NBA FINALS: THUNDER VS. PACERS

June 10, 2025

Rick Carlisle

Indiana Pacers

Practice Day

Q. Coach, I know a win is a win. The series is tied. But how concerning is it for you that your team has been leading this series for just one minute and 56 seconds?

RICK CARLISLE: Everything that's already happened doesn't matter, other than the score of the series. We have to move forward. There's a lot of things we have to do better. We realize that.

I think we've lost, at least by scoreboard, six out of eight or seven out of eight quarters. We're playing a great team. So we've got to make adjustments. We got to play better.

Q. Rick, along the lines of things that don't matter, I apologize.

RICK CARLISLE: Yes, please.

Q. At least I apologized first. You've been in Indianapolis before. When you won the East, in 49 other states it's just basketball. Does the energy feel different compared to your first couple times because this is a very tough team now, because of Caitlin (Clark)? Does it seem like it's gone to a new degree of energy, the love affair this city and state has with the sport?

RICK CARLISLE: Perhaps. I think you're making a valid point about the Fever and Caitlin being here. Both teams are teams that are working their way up and getting better.

The level of interest is high. We've always had great fans here. It's always been. This is the third time I've been here. I was here as an assistant coach for three years here with Larry (Bird) in the late '90s. The head coach for four years here in the early 2000s. Went to Dallas for 13 years and came back. This is my fourth year in the second stint.

This has been a different kind of endeavor because it turned into a pretty significant rebuild. The fans have stayed with us through the rebuild. The trade for Tyrese and Buddy Hield three and a half years ago was something that sparked a re-interest in the franchise. Things have gone from there.

If you're talking about pure basketball, I say both fan bases are really exceptional that way. I think Indiana's reputation, because of "Hoosiers," because of Bob Knight in Indiana University, the history that this franchise has with the ABA teams and all that, and one prior Finals appearance, it's a big deal.

Q. A couple of Tyrese questions for you. He was limping noticeably after Game 2. He was in practice today. Is he hurt in any way? Then, assuming that he plays, which I'm sure he will, is there anything that you want to see from him that you haven't seen yet?

RICK CARLISLE: At this time of year, I don't know if anybody's feeling perfect, Joe. How do you feel? You feel all right?

He practiced. He went through everything. I know he has some discomfort. He feels it. But each day it's getting better. I don't think you're going to hear him making a big deal out of it.

This is the time of year where it just doesn't get any better than this. The atmosphere, the interest, the opportunity, coming back and being at home, I mean, there's just so much to be excited about.

We've got a couple guys that are slightly under the weather; I don't think anything is going to keep these guys from playing in the game.

Q. When you evaluated Tyrese in the last couple series, a lot of defensive pressure, are there similarities when you evaluate the way the Thunder have tried to approach that? Do you feel like he can draw from the previous two series?

RICK CARLISLE: There are similarities. The difference is Oklahoma has more people to throw at a great player. Really at both of our All-Stars. They can throw bigger, smaller, medium guys at Tyrese, and at Pascal. It's one of their strengths.

We've gone through these situations many times, not only during the Playoffs but during the regular season, not just this season but prior seasons. We're going to have to adjust and create better situations. We're going to have to be better.

Q. Rick, Myles, since he's been in this league, his name has been in trade rumors as how he would fit as a missing piece to other franchise's puzzles. How have you seen him block that out and what has he meant to you through this playoff run?

RICK CARLISLE: Yeah, Myles is a professional. He's extremely loyal. He has a great ability to focus on what's important. Over the years, I think all players that are really good players, at some time or another likely have their name involved in trade rumors. Whether it's leaked by another team, whether it's somebody that just is throwing stuff on the wall, creating content, whatever it is.

I've just really admired his loyalty to the franchise, his ability to focus on what's important to him and his family, and to keep soldiering on.

I haven't heard his name in rumors lately. I don't know what you're talking about. Unless you're talking about free agency, we're not going to get into any of that. There's a fine, so I'm going to avoid that.

Myles is a special player and he's a guy that is very important to us.

Q. Coaches spend a lot of time prepping their teams not to commit turnovers. But your team is very adept at, once committing a turnover, minimizing the cost of it. As a coach, when did you begin to pick up the value of that and whether your philosophy has changed over the years of minimizing the cost once you commit the turnover?

RICK CARLISLE: Yeah, I mean, some of our turnovers have been so violently bad that Oklahoma hasn't even had a chance to catch the ball.

Look, there's some merit to doing that, and not having a live-ball situation. Live-ball situations are the worst for every team in the league. There are a lot of symptoms of high turnovers. Usually it's disruptive defense along with probably poor spacing and other things.

Yeah, you try to address those things as best as we can. Tyrese has been historically great with ball security. This team that we're playing now presents unprecedented challenges because they've been turning everybody over through the entire Playoffs.

We're going to have to have really great spatial awareness with everything that we're doing. You can't play too careful against Oklahoma or otherwise you'll never get a basket. You have to be aggressive. There are going to be some mistakes.

Our bounce-back ability from mistakes is really key and our response. Certainly we want to avoid those mishaps as much as possible.