Rick Carlisle said the Indiana Pacers did “some soul-searching” and “drew a line in the sand” before beating the Memphis Grizzlies 107-103 on Wednesday night to snap a five-game losing streak.
“We have not been playing up to a consistent level of intensity, force, collective will,” Carlisle said.
Indiana (3-6) got Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith back in the lineup. In Monday’s 108-104 loss to Atlanta, the Pacers used only six players.
Carlisle said that Atlanta group “gave us a spark and it was meaningful.” Against Memphis, he said, “we just, you know, drew a line in the sand and just decided we were not going to go away.”
Nesmith’s corner 3-pointer sealed it after Ty Jerome’s floater cut Indiana’s lead to 104-103 with 28.2 seconds left.
“These games are all going to be tight,” Carlisle said. “They’re all going to be possession type games.”
The Pacers trailed by eight late in the third quarter before Nembhard, who finished with 22 points, went on what Carlisle called “an amazing run” to make it a two-point game.
“The defense in the fourth was terrific,” Carlisle said.
Memphis led 91-86 with 6:19 left before Indiana scored eight straight points, capped by two breakaway dunks from Obi Toppin. Carlisle said Nesmith and Siakam were on the bench for that stretch.
“Aaron and Pascal are two of our main finishers, and that allowed them to be fresh coming into the last three and a half minutes,” he said.
Jerome scored 23 on 10-of-20 shooting but went 2 of 10 from 3-point range. Carlisle credited Nesmith and Larry Nance Jr. for defending “from 35 feet away from the basket” and contesting “all the awkward wrong foot shots.”
“He’s a very unique player, and he’s playing at extremely high level,” Carlisle said of Jerome.
Memphis shot 12 of 44 from deep and committed 19 turnovers, 12 in the first half. Indiana turned the first-half giveaways into 16 points.
“Tonight we were just in better position initially on possessions, and when we had to rotate, we were more in the correct positions than we have been in recent games,” Carlisle said.
“The basketball gods are a little friendlier to you, you know, when you’re doing the little dirty things that really make the difference in the margins.”
Carlisle singled out the role players. Jarace Walker had eight rebounds in 17 minutes. “Walker played a great fourth quarter,” Carlisle said. “He came up with some rebounds in traffic.”
Quenton Jackson scored 13 points, made 3 of 5 from deep and was plus-15. Carlisle said he “played with a lot of courage.”
Braden Smith had 10 points and five assists. “Braden Smith gave us good minutes again and gave us another playmaker,” Carlisle said.
Even Jalen Slawson’s six minutes mattered. Carlisle called them “pretty important in the third quarter.”
Siakam scored 20 on 8-of-13 shooting. “Pascal really helped us finish the game,” Carlisle said.
“It took everybody,” he said. “There was no two ways about that.”
Indiana faces Denver in Mexico City on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET.
