Rick Carlisle Shares His Thoughts on What Led to the Pacers’ Loss Against the Nuggets

The Indiana Pacers have bounced back strongly after a shaky start to the 2024-25 season. Heading into their Monday night matchup against the Denver Nuggets, they had won 16 of their first 21 games this calendar year, placing them among the top four teams in the Western Conference. However, they faced a reality check against the Nuggets, as Nikola Jokic delivered a standout performance, leading to a 125-116 loss for the Pacers.

It was hard to determine exactly what went wrong for the Pacers on Monday night. Playing on the second night of a back-to-back certainly posed challenges, making it tougher for Indiana to keep pace with a well-rested Nuggets team eager to bounce back after a blowout loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The regular season is a long journey filled with valuable lessons, and after the loss to the Nuggets, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle could only reflect on the team’s shortcomings to ensure they don’t repeat past mistakes.

“We had 18 turnovers, got out-rebounded, and had a tough night shooting. And I haven’t even addressed our defense yet,” Carlisle said, according to Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star.

In an 82-game season, every team will experience ups and downs, and unfortunately for the Pacers, this game didn’t go as planned. They were clearly outplayed by the Nuggets on both ends of the floor.

“Just a rough night,” Carlisle added, per Tony East of Sports Illustrated.