Pacers' Rick Carlisle Rips Indiana's Effort Level After Another Frustrating Loss

Matt Levine | 5 Hours Ago

Mike Watters-Imagn Images

The Indiana Pacers dropped to 6-9 on the new season after another loss on Wednesday, this time at the hands of the Houston Rockets. Indiana has now lost four of their last five games and the season is starting to take a turn for the worst.

The team has shown no consistency from game to game and it's hurt their performance on the court. Against Houston, Indiana was a little healthier than they have been in recent games and it still didn't matter as the Rockets blew them out in the second half.

After the game, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle seemed to call out his team's effort level. Carlisle didn't hold back his comments, specifically about the need to change things up before it's too late.

"Difficult time right now for a lot of reasons," Carlisle told reporters in Houston after the game in comments broadcast on the FanDuel Sports Network and posted on the Pacers' YouTube Channel. "We're not playing well. That's obvious. Our connectedness is not where it needs to be. Our collective spirit is not where it needs to be. I'm going to look very closely at the film tonight. The coaching staff is. We have to come up with answers. At a time like this, there's only one thing that I've ever seen that gets you out of a hole and a difficult period. That is unbridled, collective hard play and consistent hard play. We just obviously have not had enough of it. That has to change."

While the season is still technically early, bad habits tend to form early on. Carlisle has been around the game for a long time and he knows that the team needs to change soon.

Indiana reached the Eastern Conference Finals a year ago but they haven't been able to muster up the same magic or energy this season. One of the biggest areas for decline this season for Indiana has been the play of star guard Tyrese Haliburton.

Haliburton has struggled out of the gates and it's severely hurt the Pacers while on the court. For Indiana to get back to being the team that they know they can be, Haliburton is going to need to lead the way.

The Pacers will get another chance to right the ship when they take on the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday.

More Pacers: Pacers' Myles Turner Lands with West Contender in Proposed Trade