Pacers Coach Reveals Why Indiana Called a Timeout Down 20 With 1.8 Seconds Left

The Indiana Pacers called a timeout with 1.8 seconds left Friday night at Kaseya Center, trailing the Miami Heat 145-125. Braden Smith missed a 27-foot 3-pointer out of it at the buzzer.

The game was the first of Indiana's four Group B games in the Emirates NBA Cup. Group games count in the regular-season standings, and under the tournament format, point differential is the first tiebreaker after head-to-head results among tied teams.

Lloyd Pierce coached Indiana with Rick Carlisle away from the team. The lead assistant was on the Pacers' bench in 2023, when Indiana reached the final in the tournament's first year and lost to the Los Angeles Lakers 123-109. Nothing about that run came easy for him.

"Always in cup play we see weird stuff," Pierce said. "We saw Minnesota tonight shooting threes with a couple seconds to go by 26. We saw us call a timeout with 1.8. We all get why. We understand why. It's the spirit of competition, right? Like, we understand the parameters for the Friday night games."

"And I probably think they kept their guys in a minute or two longer to try and get the score going," Pierce continued. "You could hear them saying, 'Keep scoring.' We were saying, 'Keep scoring.' It's not offensive. That's how it's going to be played out."

Minnesota beat the LA Clippers 127-101 in its Cup opener Friday. In the other Group B game, the Philadelphia 76ers beat the New York Knicks 98-93.

One game in, Pierce does not consider Indiana out of the group.

"Our division is tough," Pierce explained. "I don't know who won the Philly-New York game, but someone lost, right? And so we still have a chance, and it's going to come down to the point differential. So we understand it. They understand it. In other games, maybe it's a little different. But in this game, we understand the parameters and the rules. We went over and explained it to our guys yesterday."

Miami leads Group B at 1-0 with a plus-20 point differential. Philadelphia is 1-0 at plus-5. New York is 0-1 at minus-5, Indiana is 0-1 at minus-20, and the Cleveland Cavaliers have not played a group game.

Indiana's next Cup game is Nov. 13 at home against the Knicks, with tip-off at 7 p.m. ET. The Pacers play at Cleveland on Nov. 20 at 7:30 p.m. ET and close group play Nov. 27 at home against Philadelphia, also at 7:30 p.m. ET.

There is no Pacers Cup game on Nov. 6.

Each team plays four group games. The six group winners advance to the quarterfinals Dec. 4-5, along with one wild card from each conference. Teams that miss the knockout round get two regular-season non-Cup games added between Dec. 6 and Dec. 10.

Quarterfinals and semifinals are played in NBA team markets this season. The championship game moves from Las Vegas to Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Dec. 11, and it does not count in the regular-season standings.

Indiana led 42-36 after one quarter and by as many as eight in the second. Miami outscored the Pacers 109-83 the rest of the way and led by 25 in the fourth.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bam Adebayo, Davion Mitchell, and Andrew Wiggins were on the floor for Miami until the final 1:54, when the Heat led 138-118. Each team scored seven points after the substitutions.

The Pacers host the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, with tip-off at 5 p.m. ET. Brooklyn is 0-5.