Rick Carlisle's poise under pressure has enabled Indiana Pacers to dominant with their back has been against the ball.
The Indiana Pacers have turned coming back from overwhelming deficits into an art form. They reached the NBA Finals by erasing margins that should've sent them back to the drawing board and have already made history in the championship round.
Head coach Rick Carlisle only needed three sentences to reveal the exact mentality that's enabled the Pacers to achieve the unthinkable.
Indiana has won 13 of its 17 postseason games in 2025, thus suggesting a degree of dominance in its performances. Eight of its past 10 wins have been by single digits, however, with many requiring the Pacers to erase massive deficits.
Carlisle told Marc J. Spears of Andscape that he's leaned on his experience and perspective to ensure that his team remains poised and committed through all of the highs and lows of the postseason.
“I’ve been through too much of this over the years. We’ve just got to be very much present in the moment and know what this is all about. This is all about keeping poise and at the same time having a high level of aggression.”
If only one quote can properly explain how the Pacers have done the unthinkable during the 2025 NBA Playoffs, this would be it.
Rick Carlisle isn't allowing the Pacers to fall victim to the highs and lows
Indiana's regular-season ventures certainly helped prepare them for a unique postseason experience. 40 of their games were decided by fewer than 10 points, another eight were decided by a one-possession margin, and six went to overtime.
The difference between Carlisle's Pacers and other teams who may have had similar experiences, however, is that their emotions aren't tied to the ebbs and flows of the games they play.
Indiana is remarkably well-balanced, both on the court and in their minds and emotional states. They seem to play with just as much poise when down by 20 points as they do when they lead by the same figure, which has spurned one of the greatest displays of clutch success in NBA history.
Thus far, the Pacers have completed four different comebacks from at least 17 points down during the 2025 NBA Playoffs—and somehow topped those efforts in Game 1 of the Finals.
Indiana tied Oklahoma City at 10-10 with 7:07 remaining in the first quarter, but didn't claim its first lead until the final 0.3 seconds of the fourth. It went on to win with the very lead Tyrese Haliburton gave it, 111-110, thus claiming the most unlikely of 1-0 series advantages.
The Pacers became the first team in 122 tries to successfully come back from at least seven points down in the final 3:00 of the fourth quarter of the NBA Finals during the 28-year play-by-play era.
Winning three more games and becoming champions will be easier said than done, but if any coach can lead the charge, it's Carlisle. He's already an NBA champion, two-time NBA Finalist, and five-time Conference Finalist with more than 2,000 games of head coaching experience between the regular season and playoffs.
As though it wasn't enough to coach the 2011 Dallas Mavericks to one of the most unlikely titles in NBA history, Carlisle is three wins away from running it back with that same poise under pressure.