It’s hard to believe that any positives come from a 37-point loss but Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has managed to find one.
His Pacers outfit were put to the sword by the Boston Celtics who welcomed back Jayson Tatum in their 142-105 win.
The Celtics duo of Jaylen Brown and Tatum put on a combined 66 points to hand the Pacers their second defeat in a row and push their record to 15-17 in the Eastern Conference.
Tyrese Haliburton top-scored for the Pacers with his 19 but was recently called out by Kendrick Perkins for his ‘focus’ or lack of.
Despite coach Carlisle being visibly disappointed with his team’s display he did like what he saw from youngster Jarace Walker.
Now into his second season in the NBA Walker is beginning to show the Pacers and the whole league what he is about.
After being the eighth overall pick in the first round of the 2023 draft the forward was eased into the league averaging just 10.3 minutes per game.
His minutes have increased significantly this year and alongside that so has his output.
He dropped his highest score in recent weeks with 17 in a victory over the Orlando Magic, and his 15 last night helped keep the margin of defeat from becoming more embarrassing.
Speaking after the match Carlisle spoke highly of Walker’s display saying: “Walker did some really good things in the second half. I like to see him play with that sort of intensity and force all the time.
“He did some really impressive things, driving the ball, shooting the ball, rebounding, defensively. I mean they were trying to get Brown 50 points and he manned up and guarded the heck out of him for two or three possessions in a row and that was great to see.”
The Pacers were beaten in just about every department by a well-oiled Celtics side who possess a lot of quality, but one area that Carlisle was left unhappy with was the offensive rebounds.
His side gave up 18 in the game in comparison to the Celtics 13 and Carlisle explained how this was the team’s ‘biggest problem.’
He said: “In the first half the offensive rebounding was the biggest problem, untimely turnovers were a problem as well. 13 turnovers doesn’t look that bad on paper but they only had nine.
“When Payton Pritchard goes in there and gets three offensive rebounds in a row and beasts it up between two of our guys that’s not good.”
The Pacers face a tough rematch against the Celtics in their next game, it’s the perfect chance to put right what went wrong.
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