INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner was still filled with mixed emotions after the Eastern Conference finals.
On the one hand, Turner, the team's longest-tenured player, having been drafted by Indiana in 2015, called this season an incredible journey. After missing the playoffs the past 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 fourth-quarter leads in three of their four losses to the Boston Celtics still stung when the players left the arena Monday night after losing Game 4 105-102 to complete a sweep. in the Boston series.
“It's still very fresh for all of us,” Turner said. “It's very frustrating to have all these games at your fingertips and let them slip away.”
Indiana played the last two games without star guard Tyrese Haliburton, who was sidelined with a left hamstring injury, but the Pacers didn't use his absence as an excuse. Especially since the Pacers knew they had a chance to win multiple games in the series.
The Pacers had at least a 90% chance of winning in the fourth quarter of Games 1, 3 and 4, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. They lost all three games.
They were up 117-114 with the ball with 9 seconds left in Game 1. They were up 109-101 with 2:25 seconds left at home in Game 3. And again in Monday's Game 4, they were up 98-90 with 5: There were 40 left but they failed to score in the last 3:30.
“For a young team like us, this playoff experience is second to none,” said Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard, who finished with a team-high 24 points. “A lot of our first times. A lot of little things that maybe we wanted to do better and we learned what these games are like and what it feels like to be in a series.”
Yes, the Pacers had a roster full of players making their first playoff run, like Nembhard, Haliburton and Aaron Nesmith. But veteran Pacers forward Pascal Siakam, who won a championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, stressed that it's not certain Indiana will get this opportunity again.
“I can tell you yes, we're going to learn from it and it's going to happen, but it's not guaranteed,” Siakam said. “I know how difficult it is to get to this point. It's unfortunate. You want to give credit to the other team because they took advantage of every mistake we made. They did well.
“But for us, it's been tough, like heartbreaking loss after heartbreaking loss. Yeah, this will cheer you up and you hope you put in the right amount of work to keep getting better. Because we need to be a lot better if you want to compete with those teams. And understand that it doesn't matter how well we played, we didn't achieve it.”
Siakam, who will be a free agent this summer after coming to Indiana in a midseason trade, declined to discuss his future but reiterated several times that he was grateful to feel supported during his time in Indiana.
“It's been a blessing,” Siakam said. “I'm really grateful for everything. Coming from where I come from, it means a lot.”
The Pacers established themselves as one of the league's breakout teams by reaching the season tournament finals in early December. They racked up 47 wins and earned the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference, while Haliburton was named an All-Star starter and was named third-team All-NBA.
Indiana earned two series wins during this playoff run by defeating a higher seed. The Pacers beat the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round and the New York Knicks in the conference semifinals.
The Pacers benefited from some injury luck along the way, facing Milwaukee without Giannis Antetokounmpo, while the Knicks saw Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart get hurt during the second-round series.
Then, in the conference finals, the Pacers had to deal with injuries of their own when Haliburton aggravated a left hamstring injury in Game 2 that kept him out the rest of the series. In his first 15 playoff games, Haliburton averaged 18.7 points and 8.2 assists.
“Ty never got nervous, man,” Turner said. “Whatever teams threw at him, he found a way.”
In the end, Indiana didn't have enough to overcome the loss of its star player. However, as Pacers players struggled with their emotions during the season finale, they were sure to emphasize how far they had come in a short period of time.
“This whole year we grew as teammates, we grew as a culture,” Pacers forward Obi Toppin said. “I felt like everyone put in everything they could for this organization every day. Obviously, the season didn't end the way we wanted it to, but there's a lot of good things that came out of this season. And we don't want to overlook that.
“It was a great year for the Pacers and the entire organization, so we don't want to overlook it.”
