Indiana Pacers Postgame Media Availability (vs. Sacramento Kings) | February 2, 2024

Indiana Pacers Postgame Media Availability (vs. Sacramento Kings) | February 2, 2024

An injury significant amount of time you want to take a player from warm-ups to starting to short intervals of rest to keep him warm and then when it’s time when it when it when you meet the uh get to the minutes threshold it’s a shutdown and that’s it and

So you know the first two games that made sense um decided on by medical staff Tyrese um Co coing staff um and tonight uh it was a it was a shift um not an easy thing to do obviously but being at home having the ability to use a practice court

To stay warm and and be ready to jump into the game uh those were positives and so that was the decision um you know the hope is that as we move move along here that the the minutes levels increase and that you know all this can fade away

But you know player Health has got to be you know it’s got to be at the top of the list of priorities and so um sometimes you go through this these kinds of challenges bringing a player back obviously he had the uncharacteristic turnovers tonight do

You think that was a factor and just him coming off the bench or just I guess how would he or maybe the discussion you had with him about his performance tonight particularly taking care of the ball yeah it you NBA players are men not machines you

Know as as great as Ty Tyrese is with ball security there’s going to be some nights where where it’s rough and him being in a totally different situation starting the second quarter um certainly contributes to that I don’t I don’t think there’s any doubt about that and

What do you think of Benedict Ma just being in attack mode all night obviously 31 points and and keeping you all I guess in it toward you know at the end of the game he could score you know he’s he’s he’s a scorer I mean um my my job

Is to guide him to becoming a winning um Championship habits type player that can play with with any group um who can find his opportunities uh to score the ball within the flow of the team and so uh he was really important to us tonight in the beginning because we were struggling

And he was the only guy that could get anything going and so uh he had a great night score on the ball I’ll have to look at the film to give you a full breakdown of everything but um you know he did some good things obviously with Miles and sticks

Out you had to do a lot a lot of shaken up lineups a lot of playing guys that usually play the four at the five and whatnot I mean what did you like not like about uh how guys handled just having to have a lot of shaken up roles

With with those two up thought our guys gave it a a great effort difficult situation you regard you know guy like sabonis who’s should be an All-Star you know um this a guy had 16 18 rebounds the other night 26 last week and you know he’s just a beast you know so um

And look they’re rested we’re not there’s a lot of things going against us you know the guys the guys fought until the end you know it’s um it’s a tough night it’s a tough night they’re four guy they’re four main guys all had over 20 and you know

Murray’s their fifth main guy and I think he’s the only one that didn’t so you know we needed to do a lot of things better um we didn’t and so you know we got to we got to fix it obviously the move to moving buddy the bench uh Ben

Into the starting lineup was that because of you know the way tonight shook out Ben was fresh TJ was fresh sure it’s the second night of a back toback Isaiah was fresh that was a reason um is this permanent um no it’s not permanent you know things are fluid things are fluid

And you know you know starting has got to be merit-based you know it’s just you you don’t just give a guy a starting position um teams that do that in development go through terrible growing pains because guys are just given minutes hey you got minutes to go figure it out and

And and the level of accountability is not there um we’re not doing that you know we’re not doing that and so I thought Ben earned this opportunity I thought it made sense based on the fact that you know they were rested we weren’t um same with opportunity for TJ

Same thing rested chance to jump back into to it uh I thought nard could use um a night off he’s he’s had a tough year physically um he and he is feeling good right now this is an opportunity tonight for him to get a little bit of a

Recharge and so you know Sunday everybody’s got to be ready we played six o’clock it’s less than 44 hours I don’t know who’s going to start including Halbert you know I we don’t know we got a we got a lot to talk about between now and then uh just you

Mentioned TJ me obvious how did he come through everything I mean from you know his whole week from dealing with what he was doing Tuesday you know was anything lagging with him through yesterday today and and how did he just come through all of that there was there was a scenario last night

Where you know he would have possibly played a few minutes in the second half um as the game developed um the game wasn’t super fast it was clear to me Drew could play the whole way I didn’t think it was fair to throw him out there into that in

Environment so this made more sense he played well you know he was I think the only guy in the roster that was a Plus on the plus minus side and you know he quarterbacked us to a one-point win in the first quarter so he came through it

Well so I’d say he’s back into it and so you know going forward we’ll we’ll see what’s what um you know we need our we need our big guys whenever whenever whenever they’re able to to to be um healthy enough to play and um you know

Tonight with a guy like sabonis in there it was it was tough I thought Isaiah fought his butt off he really did and there was some things that just went that just kind of go Haywire in the in the course of a of a game like this but

You know he’s a warrior he’s a fighter and he’s kind of guy you know you want in a in in a in a in a in a trench or a foxhole or whatever you want to call it play really fast what what was the challenge for you guys with defending

Them tonight I felt like they could kind of get whatever shot they wanted most possessions yeah we didn’t do a good job of containment um you know they got to the paint a lot I don’t know what the paint numbers were but um look they they made

It their kind of game more than we made at our kind of game and you know two and a half weeks ago we had success doing that at their place and so it kind of flipped tonight um so it’s it’s a it’s disappointing to lose

Um but we got six games until the break and you know we’ve got to take a hard look at this game tonight look at our health situation um and get ready for Sunday slowing down that team they play so fast they can play inside out they

Got to 133 what do you feel like you guys struggled with defensively tonight um I feel like they have a lot of guys on the team you know who can score who can get all the way to the rim you know having uh thearon Fox you know

Malik monk who are really fast um I feel like it’s reallyy hard just to contain them you know if they they going all the way to the r his minutes on a minutes restriction like this how do you feel like that if it all changes your approacher the teams approaching the

Times he’s not out there the quarter he doesn’t play in these games I mean you know it’s tough you know having you know he’s obviously the best on the team you know um and we feel like we you know we were pretty much used to what he’s

Capable of doing so not having that um you know for sure doesn’t you know doesn’t help the team but uh you know he comes in the game you know whatever he has you know he’s trying to do the most that he can um but you know I feel like you know

Myself or you know the rest of the team uh should have should have you know done a little bit more 31 for you tonight what were you seeing that allowed you to kind of Wiggle free and get to your spots when you wanted to today feel like

My shots was going in you know I wasn’t trying to you know really force it um you know I feel like I was I was going I was going pretty well and you know just pretty much just trying to keep going just uh what did it take for you just to

Work through the toe thing the last couple of days and just what’s that been like just kind of rehab and get right and just how did you feel physically playing today um you know it’s not it’s not really easy you know to come back

From a toe toe injury um you know I did I did the most I could do you know in order to to come back and you know help my team win um but you know it’s still a process and you know just pretty much just looking for next game you know just

Going to Charlotte and you know try to win the game obviously there had to be a lot of you know things shaking up today with some guys out and obviously Tyreek still doing with his thing and you guys on the back toback but Rick made a point

Of saying he felt like you earned you know this opportunity to start tonight I mean just what do you what does that mean to hear that basically and what do you feel like you’ve uh just done well to put yourself uh you know in this position to get another shot getting in

The lineup tonight just working hard you know um main thing for me is we’re just just working hard trying to help my team win um you know that’s pretty much the main thing to be honest Ben Remy what do you think didn’t click in certain stretches of the game offensively there were some

Moments where like it seem like the spacing was a little bit off or things like that what do you think was just led to that tonight um it’s just it’s just hard you know just having a lot of guys on the team you know who’s able to score the

Ball um you know I feel like that’s an area of growth for us uh you know we need to you know I wouldn’t say trust each other a little more but you know we we have to be uh we have to acknowledge that you know we have a lot of great

Scores on the team um it’s going to be tough but you know we def you can figure it out and then how do you pick up a guy like Tyrese in moments like this where obviously when he’s not playing he’s probably the most vocal guy but how do

You I guess return the favor when it’s like he’s probably frustrated like man I’m used to hoping and I can’t hope freely oh like you said you know he’s a great leader um you know on and off the court and I feel like he you know it was

Great to have him you know obviously he doesn’t play he doesn’t play a lot of minutes but you know like I said the time he’s on the court you know the time he’s he’s on the bench you know he’s just trying to be vocal and keep being

The leader is coming off back to back obviously like we just we just got to like have more urgency in the beginning um which you know we didn’t we didn’t really have um they had you know too many times where they were they were out there you know just getting layups after

Layups and and then we had a lot of turnovers like that’s just not us you know so um pretty tough when when we play like that and you know just get to being in transition like a lot a lot of the game and um yeah it’s tough Tyrese

Is on the Restriction like that and not playing in the first quarter do you feel like you need to be more of a Creator or initiator for this team in those right I think I mean I’m trying to figure that out U I think obviously we have like we

Started that group with TJ and and you know like um and obviously he’s he’s the the point guard in in the situation and I think like I said like for me I’m just trying to like you know like yeah figure out like where um I’m supposed to be and

Like the the some of the like when I’m I’m supposed to initiate or not like you know like I think all that stuff is still just up in the air and and um and and probably should be better at that um and I thought you know like I just got to I

Just got to you know like figure it out obviously you guys had to shake up lineups a lot with uh with Miles and sticks both being out tonight and and bunch of you guys had to place in five right how did you think everything went what went well what didn’t go well of

Having to to switch up lineups and you know play guys at the five that aren’t usually at the five yeah I mean I think it’s it’s it’s obviously those type of games you know it’s kind of like hard we got to try to figure out adjust like

People playing out of positions and um and and and trying to you know like figure it out but but I think you know that’s kind of like the makeup of our team anyway you know I think we got to um know that there’s going to be nights

Like this and and we have to be able to to just continue to um stay within what we do um everyone understanding what they do best and do it to the best of their abilities and and you know whatever they don’t like just you know like trust that the other guys are going

To do it um and we just we got to fight like it’s not it’s not easy um and there’s going to be people that’s going to be down like that’s that’s the NBA season like that’s how it goes and and I think that um we just once you’re out

There on the floor just just focused on like playing as hard as you can and um you know and just giving everything you got and I think the rest like if we have that that type of energy and um and focus like we can kind of like you know

Like the rest of it we can we can deal with it but I thought our energy wasn’t you know like as as great as theirs you mentioned just the turnovers ear earlier just what what stood out to you about why u i mean I think like a lot of them

Was just like probably on Force you know there’s a couple there that you could you know you could argue that it was a foul or not I mean like there’s there’s you know like where you trying to drive and you know um getting hit or or

Whatever but I thought like most of it was just like kind of unforced you know just throwing it to them like basically like I don’t think it was it was nothing it’s something that we can we can control and I think we can Rectify it I

Mean like I’m I had like what four or five turnovers like um that’s not me so um I just I just think that like again like just got to be better at understanding where the guys are and um you know knowing you know when when to

Pass or now or when to be aggressive like I got to I’ll be better at that Pascal when you’re such a versatile team obviously that’s a strength but can it be sort of like I mean make it harder at times to figure out what your role is or

What you want to do in a specific moment because of you all being capable of doing multiple things at once yeah no it is it is and I think that that’s something that we got to continue to figure out like we we got to we got to

Um and and like which like for me is just like I said understanding that I I can play Within whatever we’re doing but also like understanding like I’m who I am also as a player like and and and I think that balance like that’s why I got

To I got to like really figure it out when to be really really assertive and really really aggressive and when to you know like just kind of like blend in with the team because at the end of day like I’m you know like I’m I’m still the

You know like the all NBA Allstar player of the team so like I have to be able to find ways to um impact the game in that way and it doesn’t have to just do with scoring like it could be anything else like on defense like finding just

Moments where like you know like I have to um you know like I have to to show like you know like that level and I think that that the team is going to like like carry that you know once I do it so um yeah like I I just I just like

I said I got to get better and I think we all got to get better as a team and and um you know we had like three games in four nights I mean it was tough games like we we we fought a lot of those games and tonight wasn’t wasn’t pretty

Um second night the back to back like it’s it’s hard it is hard and and I think that we just got to you know like stay together um like good teams like weather like these moments like they weather the storm and and and they come

Back and and they get better uh from it and and I think we can we have the the cap the capability to do it and we have to do it we just got to stay together um and and just lock in um they just came

Out harder than us um we had a lot of turnovers um I think I think we beat ourselves the whole game um yeah that’s like the most we turn the ball over never really got into that Groove but um yeah we’re excited for Sunday it’s a new

Opportunity and uh hopefully we can all stay together and uh come up with a big win on Sunday so back-to-backs have been a little bit of a challenge for this team and some of it is youve just played a lot of really good teams in in back

Tob backs anything you can put a finger on that you’re maybe not doing on nights like this one when you played the night before um it’s been like one single thing I feel like uh in the Knicks game it was rebounding we got out rebounding

In today was uh turnovers and um if we can fix those fix those little things I think we can turn out great so maybe even a little more frustrating in that a lot of the turnovers didn’t really seem forced plays that typically happen not maybe necessarily stuff that they’re

Forcing you into yeah I’d agree um like I said I feel like we were beating ourselves up this this whole game but um yeah we can learn from it and uh we’re excited for Sunday so what’s this fairly consistent playing time doing for you personally just building confidence um

It’s fun playing out there getting to a group gr and uh it’s good for me just uh being more confident and uh trusting myself so you mentioned Charlotte a key in that direction you’ll be there on Sunday yeah we’re ready for it so thank you Tyre said you had some say in this

Minut distribution Choice instead did you like this better is it what and what kind of challenges does this come with compared to what you were doing I mean I don’t like any of it but um I mean the last two games I felt like if I finished

The game we had a better chance to win uh so just wanted to figure out what was the best way for me to do that and this is what we came to conclusion with and uh you review it after after tonight obviously it was a bad game by me but um

Yeah I’m not a fan of of of any of it but I understand I got to do what I got to do to be on the floor right now you say you didn’t like how you play do you feel like it’s harder for you to be

Yourself and play the way you want to when you are coming in like that and have the restricted minutes nah I mean I mean no no I’m not could use that as an excuse I just had a poor game and it comes with the territory it happens

Throughout the course of 82 and they from learn to move on um but yeah I just got to do a better job of taking care of the ball uh that was that was the biggest thing about it just I think that usually uh it makes sense we have a lot

Of assists when I have a lot of assists and so it probably makes sense that we have a lot of turnovers when I have a lot of turnovers so uh just got to do a better job taking care of the ball is it hard 22 right now or about there is it

What minutes is it hard 22 uh yeah I mean I really don’t know I be honest I think that’s just constant conversation of what it is and just figuring it out um I mean I know people are frustrated but trust me nobody’s more frustrated

Than I am so um just trying to do what I can to get back the way you talked about it last night it seemed like just getting through this back toback was going to be a big um you know kind of threshold for you I mean I guess at this

Point obviously you don’t know how you’re going to feel in the morning but um physically how do you feel like you came through it and is that I mean is it I guess an important step and it does it lead to the pop possibility of things expanding now that you just got past

This one yeah physically my leg feels good uh um I felt good uh last night too uh but understand that there’s a back toback this is three games in four days I feel like I’ve you know proven that my leg and uh with withstand that and and

Uh so you know I think we’ll review it tomorrow depending on how I feel um and be ready to go s when you uh what was like the pregame routine tonight what’s different about it because Rick was saying you got some shooting in obviously on the bike like how quickly

Did you have to maybe adjust your mind to like okay I’m not doing what I normally do for X my need yeah it was weird um obviously I wasn’t on the bench in the first quarter just in the back and stretching and and moving and trying to

Trying to stay Loose as best as possible uh to be prepared going second quarter I start the second quarter with turnover right away but uh yeah no I just try to do what I can to stay warm you weren’t feeling any pain or anything after games right now you feel good

Uh I would say that you know it it it is what it is honestly you know what I mean like I think anybody who’s dealt with the hamstring before understands that it’s it’s not just nothing you know what I mean like even when you’re fully good

A little bit after you still feel it a little bit you know so um yeah nothing like structurally you know I think there’s some some pain but I mean I I can play through that that’s not that’s not a problem but our medical staff is amazing they do a good job of

You know having constant conversation I’m I’m upfront and honest with them I have no no need to lie to them so um as long as I’m doing that and uh and they have they trust it then I will as well obviously wasn’t just you not OB miles

And Jaylen being out you guys had to do a lot of Shifting and moving around and what do you feel like you did well in that circumstance what was a challenge you know dealing with having a couple guys out having you dealing with your situation yeah I don’t know what we did

Well today to be honest so um yeah I mean it’s obviously a challenge tough time of the year for anybody just it feels like everybody’s just trying to you know get to Allstar but we got to just do a better job of handling games the right way and uh finish going into

All-Star the right way you know what I mean like you want to just be playing your best basketball and uh you know have a good feeling about it when you come back you know we just pick up right where you left off so uh we got I don’t

Even know how many more games to Allstar you know six yeah something like that just handle those the right way play the right way obviously that’s three straight losses to three good teams and um you know just figure it out from here so how do you not like you obviously

Care a lot but how do you not let like weigh on you when you like man like I’m in this space I probably never been in before my bkb career yeah uh that’s a good question um figuring it out figuring it out obviously it’s frustrating um I’m a guy

Who wants to play at all times and uh this I mean this just sucks you know what I mean like just from everything but I mean I can’t go back in time and change what happened you know and can’t question God’s reasoning for things you know you just got to move

Forward through that and uh it it’ll make sense in the end you know I have faith in that I feel like this happened for a reason um and I don’t quite know that reason yet but I don’t really ask God questions to be honest so um like like that I

Don’t I I don’t I don’t try to question uh you know his decision- making so I just got to do what I can to get back get healthy get right um and our team does as well um I don’t I haven’t won a game but since Pascal’s got here not

That Pascal’s fault or anything but uh you know I think just want to like show he hasn’t seen you know how excit like how much fun we can have on the floor yet you know and I think it’s partially because since he’s been here I’ve been

Hurt you know you know I’ve been on a restriction so looking forward to when the time comes that I’m you know fully fully healthy fully good and we could just run from there was you know you obviously had Miss time last year too I guess is there a situation like when

Last year it was done it was done I mean is that kind of the the big difference in terms of what this is that that’s something that can linger more it’s something that can be affected more but last year was more like once you got

Back on the floor yeah he was close I wouldn’t say that about last year either I was wearing that big ass JJ Watt brace right when I came back and it it hurt it hurt uh so it’s not it’s two backtack years of of injuries and it’s

Frustrating and um you know I’ve really this summer and this year has been the most time I’ve ever spent on my body and you know to have this happen it kind of a freak accident it sucks um it’s I think it’s obviously frustrating mentally taxing all those things but

I’ll be fine I mean I think that it again it happens for a reason and our team has grown a lot over the last 12 months and been able to withstand me being out um so you know I just for me it’s just got to get healthy got to get

Right and uh be a plus for our team help our team do what I do best and uh yeah it’s just growing every day all good than

Rick Carlisle, Bennedict Mathurin, Pascal Siakam, Ben Sheppard andTyrese Haliburton speak with media following the Pacers loss to the Kings on Friday night.

0:00 – Rick Carlisle
7:40 – Bennedict Mathurin
11:03 – Pascal Siakam
15:55 – Ben Sheppard
17:11 – Tyrese Haliburton