Frustration building as Indiana Pacers lose another close game at home

The Pacers dropped another winnable game on Monday

The Indiana Pacers sit at 9-7 after 16 games and have wins over Milwaukee, Cleveland (twice), and Philadelphia this season. For a building team with a long-term vision, the zoomed-out view of their resume looks just fine. But the Pacers don't agree. They're frustrated, and Monday night's loss to the Portland Trail Blazers only made things worse.

Indiana fell to Portland 114-110. They never looked like themselves. Their offense was poor as they turned it over a season-high 20 times while making 24.2% of their three-point shots. Even with decent defense for stretches and high-quality rim attacks, the Pacers struggled against the 5-12 Trail Blazers. It was one of their worst outings of the season.

"This is a bad loss. This is a really bad loss for us as a group," star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who finished with 33 points and nine assists, said after the game. He was far and away Indiana's best offensive player Monday night.

The Pacers were favored by double digits and had the talent to get the win. They had a poor night and were still in it right until the end. But their lack of energy — "compete level" as head coach Rick Carlisle calls it — was impossible to overcome. They missed open threes in the final minutes on their way to defeat.

Teams have off nights shooting the ball. There are road upsets in the NBA all the time — the Pacers had two memorable ones last season in Los Angeles and Golden State. One home loss is not the end of the world and is easy to move past in the NBA.

But this wasn't just one close home loss to an inferior team. It was Indiana's fourth of the season, and they're only 16 games into the campaign. A seven-point loss to Chicago in October as well as one-point losses to Toronto and Charlotte in Indianapolis this month have the Pacers frustrated. They're losing winnable games far too often.

"It's just annoying, frustrating, all those emotions. We've just got to figure it out," Haliburton said. Earlier, he had more detailed thoughts on those emotions. "It's frustrating. Everybody's going to look at this and be like 'you've pissed away four at home, you should be 13-3.' Can't look at it that way," he said.

Awful outings will lead to losses in the NBA every time. There isn't a team in the league that feels good when they play bad, and the Pacers are no different. But everyone hates to lose with no energy and substandard effort. That's how Indiana fell on Monday, and that's a theme in their close losses.

"The theme is the same, it's just compete level not where it needs to be," Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said of the commonalities he's seen in Indiana's close losses. They are paying the price for it in the win column.

Carlisle said his team's effort level wasn't high enough against Portland, and they need to start learning lessons from games like that. It's becoming costly. If they were just a hair better in half of those close games, they could realistically have 11 or 12 wins. But like Haliburton said, they can't think that way. They haven't earned the right to.

That's what is frustrating for the Pacers. They know that they are close to a much better record, but they don't have it. And they only have themselves to blame. They didn't put their best foot forward for a few early-season home games, and it cost them.

"Yeah. It's frustrating," veteran center Myles Turner said. He noted that it's palpable when energy is absent, and it's important for the Pacers to rally together in those moments.

They haven't been able to. A few times this season, even when the team is fully healthy, Carlisle has turned to reserve point guard T.J. McConnell to provide energy. He's been outside the rotation often this season, but the veteran guard never has a problem with effort.

Sometimes, his energy is contagious. Other times, like Monday night, it wasn't. McConnell still played well and helped the Pacers make a third quarter comeback. But few others followed suit. 

"Unfortunately, our team has not learned that we need to play that way as a group every game we play," Carlisle said in reference to McConnell. "Getting up for In-Season Tournament games and thinking that we can walk out and just beat other teams is ignorant. I've got to do a better job of convincing our guys that. It's very disappointing."

Carlisle added that the team, and Carlisle himself, needs to mature as a group and understand the level of urgency that exists each night. They have expectations now, and that's new for a handful of the players on the roster.

Navigating expectations is a challenge for every young team. "I've got to help them with it, our staff has to help them with that. We've got to give them the truth without sounding like we're preaching all the time," Carlisle said Monday night. "I've been around this long enough to know a coach's voice can only be heard so much of the time. I'm trying to give them the right messaging at the right times."

When the energy and effort level is subpar, it's clear that there is some kind of mental barrier in place for the Pacers. The entire roster and coaching staff is trying to break through it, but it's been a challenge thus far.

They also just need to play better, something Haliburton made clear. "We're just not playing well right now if I'm being honest with you," he said. "I think that these are habits of losing basketball [teams], alternating [wins and loses] and not winning games you're supposed to."

The star guard noted that it's good that his team is always able to respond to defeat, but they need to mature and up their consistency. Otherwise, these frustrations will linger.

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• Indiana Pacers first-round picks Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard assigned to G League for playing time. CLICK HERE.
• Indiana Pacers and Tyrese Haliburton set multiple franchise records in a win over Atlanta Hawks, including points in a game. CLICK HERE.
• More confident and mature Myles Turner giving Indiana Pacers great minutes to begin the season. CLICK HERE.
• Indiana Pacers sloppy performance leads to loss against Portland Trail Blazers. CLICK HERE.
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