01 >> Okay, phones are on the room.
00:02 Questions?
00:05 First question here in the third row.
00:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:13 >> Rick, how's the team feeling and how's the preparation for
00:16 a big game like today with so much at stake?
00:19 >> The team's doing good.
00:22 I like that we're playing at 2 o'clock today, like jumping into this thing.
00:29 That's kind of how we've jumped into this season.
00:32 So it's good not having to wait.
00:36 Preps been good.
00:38 I'm sure everybody will say the same thing.
00:39 >> Same row in the middle.
00:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:50 >> [LAUGH] >> Thank you, man, sorry.
00:53 We talked a little bit after the Boston game about how you guys playing some small
00:58 lineups with Obie at the five.
00:59 I mean, how important is it for him to be productive there,
01:01 especially with six still out?
01:03 Last game you had to play Daniel when you guys played Milwaukee.
01:06 And just how critical can he be today when you're facing a bunch of bigs and
01:09 don't have Jalen available?
01:12 >> Yeah, and he'll be one of the guys that guards Giannis at some point.
01:16 And so one of our many challenges is defending without fouling.
01:24 And so Giannis puts you in a lot of tough spots there.
01:28 So positioning there, Obie's a big part of that equation.
01:32 When he plays five, there's a big responsibility to rebound.
01:38 They present you with another really unusual challenge because
01:44 Lopez is a seven-two guy that can make 35 foot shots.
01:47 And so as a five man, you just gotta be very aware of where he is.
01:55 And a lot of the time, he's spaced way out.
01:59 So he's super dangerous out there.
02:01 So, but Obie's had a terrific year so far.
02:07 He's gotten better and better.
02:09 And he's a super positive guy.
02:12 So he's a big part of what we're doing.
02:15 Mark over here.
02:18 >> Hey, Coach.
02:18 >> Hey, Mark.
02:19 >> Tyrese, obviously, he's been an all-star and played in some big games.
02:22 But in a sense, is this kind of perhaps maybe more of a coming out party to him,
02:26 where a spotlight should be on him for people worldwide to see where he is?
02:32 >> Yeah, our guys have earned these opportunities to be on TNT,
02:40 to be on national TV.
02:41 Well, I had one national TV game scheduled this year.
02:46 Ironically, it was, I think it's in January, at Boston.
02:51 And so we got a home game against Boston on Monday.
02:53 And now we got today's game, and
02:56 I'm certainly hoping to play on Saturday as well.
02:59 I do think there's a great opportunity for the world to see him.
03:05 But I do not think that that's how he's doing it.
03:08 I think he views it that he and the team have this opportunity.
03:14 And we have a very tough task today with two really all-world type players,
03:20 with Giannis and Lillard.
03:23 And Middleton is a guy that gets overlooked a lot as a great player, and
03:28 he's an all-star as well.
03:29 So to disrupt this thing and to come out on top today,
03:36 it's gotta be all about what we can do together from start to finish.
03:41 And it's gonna be a lot of ups and downs and a lot going on.
03:45 The game is very long, and so
03:47 we're gonna have to stick together throughout the whole thing.
03:50 >> And did you see this potential in you guys this fast, or are you surprised?
03:54 >> I'm never surprised really at anything when you have a player of his caliber and
04:01 magnitude that has the ability to allow others around him to achieve
04:08 beyond what their means may have been considered.
04:13 But it's a fun group.
04:18 These guys really love each other.
04:21 They love playing together.
04:22 We're pretty young in the season still.
04:28 I don't think we've, compared to the rest of the league,
04:30 we haven't played as many games.
04:32 I think we're two or three games behind Milwaukee in games played.
04:36 And so this is a part of our schedule where it was gonna get very busy.
04:40 And so you gotta have a really tied together group to have success
04:44 in those situations.
04:47 And the other part of our schedule was that the first month and
04:52 a half was home heavy and it was spacing heavy.
04:57 And so our goal was to have success during that stretch.
05:02 Could have had more, and there's other games that
05:07 you could say we probably shouldn't have won.
05:10 And so we are where we are.
05:12 But at two o'clock today, we're coming out of fire.
05:17 >> On your left, Eric.
05:17 >> Eric Bain, you mentioned defending without fouling.
05:22 You've coached against Dane for a long time.
05:25 One of the skills that he's developed late in his career is drawing fouls.
05:28 What makes him so good at that?
05:31 >> Threat from deep.
05:33 You have to get close.
05:35 And when he gets angles and gets downhill,
05:37 a lot of the times it's the auxiliary defender that draws the foul.
05:42 It's the big that's trying to get out to trap,
05:46 who's trying to retreat on a drop and gets stuck at an angle.
05:50 And he just plows into the guy, and it's tough.
05:56 And he's gonna make 90 some percent of his free throws.
06:00 So there's big challenges with this team for sure.
06:04 >> Rachel over here on the right.
06:07 >> Hey, Rich.
06:08 >> I was following up on the Lillard theme.
06:10 What do you tell your guys about Damian in the last five minutes of the game,
06:14 close clutch situation?
06:15 You know where the ball is going, but then how do you defend that smartly?
06:18 >> Yeah, we've got a list of guys that we can put on them.
06:25 Everything from quickness to size, different coverages,
06:31 everything from occasionally scatting under, if you can somehow do it.
06:36 To trapping, to going and trapping in isolation.
06:44 And there's probably some other coverage we'll have to invent,
06:47 the way this thing has gone.
06:49 And so he's a great player, and he's great in the clutch.
06:54 And so we can't let him off the hook.
06:58 We've gotta make him defend too, and try to put ourselves
07:04 in a situation late where we have a puncher's chance.
07:08 >> Willie, back left.
07:11 >> Hi, Willie Ramirez with the Associated Press.
07:13 Yesterday, a lot of excitement with the practices.
07:16 During that practice, less than five miles down the road, barricades,
07:20 cops everywhere, a shooter on the campus of UW.
07:23 I'm just wondering, it doesn't necessarily put a damper on this event, but
07:28 when you come off the practice floor, you're in the locker room with your players.
07:31 Is there anything you share, anxiety a little bit, or
07:34 talk to them about just your thoughts on yesterday and sort of getting past that?
07:40 >> Very sobering situation, and obviously, the thoughts and prayers and
07:46 sincerest condolences of everyone involved with this tournament go out to
07:50 the families of those killed or injured.
07:55 And it just seems senseless.
08:00 And yesterday, I didn't even hear about it until I was on the last bus out of
08:05 the arena, so I was on the last bus with Miles and Tyrese,
08:10 cuz we had to do media, and we had two other buses that left before us.
08:16 So we didn't hear about it until we were on the third bus, so
08:19 there was not a team situation to talk about it.
08:23 And so that's how that whole thing came down.
08:29 It was unusual, tragic, of course.
08:35 And it should just heighten everyone's awareness of the problems that we have in
08:41 this country and the challenges that we have and ways to try to make things better.
08:46 >> Third row in your line.
08:48 >> When you look at this tournament and its impact for
08:53 various teams, depending on who you have, it's obviously gonna be different.
08:55 But for you guys, as young as you are, to beat Boston,
08:59 Milwaukee back to back on this stage, what do you feel like the big picture
09:04 repercussions are from something like this this early?
09:06 >> You mean for us?
09:10 >> Yeah.
09:12 >> Well, yeah, I mean, we're an opportunistic group.
09:17 That's how we've gotta approach every single game all year long.
09:20 The NBA Cup is an opportunity for
09:26 a one and done elimination tournament in November and December.
09:33 It's something that's built for opportunistic teams.
09:37 The comparisons to the NCAA tournament abound for obvious reasons.
09:43 But for us, we don't get into talking about results or getting ahead of ourselves.
09:50 I mean, we're really all about process.
09:52 We know these games are hard.
09:55 And to embrace the grind of finding a way to do it together.
10:01 And it's very difficult.
10:03 At halftime of the Boston game, I mean, we had Tyrese,
10:07 who had a pretty severe case of bronchitis, who was zapped.
10:11 And they had attacked him seven straight times at the end of the first half.
10:15 We had gone from a lead to down seven at halftime.
10:20 And then at that point, you gotta circle the wagons and
10:23 reformulate how you're gonna attack the second half.
10:28 And he came on, obviously, had an amazing third quarter,
10:32 which got us right back into the game.
10:35 But the storylines are gonna be different from quarter to quarter,
10:41 to half to half, from minute to minute, whistle to whistle.
10:44 And so it's one of the cool things about this kind of a setup,
10:49 is that in real time, there's just shit going on everywhere.
10:54 And it's added to the intrigue of it.
10:58 It's added, certainly, to the attention of it.
10:59 And we're proud to be a part of it, and
11:02 proud to be representing Indiana, Indianapolis, and our fans.
11:09 >> Last question, back row and left.
11:11 >> Hi, coach, I'm Erica for the German Basket magazine.
11:15 Like you just said- >> Did you say German Basket?
11:18 >> Yeah, it's a German magazine.
11:19 >> Yeah, okay.
11:21 >> Like you just said, we just at the beginning of the season, and
11:25 normally during these times, the games are kind of slow and
11:28 not that much energy maybe in it.
11:30 Would you say that it helps, even for the Pacers now,
11:33 that they have a kind of already a taste how a playoff game maybe could look like?
11:37 And also that they see through that, that it opens up an extra potential to
11:42 even give more into to really spend at the end of the season in the playoffs?
11:48 >> Well, the more meaningful games that you can have with a young team,
11:52 the more they learn what winning is about.
11:56 The process, how to eliminate your individual needs from game to game,
12:04 to come together and to do cliche type things,
12:08 to try to come up with a result, and so, yeah.
12:15 And the game Monday,
12:19 the majority of our guys on our team had never experienced a game like that,
12:24 and an environment like that against that kind of opponent.
12:28 Boston had the best record in the NBA at the time.
12:31 And so, there's gotta be a collective attitude that we approach all this
12:38 stuff with.
12:39 As you look at games, scores are fluctuating like this
12:44 every night in the NBA and the in-season tournament.
12:46 I mean, we were up seven or eight, and we were down seven at halftime.
12:53 And then we got up seven, and they took the lead.
12:56 And then in the Boston game, the Atlanta game we had at Atlanta was,
13:01 people are still writing about that game.
13:05 And we were down 20 in that game in the first half.
13:08 And it's one of the both exciting things about today's game and maddening.
13:16 Depending on your perspective, but this kind of competition,
13:21 this kind of environment, we're coming to Vegas and this feels different.
13:27 And it's important for our players to feel what this feels like and
13:32 have a plan to attack with it.
13:34 And so, we're grateful.
13:36 The opportunity to be here is earned, and we're looking forward to it.