3 Reasons why Indiana Pacers lost in crushing fashion to Miami Heat

Following a crushing home loss to the lowly Portland Trail Blazers, the Indiana Pacers enjoyed two days of rest before heading to Miami to take on familiar foes in Jimmy Butler and the Heat, one of the premier teams in the East.

Naturally, following a crushing loss to an inferior team, the Pacers were expected to bounce back and perhaps get a big win on the road against a rival team before they tried to do it again on Saturday.

At the end of the first half, this very much seemed the case, with Indiana having a nine-point lead at halftime behind scorching-hot shooting, impressive defense (especially for the Pacers), and an otherworldly performance from Tyrese Haliburton, whom we will get to later.

With this performance in mind, the Pacers were expected to keep this momentum going in the second half and come away with a big win going into a day of rest, giving them some confidence to do it again in two days.

However, this was where the downfall started. Almost immediately, the league's highest-scoring third-quarter team started falling apart in said third quarter, not being able to hit a three-pointer and letting the Heat cut the lead to three going into the fourth.

If you thought the third quarter was bad, you hadn't seen anything yet, as Indiana produced one of the worst fourth quarters in recent memory, shooting terribly and allowing Miami to make 15 of 18 shots in the fourth en route to a 10-point victory despite Indiana being up by as much as 13 at an earlier point.

Indiana's play in the fourth quarter was so bad to the point that fans would have been better off diverting their eyes from the screen in order to not look directly at the terrible play in front of them, as the Pacers' late rally attempts were stopped, mainly due to missed free throws, and Miami came away with the 10-point victory despite losing Bam Adebayo after the first half.

This game has been the final straw for some Pacers fans, with a lot of fans demanding the team make a trade and chastising multiple members of the team, most notably coach Rick Carlisle for the questionable decisions he made down the stretch. We will get to those decisions in a minute, as I have taken three key reasons behind the Pacers loss and explained what led to Indiana losing in such a humiliating fashion to a rival team.

1. Missed free throws

This has been a topic I have covered quite a few times before, in wins and in losses. Despite being the league's best offensive team and showing it in their scoring numbers, the Pacers seemingly cannot make free throws, especially down the stretch.

It does not take much investigating to see evidence of this, as Indiana only made 21 of 32 free throws on the night at a percentage of 65.6% compared to the Miami Heat's 38 of 45 (84.4).

While it is true that Miami did have the better whistle, with Jimmy Butler alone getting to the line 20 times, more than any two Pacers combined, that does not excuse why Indiana missed so many of the opportunities they did get.

When the Pacers were missing free throws in the first half, it didn't seem like much of a deal, especially since they only missed three, going 12 for 15. However, this issue really exposed itself in the second half, as the Pacers went nine for 17, including five for nine in the fourth quarter, missing some momentum-crushing ones near the end of the game as Tyrese Haliburton tried to claw the team back into the game.

Missed free throws from Bruce Brown and Tyrese Haliburton in the final 30 seconds, which would have cut the lead to five, erased any hopes of a Pacers comeback, and pretty much ensured that Indiana would be walking out with a loss.

While the Pacers have been relatively middle of the pack this season in free throw percentage, ranking 13th in the league and shooting 78.7%, they have still had issues making them in certain games, and it has definitely cost them some easier victories.

On Thursday, their issues finally caught up to them, and they missed far too many, almost directly leading to a loss. Remember, Indiana missed exactly 11 free throws on the night and lost to Miami by 10 points.

2. Buddy Hield's misfortunes

This was just ugly. Prior to this game, I was of the belief that Buddy Hield replacing Bennedict Mathurin in the starting lineup would be a good move, as it would allow Hield to get more minutes alongside Tyrese Haliburton and for Mathurin to shine with the second unit and possibly make a run at Sixth Man of the Year.

However, that could not have been further from the truth on Thursday. While Mathurin was solid on the night, scoring 12 points on 5/7 shooting, Hield was downright atrocious. In just one night, one of the greatest shooters of all time turned ice cold and painful to watch as he missed shot after shot and dug Indiana's hole deeper in the fourth quarter.

Overall, Hield's 12 points came on putrid 5/16 shooting and a disgusting 2/11 from beyond the arc, with his only three-pointers coming at the beginning and end of the fourth quarter.

Hield was so bad, in fact, that you could say his fourth-quarter problems effectively cost Indiana the game. While missed free throws are not fun, they were certainly not the only reason why the Pacers lost.

Buddy Hield, however, may be the reason why they did, as almost every one of his 31 minutes on Thursday came with a negative connotation.

While Hield's defense was decent in the first half, it quickly sunk to low levels in the second half, with him not being able to guard anyone and committing unnecessary fouls, leading to him fouling out in the fourth quarter.

Hield's poor play shows in the advanced stats, with his plus/minus of -13 being the second-worst on the team behind Myles Turner. However, while Turner only played a bit under six minutes in the fourth quarter, Hield played the entire quarter up to when he fouled out with only nine seconds remaining.

3. Rick Carlisle's stubbornness

You may be asking that if Hield was so bad in the fourth quarter, why wasn't he subbed out? The answer to this is a tricky one, and for it, we have to know something about Rick Carlisle.

It is no secret that Carlisle favors veteran players over youngsters, which is why he has been so stingy with Jarace Walker's minutes so far. However, there is a line to draw between stingy with youngsters and downright stubborn.

In the fourth quarter, Hield played the most minutes alongside Haliburton despite playing far worse and almost single-handedly shot Indiana out of the game, taking seven threes and only making two of them.

Despite all of this, Rick Carlisle still kept him in the game, having multiple chances to take him out and refusing each time. With the Heat double-teaming Haliburton and scoring easily on back cuts, Jarace Walker could have easily been added to the defense lines to provide some playmaking and defensive help. He only saw nine seconds of playing time, though, as Hield stayed in the game until he fouled out.

This has led to a lot of Pacers fans criticizing Carlisle's decision to keep Hield in the game for so long, and for good reason. Without watching the game and just looking at the box score, it is still clear how much Hield hurt the team, especially down the stretch.

For Carlisle to keep him in for so long while only playing Bennedict Mathurin for six minutes, Bruce Brown for seven minutes, and Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard for a combined 18 seconds was simply absurd.

Pacers fans have usually been patient with Carlisle, as he has shown an ability to stay focused on the rebuild and has done wonders for Tyrese Haliburton's development. However, Thursday night's misfortunes have led to a large chunk of the fanbase wanting to hold Carlisle accountable for his errors, and for good reason.

There was no reason for Hield to play as much as he did while playing as poorly as he did, and Carlisle saw what was happening and did nothing, which ultimately led to Indiana coming out with another loss to drop their record dangerously close to .500 at 9-8.

With another Heat matchup in Miami coming up on Saturday, the Pacers may finish this Florida trip with an overall record of 9-9, not good for future playoff aspirations and most definitely not a great look going into their In-Season Tournament quarterfinal matchup against Boston on Monday.