NBA IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT

December 9, 2023

Aaron Nesmith

Indiana Pacers

Championship Postgame

Lakers 123, Pacers 109

Q. How are you feeling and how is the team feeling after a big loss like this?

AARON NESMITH: That one hurts. I think everybody from my teammates, coaching staff, organization, we really wanted that one.

Q. You've played in the Finals before and Rick talked about this experience for the team. How do you take that frustration as a group and use it as positive experience going forward, if at all?

AARON NESMITH: I mean, this whole experience was a positive experience for us. It was a playoff experience for a young team who a lot of guys had never experienced the atmosphere of what a playoff game feels like, and ever since the Boston game to the Milwaukee game to this game today, the atmosphere was electric. The games were intense. The little plays mattered.

Like those offensive rebounds we gave up to Davis, those culminated in allowing us to lose the game.

Q. What do you think this tournament helped reveal about you guys, maybe both in a positive light and all right, we've got to improve on that?

AARON NESMITH: Our potential. When we buckle down and really pay attention to the defensive side of the ball, teams cannot keep up with us for 48 minutes offensively. I think it really showed us how important it is for us to really lock in on the defensive side of the ball for a full 48 minutes and how good we can be when we come together and believe in each other.

Q. We've talked a lot about you relishing tough defensive assignments, especially going up against somebody physical. What was it like taking on LeBron? Looks like you were trying to take the contact to him as much as you could. What was the challenge like? How do you feel like you did? How do you evaluate the whole of that?

AARON NESMITH: It was a lot of fun. Like you said, I relish these opportunities to guard these phenomenal tier 1 players. My game plan with him this evening was really just wear on him for 48 minutes. Even when he's running down the court, bump him while he runs, make sure he feels me, make sure I make him fight for every step that he takes.

So just make him work for 48 minutes, and hopefully by the end of the game, the last five, six minutes he'd be gassed and we'd be able to run him. That was my thought process.

Q. He's huge. You talked about Davis on the glass. They're just a big team. They have the length to put on Tyrese. What do you make of the challenge of big teams, especially against you guys who are smaller in general?

AARON NESMITH: Yeah, I think one time they had a lineup of like James, Davis, Vanderbilt and Rui out therein like the first half. I remember we've got to rebound because all these guys are coming and all these guys are over like 6-8, 6-9.

So, it's definitely a challenge, and it puts more on us to box out and take care of our individual assignments.

Q. What was the feel in the locker room after this one, considering it's just a regular season game, but it also meant a lot more, and then coming from a guy who had experienced the Playoffs, you know what that's all about.

AARON NESMITH: I don't look at this like a regular-season game. This was a championship game. Everybody wanted to win. Everybody wanted to cement their names in history as the first team to win the tournament. So it sucks. It sucks and it hurts.

But our message in the locker room was it's the middle of the regular season. We've got 62 more to go. We just kind of said, let's learn from it, watch the film, and get ready to play Detroit on Monday.

Q. How do you go from this surreal experience, the last guy Tyrese shakes his hand walking off is Flavor Flav coming off the locker room. Kind of a surreal deal to you guys have a real game in Detroit on Monday. How do you move on beyond this when it's in the middle of the year?

AARON NESMITH: Yeah, that's definitely going to be a challenge, coming from this high atmosphere and really highly competitive game to kind of go back into the regular season against Detroit who's struggled so far. This will be a good test for us, as well, to dig deep and make sure that we play to our strengths and play to who we know we are and not our competition.