The first quarter has just ended. Rick Carlisle and his players lead by two points going into the second. Six minutes later, the Pacers are trailing by 16 points and have just conceded an 18-0.
We can even say a 20-0 if we add the last 75 seconds of the first quarter. “The start of the second quarter obviously changed this meeting a lot”, can only observe the Pacers coach.
He goes even further, explaining that this “start of the second quarter killed us”. “I didn’t realize that we had taken a 20-0, but we took a big blow,” says Rick Carlisle. “We were two points ahead and they started to play well, and we were in trouble. »
The worst will happen in the third quarter, with the injury to Tyrese Haliburton, but this 20-0, even if it will hurt the Pacers, had been rather well digested.
“Faced with such a sequence, the team is strong and fought. She came back to 6 points at the break, that’s positive,” rejoices Rick Carlisle. “We finished well, but the third was still complicated. We had some good streaks, but it became very hard. »
The third wave in two matches
Indiana's good reaction is largely explained by the points from Pascal Siakam, excellent in the second quarter (12 points at 6/7 shooting) and who gave his team some breathing room, when it it was suffocated.
“It’s good to make shots but we were more aggressive in defense, we made stops, we got rebounds,” he explains on this response. “We cannot afford to lose the rebound battle against the best team of the season. »
After the two “runs” of Game 1 (12-0 to start the match, 13-0 in the third quarter), another wave is sweeping over the Pacers. The third already in two matches. How to explain it?
“They have a lot of firepower,” replies TJ McConnell. “We have to react to these sequences, we did it in this match. We must let the storm pass. We have to look at the images and see how we can reduce these sequences against us. »
