NBA IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT

December 6, 2023

Rick Carlisle

Indiana Pacers

Semifinal Practice Day

Q. Rick, how would you describe the feeling of the team coming off the high of the win and then going into this next game? And what's the status of Jalen Smith?

RICK CARLISLE: Yeah, Jalen will not be available. He's doing better. He's started to do some light running. He did some shooting drills with us today, so you may have seen that. But he will be unavailable for any of these games here.

The team is in a great state of mind. Really optimistic, opportunistic group that is looking forward to this opportunity.

Q. Now that you're here, what do you think of this whole setup, and how do you prepare the team for tomorrow's game?

RICK CARLISLE: Yeah, predictably, it's very impressive what they've done here. The logistics, the separate kind of preparation area, all that stuff, really impressive how they did that. They've got a whole banner thing the size of one of the sides of the building that has all four teams printed on it. They must have done that 13 hours ago or something, unless they just printed up a bunch of different combinations. But that's impressive.

You know, the arena looks great. The stage lighting is cool. It's got an MSG feel. It's got an old Forum-in-L.A. feel.

I think it befits where we are, kind of one of the entertainment centers of the world. This should be a very competitive final four.

Q. Do you think an IST championship is worthy of a banner in the arena of the champion?

RICK CARLISLE: I think you'll see a banner of some sort. That's up to the teams. I don't know this. I see banners of all kinds in all different arenas.

But this is not an insignificant thing at all. Certainly this being the first one is extra special. As the thing has gone along, a lot has been learned. A lot of amazing, great things, and then some other things that may not have been anticipated. But all that stuff will certainly be addressed.

But all said, it's a massive win.

Q. Every coach I've ever covered considers road games to be business trips, but the allure or the appeal of this, from the start it's been talked of as cash for the players and it's Las Vegas. How do you balance the exciting locale versus potential distractions here?

RICK CARLISLE: Yeah, you know, we trust our players. Our guys, even though we're a young team, they understand the magnitude of the opportunity. I expect most of them tonight to do just a nice dinner and get off their feet.

There's places to go in every NBA city for this kind of entertainment. Certainly not to this level. But I think our guys understand it, and I think it's going to be the same for all four teams. This is a business opportunity.

The money for winning is significant, and so there are a lot of reasons to keep our collective eye on the ball.

Q. Does this have the feeling of a playoff-type game as far as from an intensity standpoint? How would you characterize that?

RICK CARLISLE: Well, our game Monday certainly had that feel. The two games I watched last night on television certainly appeared to have that. Coming now to a neutral venue, it remains to be seen exactly how it's going to be. I do expect some buzz. I expect the energy from the teams to be great.

I saw a lot of the digital boards and stuff like that. They've incorporated some elements that they used in the bubble that were very successful.

I expect the whole thing to be a huge success. I just don't see it going any other way.

Q. I wanted to ask you about Tyrese. He's on a big stage now, starting to get the accolades that he deserves. You've coached a lot of great players. He's shooting 40 percent from three-point range in his career in the NBA, look-off passes, can do it all. Where do you see him taking that leap and getting the credit he deserves? Talk a little bit about that.

RICK CARLISLE: Yeah, when you're a young player in this league and you're trying to move your team up the ladder, these kinds of meaningful games are extremely important, because what young teams find out eventually when they get into a playoff environment is that it's only about this possession, the next possession, what's going on whistle to whistle. How can we collectively do everything possible to put ourselves in a position to be successful at the end of the game, at the end of the series.

Games like Monday night are of great value for us. Then now, to be in the final four, facing off against a Milwaukee team that certainly is playing at an amazingly high level with two players that are going to go down as two of the all-time greats in the NBA, is a big task. It's a big task.

But Tyrese has been great. The things that he learns as this thing goes along, he immediately puts them into gear, into use.

A good example is the other night. The first half didn't go particularly well for us. They really went after him in the second quarter, trying to attack him. He's coming off bronchitis and could hardly breathe.

Halftime, we circled the wagons. He got some oxygen and some other stuff to try to get his energy back up. He threw one of the most amazing second halves out there that anyone could possibly imagine.

With a couple of days to recharge, the hope is that he'll be feeling even better for tomorrow. But I expect all four teams to be really juiced up for these games.

Q. To follow up on Milwaukee, Dame didn't play in that first matchup. I don't think Khris closed that game. I think he was on a more restrictive minutes count. What have you seen from them as you've looked at some film, however far you've gone back, with their whole team going into this?

RICK CARLISLE: Yeah, they're better. They're better. Lillard being out was a break that we caught on that particular night, on the one hand, that he wasn't out there. On the other hand, Giannis touched the ball 65 times in the game.

I don't know, where is the bargain there? It's like that.

Now Dame is healthy. Giannis is Giannis. Khris Middleton is another great player and an All-Star. If you look at his minutes trend, he's playing a few more minutes than he was earlier in the season, and he is finishing games now.

The challenges are many. So we'll have to be ready. We're trying to -- we're playing the role of a disruptor here against a lot of these great players. We have to be really good at trying to implement our game as opposed to allowing them to play theirs.

Q. You used the term "final four" a couple times in there. Does this have an NCAA Tournament-ish feel to this? And when you use the term "disruptor," do you feel like a tournament team that's come off a couple upsets coming into this?

RICK CARLISLE: Well, it's four teams that are playing for the Cup, so I'm not trying to get too much into acronyms or metaphors or anything like that. But this is the first In-Season Tournament, it's the first NBA Cup. The level of interest has been phenomenally high. We're coming in here with guns blazing. That's how we've got to play. That's how we've been approaching the entire season, and that will not change.