Rick Carlisle Criticizes Pacers For One Aspect Despite Dominant Win Over Heat

Despite the big win, the Pacers coach was not happy with one aspect of Indiana's effort.

Dec 27, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle watches from the sideline as they take on the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images / David Butler II-Imagn Images

The Indiana Pacers were able to destroy the Miami Heat on Thursday night. They won 128-115 thanks to a fantastic effort from Tyrese Haliburton. He had 33 points on 13/21 shooting to go along with 15 assists. What was the most impressive part of his game is that he didn't turn the ball over a single time.

Six players were able to score in double-figures in Miami, so it was a team effort. The only starter who didn't score in double-figures was Andrew Nembard, who finished the game with six. Indiana was able to bounce back after blowing a 19-point lead to the Milwaukee Bucks in their last game.

The Pacers are still looking for more consistency from game to game. They have lost three of their last five games, so they are hoping to play more consistent basketball moving forward. Head coach Rick Carlisle knows that and was critical of the team following the big win in Miami.

Despite the big win, Carlisle was critical of one big aspect of how the team has been playing of late, and that's having too many turnovers.

Carlisle: "The expectation is we should be a low-turnover team. We can't pat ourselves on the back too much about anything right now. We have to work on our consistency."

— Dustin Dopirak (@DustinDopirak) January 3, 2025

Carlisle wants the team to play like they did against the Heat in every game. Against Miami, they had just six turnovers. In some of the recent games for the Pacers, turnovers have been an issue. Consistency is the thing that he wants to see from his team in that regard.

The Pacers are a team that likes to play a high-tempo kind of basketball. With that style of basketball, turnovers are something that are expected. Carlisle knows that, but he still wants his team to strive to limit those turnovers, especially live-ball turnovers.

Having Haliburton go through games with 15 assists and zero turnovers certainly helps. While that kind of stat line is not realistic to expect every single game, it's certainly nice when it happens. Consistency is the big thing that the Pacers are looking for right now.

Indiana has a few more games to get through before the schedule starts to lighten up a bit. They take on the Suns for the second time this season on Saturday before traveling to Brooklyn on Monday. They need to stack up some wins in the next few games before back-to-back games against the Cavaliers.

Right now, the 17-18 Pacers are eighth in the East. They are still a game and a half out of seventh.

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