Indiana Pacers Are Still Hunting, and Somebody’s Getting Eaten

When we buy a ticket to attend a concert or a sporting event or a movie or anything else performance-related, we’re looking for a few things.

We want to witness some skill, first and foremost. Some virtuosity, if you will. The guitarist should thrill with their technical prowess. Adele should hit those notes only she can hit. Steph Curry should look like every jumper inside 50 feet will be nothing but net. Tom Cruise should do a few hair-raising stunts, utter a few classic lines and give us that Cruise smile.

Along with the virtuosity, we want to feel like we’re getting every ounce of effort from the performer(s). Maybe you like Bruce Springsteen’s music, maybe you don’t. But it’s impossible to deny his commitment from the moment he hits the stage until the encore’s final notes fade away.

Nobody ever leaves a Stanley Cup playoff game thinking anybody mailed it in. In the 2010 Western Conference finals, Duncan Keith lost seven teeth when a second-period clearing attempt drilled him squarely in the mouth. Was he out for the rest of the playoffs? Nah, just six minutes. He missed only three shifts.

These are examples when you know you’re witnessing total devotion to the task at hand. It’s a priceless feeling.

This is where the Indiana Pacers live — and it has been a treat to visit them for two hours every other day during this postseason.

Now, we don’t know whether they’re capable of beating the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals and claiming the franchise’s first title since they jumped from the ABA to the NBA in 1976. Heck, despite a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference finals, there are no guarantees Indiana can finish the Knicks.

But what we can declare with 100% certainty: The Pacers are going to compete like they’re willing to sacrifice their teeth, bones, first-borns and anything else they hold dear.

Head coach Rick Carlisle has the audacity to go 10 or 11 deep with his rotation, which enables each guy to play with a full gas tank. Remember when point guard Tyrese Haliburton piled up 20 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in the first half of Tuesday’s Game 4? He did all that in just 18 minutes, 5 seconds because Carlisle had no problem trusting backup T.J. McConnell to run things for a while.

Carlisle’s policies didn’t change in the second half when things got hectic. While the Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns played 23:04 of a possible 24 second-half minutes, and Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges played 19:55, nobody on the Pacers played more than Haliburton’s 19:16. Heck, Carlisle felt so calm that Haliburton played just 7:36 in the fourth quarter.

There’s a level of trust and passion and devotion from this team that, in the end, is what we want out of life.

The Pacers started building this foundation last year, but it went to another level in August when nearly the entire team showed up at Pascal Siakam’s residence in Orlando for an unofficial minicamp.

There’s a five-minute video making the social media rounds that shows everything you need to know:

The whole thing is worth your time, but the tone is set at the beginning when a sweat-drenched Siakam, recovering at midcourt, talks to his mates. Remember, this is a guy who won a championship alongside Kawhi Leonard in Toronto.

“We can’t go into (the season) thinking, ‘Oh, we did so well last year. We got to the Eastern Conference finals. We’re going to be back at it.’ It doesn’t work like that. Have the mindset that, from the beginning, whatever we did last year? We gotta do that (bleep) triple to even get to where we was at last year. So just continue to (bleeping) build on that (bleep). And don’t go in the mindset that comfortable, like, oh, we did something. We didn’t do (bleep).”

The cameraman hears another voice and swings toward Andrew Nembhard.

“We still hunting.”

Siakam pounces on that idea.

“You know what I’m saying? We still gotta hunt. We still gotta go out there and (bleeping) be the dogs that we are. Every single night, run fast. Play fast. Do what we do. Can’t be comfortable. Like, that’s what kills you.”

Amen. Take it to the limit. Take us, the invested public, on the ride with you. Win, lose or draw, we can’t ask for anything more.