Lloyd Pierce Says Ivica Zubac Has Fit ‘Seamlessly’ Into Pacers’ Core

Lloyd Pierce ran the Indiana Pacers' bench Friday night in their preseason finale against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle missed the game to attend an event for his daughter in Charlottesville, Virginia, The Indianapolis Star reported.

Milwaukee won 128-127 in overtime at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Indiana led 71-56 at halftime, and none of its starters played after the break.

Pierce has been Carlisle's lead assistant since 2021. Before that, he coached the Atlanta Hawks for two and a half seasons and went 63-120 before he was fired in March 2021. He spent 2007 to 2018 as an assistant with Cleveland, Golden State, Memphis, and Philadelphia, and he was on Gregg Popovich's Team USA staff at the Tokyo Olympics the summer he joined Indiana.

Pierce counts Andrew Nembhard, Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, and Aaron Nesmith as a group with a couple of years of chemistry. Nesmith sat out Friday with a hamstring injury.

"I think there's a level of patience that all of them have shown," Pierce said. "Pascal really had a great showing in the first half today, so it's kind of like his night. Ty is always going to be the guy that sets the table for everyone. And I think he and Zu have a great rapport already in the pick and roll, in the pitch game. We had a great flash and pitch to Zu, and Ty comes off and gets a jump shot. So there's some things that — some small nuances that are happening."

"But just that entire group, obviously we're missing Aaron," Pierce continued. "But those four guys, Drew, Ty, Pascal, and Aaron have had chemistry for a couple years, and Zu has kind of jumped into this seamlessly thus far. So good first half, good thing, a lot of good things to see, a lot of good things to clean up and teach and prepare for the season. But we always said, and [Rick Carlisle] says all the time, we've got high-character guys and highly competitive guys, and they let us coach them, coach those guys all the time. And they enjoy playing with each other as well, which makes it easier."

Siakam scored 24 points on 8-of-10 shooting, all of it in the first half. Haliburton had 17 points and 6 assists.

Ivica Zubac, acquired from the LA Clippers on Feb. 5, had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Haliburton said earlier this month he was already enjoying playing with Zubac.

Jay Huff, who joined Indiana in the 2025 offseason, played 13:49 and went 0-of-6 from 3-point range through regulation. Larry Nance Jr. went 2-of-3 for 4 points in 8:22.

Pierce will take every one of Huff's shots, and he will take them every game.

"Of the fives, he's right now the non-shooting five, and so we get different spacing when he's off the floor," Pierce explained. "There's some different challenges that come with that as well, but we'll take every shot that Jay had tonight, and we'll take them every game, right? And Larry will get the same, but we get different spacing, and it just kind of creates a different flow offensively. We have positional size and we have versatility when we start this up. And I think that's going to be something that probably will be to our benefit at times."

"Zu is a guy that you have to play to his strengths," Pierce added. "He's a great screener. He's a great roller. And then when he catches it in the pocket, he can make some really good decisions. He's not going to be on the perimeter as much as those other guys. And so it's a very different identity, very different pace, very different spacing when he's off the floor."

Over four preseason games, Huff did not play before the second half in any of them, according to Pacers On SI.

Nance served as the backup center against Atlanta and Oklahoma City after missing the opener but checked in after Huff on Friday.

The Bucks grabbed 18 offensive rebounds before overtime and outscored Indiana 23-6 on second-chance points in that span. Milwaukee also had 54 points in the paint through regulation.

Sunday is an off day, and the staff has already started preparing for New Orleans.

"Obviously health is the most important thing, and that was the win of tonight," Pierce said. "We came out of here pretty much unscathed. We'll have a light day tomorrow, I believe. I'm not sure if we're going to do anything as a team or if we're just coming in and getting what we need. Sunday is going to be off, and then the prep for New Orleans has already begun."

"As a staff, we know what we're working on, what we're going to be looking for," Pierce noted. "This is the one opportunity in the season where you get to almost treat it like a playoff prep, and you get four or five days where you're talking about a lot of stuff, going through film and breaking it down and actually practicing on the sets. After that, it's game every other day, so it's a little bit different."

Indiana went 1-3 in the preseason, with overtime losses in its last two games.

Besides Nesmith, the Pacers were without T.J. McConnell, Jarace Walker, and the injured Johnny Furphy on Friday.

Tip-off at New Orleans on Oct. 21 is 8 p.m. ET.

The Pacers then host the Dallas Mavericks on Friday, Oct. 23, play at Brooklyn on Sunday, Oct. 25, and visit Milwaukee on Monday, Oct. 26.