INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Pacers middle Myles Turner was nonetheless full of conflicting feelings within the aftermath of the Japanese Convention finals.
On one hand, Turner — the longest-tenured participant on the group, having been drafted by Indiana in 2015 — known as this season an unbelievable journey. After lacking the playoffs the previous three seasons, the Pacers gained their first playoff collection in additional than a decade and reached the convention finals for the primary time since 2014.
However the reality the Pacers had a fourth-quarter lead in three of their 4 losses to the Boston Celtics nonetheless stung as gamers left the world Monday night time after dropping Recreation 4 105-102 to finish a Boston collection sweep.
“It is nonetheless very recent for all of us,” Turner mentioned. “Very irritating to have all these video games in your grasp and let it slip by.”
Indiana performed the final two video games with out star guard Tyrese Haliburton, who was sidelined by a left hamstring damage, however the Pacers didn’t use his absence as an excuse. Particularly as a result of the Pacers knew they’d a possibility to win a number of video games within the collection.
The Pacers had at the least a 90% win chance within the fourth quarter of Video games 1, 3 and 4, in keeping with ESPN Stats & Data analysis. They misplaced all three video games.
They led 117-114 with the ball and 9 seconds left in Recreation 1. They had been up 109-101 with 2:25 seconds left at residence in Recreation 3. And once more in Monday’s Recreation 4, they had been up 98-90 with 5:40 left however failed to attain over the ultimate 3:30.
“For a younger group like us, this expertise within the playoffs is second to none,” mentioned Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard, who completed with a team-high 24 factors. “Numerous our first occasions. Numerous little issues we perhaps needed to do higher and we discovered how these video games go and what being in a collection appears like.”
Sure, the Pacers featured a roster stuffed with gamers making their first playoff run, reminiscent of Nembhard, Haliburton and Aaron Nesmith. However veteran Pacers ahead Pascal Siakam, who gained a championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, emphasised it isn’t a given Indiana may have this chance once more.
“I can let you know like, yeah, we’ll study from it and it is going to occur, nevertheless it’s not assured,” Siakam mentioned. “I understand how laborious it’s to get up to now. It is unlucky. You wish to give credit score to the opposite group as a result of they took benefit of each mistake that we made. They did effectively.
“However for us, it has been laborious, like heartbreaking losses after heartbreaking losses. Yeah, you are going to be inspired by it and also you hope to place the correct quantity of labor to proceed to get higher. As a result of we must be quite a bit higher if you wish to compete with these groups. And perceive it does not matter how good we performed, we did not get it executed.”
Siakam, who will probably be a free agent this summer time after coming to Indiana in a midseason commerce, declined to speak about his future however reiterated a number of occasions he was grateful to really feel supported throughout his tenure in Indiana.
“It has been a blessing,” Siakam mentioned. “I am actually appreciative of every part. Coming from the place I come from, it means quite a bit.”
The Pacers established themselves as one of many league’s breakout groups by making a run to the in-season event finals in early December. They racked up 47 wins and clinched the No. 6 seed within the Japanese Convention, whereas Haliburton was named an All-Star starter and made third-team All-NBA.
Indiana picked up two collection wins throughout this playoff run by upsetting a better seed. The Pacers beat the Milwaukee Bucks within the first spherical and the New York Knicks within the convention semifinals.
The Pacers benefited from some damage luck alongside the way in which, going through Milwaukee with out Giannis Antetokounmpo, whereas the Knicks noticed Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart all go all the way down to accidents through the second-round collection.
Then within the convention finals, the Pacers needed to take care of accidents of their very own when Haliburton aggravated a left hamstring damage in Recreation 2 that saved him out the remainder of the collection. In his first 15 playoff video games, Haliburton was averaging 18.7 factors and eight.2 assists.
“Ty by no means obtained rattled, man,” Turner mentioned. “No matter groups threw at him, he discovered a manner.”
In the end, Indiana didn’t have sufficient to beat the lack of its star participant. Nonetheless, as Pacers gamers wrestled with their feelings over the season ending, they had been certain to emphasise how far they’d are available in a brief time period.
“This complete 12 months we grew as teammates, we grew as an entire tradition,” Pacers ahead Obi Toppin mentioned. “It felt like all people poured in every part they may for this group each single day. Clearly, season did not finish the way in which we needed to, however there’s lot of fine that got here out of this season. And we do not wish to overlook that.
“It was a giant 12 months for the Pacers and this complete group, so we do not wish to overlook that.”
