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Jamal Collier, ESPN
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner still had mixed emotions in the afterglow of the Eastern Conference finals.
Turner, who was drafted out of Indiana in 2015 and is the team's longest-tenured player, called this season an incredible journey. After missing the playoffs the previous three seasons, the Pacers won their first playoff series in more than a decade and reached the conference finals for the first time since 2014.
But the fact that the Pacers had led in the fourth quarter in three of their four losses to the Boston Celtics still hurt when players left the arena Monday night after losing Game 4, 105-102, to shut out Boston in the series.
“It's still very fresh for all of us,” Turner said. “It's really frustrating to miss out on an opportunity to win so many games.”
Indiana played its final two games without star guard Tyrese Haliburton, who missed the game with a left hamstring injury, but the Pacers didn't use his absence as an excuse, especially since they knew they had a chance to win multiple games in the series.
According to ESPN Stats & Information research, the Pacers had at least a 90% chance of winning the fourth quarter in Games 1, 3 and 4. The Pacers lost all three games.
In Game 1, they had the ball and were leading 117-114 with nine seconds left. In Game 3, they were leading 109-101 at home with 2:25 left. And on Monday in Game 4, they were leading 98-90 with 5:40 left but couldn't score in the final 3:30.
“For a young team like us, this experience in the playoffs is like no other,” said Pacers guard Andrew Nembard, who scored a team-high 24 points. “There were a lot of firsts. There were a lot of little things we wanted to do better and we learned how the game goes and what a series feels like.”
Sure, the Pacers are loaded with players making their first playoff appearance, including Nembard, Haliburton and Aaron Nesmith, but veteran Pacers forward Pascal Siakam, who won a championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, stressed that there's no guarantee Indiana will get that chance again.
“Yeah, we'll learn from it and I can only say it will happen, but it's not guaranteed,” Siakam said. “I know how hard it is to get to this point. It's disappointing. The other team took advantage of all of our mistakes, so kudos to them. They did a great job.”
“But for us, it was a tough situation with a heartbreaking loss. We're certainly encouraged by it and want to put in the right amount of effort to get better, because if we want to compete with those teams, we need to get better. And understand that it doesn't matter how well we played, we didn't get it done.”
Siakam, who was traded to Indiana midseason and is a free agent this summer, declined to discuss his future but repeatedly said he was grateful for the support he felt during his time in the city.
“It's a blessing,” Siakam said. “I'm really grateful for everything. It means a lot where I come from.”
The Pacers reached the finals of the midseason tournament in early December and established themselves as one of the league's breakout teams, winning 47 games and earning the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference, with Haliburton being named an All-Star starter and a selection to the All-NBA Third Team.
Indiana has defeated higher-seeded teams in this playoff series, winning two series in total: the Pacers defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round and the New York Knicks in the conference semifinals.
The Pacers were fortunate enough to have some injuries along the way, playing without Giannis Antetokounmpo against Milwaukee, while the Knicks were without Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart all with injuries during their second-round series.
Then, in the conference finals, the Pacers also had to deal with injuries when Haliburton aggravated a left hamstring injury in Game 2 and missed the remainder of the series. Through the first 15 playoff games, Haliburton averaged 18.7 points and 8.2 assists.
“Ty never wavered,” Turner said. “No matter what the team threw at him, he found a way.”
In the end, Indiana wasn't strong enough to overcome the loss of its star player, but the Pacers' players' struggles with their emotions over the end of their season must have underscored how much they've grown in a short amount of time.
“We've grown as teammates and as a whole team culture this past year,” Pacers forward Obi Toppin said. “I felt like everybody gave everything they could for this organization every day. Obviously, the season didn't end the way we wanted it to, but there were a lot of good things that came out of this season and I don't want to miss that.”
“It was a big year for the Pacers and the whole team, so I don't want to miss that.”
