Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle can sympathize with the Charlotte Hornets’ situation, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be showing them any mercy in Indianapolis on Sunday.
Back-to-back road losses against the Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets last week stretched the Pacers’ losing slide to four games before they ended their run of outs by beating the host Chicago Bulls 132-123 on Friday night.
That was the second leg of a back-to-back for the Bulls, who had beaten the San Antonio Spurs in Texas the previous evening.
The Pacers will catch the Hornets in a similar situation, fronting up 24 hours after losing at home to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday, 116-102, for their eighth consecutive loss.
The challenges presented by the schedule are not lost on Carlisle.
“Brooklyn caught us on a horrific back-to-back, and we caught these guys (Bulls) on a tough one,” he said.
“And Sunday we’re going to catch Charlotte on a back-to-back.
“We’ve got to take advantage of these opportunities.”
Indiana used a day off between its past two games to tidy some troublesome areas.
“We had the longest shootaround I’ve had since I’ve been here because we had a lot of things we wanted to clean up,” Carlisle said.
“One of them was our offensive spacing and movement.
“Our spacing was better — it opened up more opportunities for us to attack the paint. Guys did a great job of focusing in the morning, and that really carried over into the game.”
Tyrese Haliburton had 23 points, including five 3-pointerss, and eight assists. Pascal Siakam added 21 points.
The Pacers attacked Chicago in different ways, producing a performance that resembled their high-octane style of last season, when they ranked second in the NBA in offensive rating.
Indiana stroked 60 percent from 3-point territory, while dominating rebounds (46-38) and points in the paint (56-42).
“I know we’re past last year, but at the end of the day, we were one of the fastest teams, if not the fastest team, in the league,” said Obi Toppin, who had 17 points and seven boards in 21 minutes off the bench.
“We score most of our points in transition. We get those easy buckets, then when we get into the halfcourt, everybody has their rhythm.”
Charlotte and Indiana have met once this season, on Nov. 8, when the Hornets won 103-83, restricting the Pacers to their lowest score since December 2022.
It has been tougher going for Charlotte lately, though, given their losing skid and an ongoing injury crisis.
Staring humiliation in the face when they trailed the high-flying Cavaliers 40-18 after the first quarter, the underhanded Hornets showed plenty of pluck to outscore Cleveland 84-76 across the final three quarters.
That was despite missing seven players due to injury and illness, headlined by LaMelo Ball (left calf).
Brandon Miller, who scored 25 points, was the only member of Charlotte’s top six scorers this season to play against the Cavs.
“Super proud of the group,” Hornets coach Charles Lee said.
“Obviously no one in this organization or that locker room wants to lose a game in general and not lose another one on this streak we’re on.
“But I would say the competitive spirit of this group was on display tonight. I’m so encouraged by so much that I’m seeing from the group.
“The strength we are gaining, the competitiveness that continues to go to another level … there’s a ton of resilience and fight.”
–Field Level Media
