After last night, the Indiana Pacers dropped to 0-3 since Paskal Siakam entered the lineup. Granted, star point guard Tyrese Haliburton hasn’t played in two of the three games, and he won’t play for at least the next two games as he recovers from a hamstring injury.
Haliburton’s injury has thrusted Siakam into the primary offensive player role. When the trade was made everyone knew he’d carry a large part of the role offensively, but Haliburton was going to be the main guy.
That leads us to last night’s loss to the defending champion Denver Nuggets.
The Pacers lost 114-109, despite outscoring the Nuggets in every quarter except the third quarter. The Pacers were outscored 39-19 in that devastatingly bad third quarter.
Two major occurrences took place in the third quarter that led to the abysmal 12-minute performance.
The first thing that happened was head coach Rick Carlisle got tossed for arguing a non-call when Siakam got assaulted on a layup by a Denver defender.
Sometimes, coaches lose their cool, and they get tossed. It happens to the best of coaches. That wasn’t why the Pacers struggled mightily in the third quarter. Could it have played a role in the struggles? Sure, but the main reason for the lack of offensive production has to do with the Pacers new star.
Siakam only took one shot in the third quarter.
That’s unacceptable. Any coach from elementary school to the NBA, knows that your best player has to touch the ball, and that simply didn’t happen for Siakam.
There were multiple possessions where he never even touched the basketball.
If Carlisle had still been on the sideline, then maybe he gets more touches. That can’t be the excuse though.
Everyone on that coaching staff knows the offensive firepower Siakam brings to the table. Everyone on that staff knew he was the best offensive player that had available last night.
It’s unacceptable, and when you have an opportunity to win a game when Haliburton is out mistakes like that from the coaching staff can’t happen.
The Pacers coaching staff has to be better.
