The Indiana Pacers dropped the Orlando Magic 94-90 on Wednesday night. It was a back-and-forth game, but in the end, Indiana couldn’t make the big play to come away with the win.

The loss dropped Indiana to a 5-6 record on the new season, a disappointing start to the year for them. There wasn’t much consistency from the Pacers every game and it hurt them on the court.

After the game, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle discussed a few of the biggest problems for Indiana against the Magic.

“It was a disjointed game offensively for both teams because the intensity and physicality on defense was so high. So it becomes a game of mistakes and we didn’t do a very good job.”

The Pacers were outscored by eight points in the fourth quarter as their offense stalled. Carlisle pointed that out and how his lack of physics hurt him when it mattered most.

“The physicality level of the game picked up even more in the fourth quarter,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “The first three or four minutes hurt us. We had to do a much better job of rebounding the ball and avoiding crowding on offense. We probably had to overcome it more. Find other ways to get it into the paint rather than trying to do it all. dribbling We did it from a lot of different positions and we made it hard on ourselves.”

One of the bigger problems for Indiana has been their defense in the paint. Orlando outscored the Pacers 40-32 in the paint, again highlighting Indiana’s struggles.

Star guard Tyrese Haliburton scored just nine points in the loss, continuing a troubled start to the year for himself. When Haliburton has off nights, it’s very difficult for the Pacers to develop any sense of competitiveness on the court.

Forward Pascal Siakam led the way for Indiana, scoring 25 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Bennedict Mathurin had 23 points and 12 rebounds, continuing his strong performance of late.

But for the Pacers, they will need more consistency if they want to be taken seriously in the Eastern Conference. Something has to change or it could quickly become a lost season for them.

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