Indiana with a win last night of Oclallo in the city one sixteen one oh seven, forty nine points from their bench, twenty two coming in the second quarter. They have been so impressive throughout the playoffs yet to trail, and a team that just keeps proving people wrong. Nine times they have been the underdog in the playoffs and they have won it. No more people should be doubting the Indiana Pacers. I know my friend Chris Denari doesn't
doubt him. He's been doing, you know, hall of fame work for the Pacers for the last nineteen years as their TV play by play voice. And he joins us here on this Thursday morning. How are you, my friend? How's your family?
Hey? Doing great? Everybody's good. Three grandkids now, wow, three grandsons. One that lives here about ten minutes away. I seem in fact, he'll be over here in a few hours for the day. So yeah, a lot of fun right now.
That's great. Good job, Chris. I'm happy for you. I'm happy than you for your basketball team too. I was kind of a descending voice here, at least in Detroit, in the state of Michigan. I picked Indiana before the playoffs began to get to the East. Of course, I also picked Denver, so I was on there, but I did pick your Pacers. Why do you think they've had so much success in the playoffs.
Well, I think what they learned about themselves last year going to the Eastern Conference finals brought back virtually the same team as back and I just think that they have a great belief in what they've built. Rick Carlisle a Hall of Fame coach, and this is a group that I think has selfless leaders. And I say that you've got a couple of guys who have been All Stars Siakam three times, Haliburton twice, but they understand that for this team to win, they've got to do it collectively,
and I think that's been a great strength. I think the other thing, Matt, is they've been much better defensively this year than they were a year ago. Last year, it always felt like they had to outscore teams to win. This year, they can win in different ways. And then the other thing is they've been really good in the clutch.
I mean in the playoffs. They're nine to one now in clutch time, and I think dating back to the end of the regular season, They're like, they've won eighteen of twenty games when it gets to clutch time, so they feel very confident in what they can do. If they are in a close game late, they feel like they can win it, and that's what they did last night.
What's amazed you most about those clutch moments, especially for Tyre's helburn against Milwaukee, against Cleveland, against New York and so far he's done it against Okac as well. What's impressed you most and what do you think prepared him most for those moments?
Well, I think he just has a great belief in his abilities and you know, he's he's got a little bit of Reggie Miller at him. There's no question in the way that he plays with a bravado on the floor, and I just think he has a lot of confidence. And you know, when the trade was made, you know, three years ago, basically the Pacers handed him the keys and said, hey, you're our guy. You're going to be our leader, and they've built the roster around him. So
he's he's just he's a super young man. He's meant a lot to this franchise and it's great to see him have all the success he's having.
It just blows my mind that he was voted. I know it's very minimal, and who really cares. It's fourteen votes for crying out loud, and I suppose somebody had to answer the question as most overrated. I don't know where that stems from. I've always liked him. I liked him a lot at Iowa Stata, But I've always liked him. What do you think his strongest characteristic is that helps this team win well?
I think, and sometimes it's too a fault is that he is a connector and he wants to get everybody involved. And there's sort of a give and take, you know, a little bit with him because you want to see him be a little bit more aggressive. And I think that's what we saw last night. Early I thought he was a lot more aggressive looking for his own but he's a guy that wants to get everybody involved. And again, the Pacers are better when they have everybody involved. But
at the same point, he is such a talent. He can shoot the ball, he can drive, he can score. That's one of the things that when this team is successful, it's usually because Tyres is successful with the regular season. In the playoffs, Matt when he scores twenty or more points. The Pacers are thirty three and four, so it's essential that he also looks for his own while he's also finding his teammates.
I'm standing play by play voice for the Indiana Pacers, Kristin Erry, joining us here on Exus and Bros. Throughout the Great State of Michigan Indiana started ten and fifteen. You were on the call for every one of those games ten and fifteen. Then they turned it around, and the only team with a better record after that, I believe was Oklahoma City. What was the difference do you think?
Well, I think a couple of things. I do think they got better defensively, but they also got healthy. If you look back through those first twenty five games, Andrew Nemhard missed probably thirteen or fourteen. Aaron Nesmith got hurt very early in November and missed thirty plus games with a significant ankle injury, and a guy named Ben Shephard, who also is a key reserve and a wing player, he was out, and so you had three of your wing players out, probably your three best defenders, and that
really hurt the Pacers. And once they got those guys back, then it all seemed to gel. Really, You're right. They were ten and fifteen. They had an awful loss to Charlotte here at home, where they scored like eighty three points, and they didn't play again until Friday, and they got back into the practice facility and Rick Carlile and has stabbed, did some tinkering and doing some things, and from that
point on they were a different team. So there's no question question that they battled through the adversity early in the year, and I think they lean on that a little bit. You know, with the win last night, they've not lost back to back games in thirty eight games. I mean, you've got to go all the way back to mid March the last time they lost back to back games. So I think they used the adversity that they had early in the season really to fuel them as the season wore on.
Yeah, it's amazing. I think it's a March tenth somewhere around there last time they've lost back to back games. You mentioned Rick Carlisle, and look, he's got a championship. He's a phenomenal coach, there's no question about it. I called a lot of Pistons games and have known you for a long time called Pistons games while he was the head coach here in Detroit. So you've called games with him as a coach, not just at Indiana but
in the NBA for a long long time. With nineteen years under your belt, how do you think he has gotten better as a coach and how much of his experience in this moment has mattered to get give his teammate two to one lead over what many people thought to be the best team in basketball, atleast during the regular season.
Yeah, I think you know, all coaches change, and you look at how he's changed. I mean, think back to those Pistons days, those couple of years he was in Detroit, you know, with Billups and those guys. He called every play right. Every play was a set that Rick Carlisle called. Then he goes to Dallas and he realized with Jason Kidd, look I probably don't need to do that. And when they made the trade for Tyrese Halliburton, he realized, this is a guy we got to let have the ball
and I've got to trust that he'll make decisions. And they've gone really to a read and react offense. I sort of says it's like the motion offense because there are rules, you know, you know, cutting and screening and those types of things, and there are nuances that they put in. And I think they did a good job last night because Tyree's had really been shut down in the first two games by this excellent Oklahoma City offense
or defense. And we saw the Pacers on offense do some different things last night that created opportunities for Halliburton. And so I just think, you know, Rick, as every coach does, you have to evolve. The game is much different today. It's a way more athletic game. It's a way more wide open game than it was back in the early two thousands. And you know, Rick has experienced both as a player and as a coach. In the NBA Finals, he said this was his this is his
sixth NBA Finals. He was an assistant to Larry Bird with the Pacers back in two thousand, won a title of course in Dallas, and then was a part of Boston championship teams when he played for the Celtics. So I think that resonates even though you know he's my age, he's sixty five years old, that still resonates with players because he has the experience of having been there.
Didn't know you're sixty five. You don't look sixty five.
Well I'm sixty four. I'm sixty four, but soon to be sixty five.
It is a different atmosphere in the NBA Finals, But it's also different for Indiana. Can you put into context and look, you've done it all, You've done, the Colts, you've done, Butler, you're doing Pacers for nineteen years. You can appreciate as much as anybody what it's like for basketball in that state. OKC is loud, there are buildings that are always going to be allowed. It's something special in Indiana. Why is that?
Well, I think there's a great level of basketball. I learned that when I moved here. My dad grew up in Indianapolis and was a longtime high school coach in southwestern Ohio, and he really wanted our family to experience high school basketball in Indiana, and so he was fortunate enough to get a job all those years ago, and I had a great chance to play for him at Westfield, which is a suburb just north of Indianapolis. And so I learned at a very early age just how important
basketball was to the state. And Matt I can't tell you what it's like around here right now. I mean, it is incredible. Everywhere you go, people are talking Pacers. They have their hats on their jerseys, on their T shirts. I go to the hardware store to pick up something, and all they want to do is talk to me about the Pacers. It is a really, really cool time. And you understand, as we all do in sports, is just how powerful and impactful sports can be in a community.
And we're definitely feeling that right now.
How vital is game four? Knowing that it's okay, se wins it to tie the series, it's best two out of three, and you still got to go to Oklahoma City for at least two of those games. Even though you won game one, it was a thrilling way to win it, but you'd still have to win two out of three there. And Okay, see how vital is is this weekend for you?
Well, I think it is no question tomorrow and night in its situation, it's the only time in the series that there's just a day off between games, and so we'll see how that impacts, you know, both teams tomorrow. I think I thought Oklahoma City last night looked a little gassed.
In the fourth quarter.
I thought Rick did a really good job in utilizing the bench. The bench was really good last night, McConnell and Topping and Benedict Matherin. So no, I think it's very important. I mean, Oklahoma City's really good, as we all know, and you want to maintain home court advantage. So yeah, tomorrow night's huge.
I think I read somewhere that Oklahoma City, when going into the fourth quarter, is now sixty one and two. The two losses are to the Pacers in the playoffs. Yeah, and they were up five going into the fourth last night and you guys dominated that fourth quarter thirty two to eighteen. I want your opinion on this in general,
not not Pacers, but the league in general. Where do you think it's at, how healthy do you think it is, and what might be a concern or two about the NBA in general for you, I'm where it's headed.
Well, well, I'm a big fan of the way the game is played. I mean, some people will argue there's too many threes, you know, I think these two teams, I think these two teams are teams that people really want to watch because do they shoot the three? Yes, But It's not an overabundance of them. I just think that that you're going to have a changing of the guard of new players coming to the forefront, because we know Steph Curry and Lebron and those guys who are
still good but they're aging out. I love the athleticism, I love the open nature of it. I think it's a really good game. You know, I think people have to learn about some of these new players. I mean, Jalen Williams is an outstanding young talent at Oklahoma City. He played at Santa Clara. You know, many people weren't watching Santa Clara in college basketball, So I think it's going to be an interesting time. I do think NBC coming in next year with so many more games that
are on network television, will be good. But I like it. I mean, I love the wide open style of play and enjoy the athleticism that the game brings.
Yeah, I agree with you, and trying to learn some of these new we were talking about earlier in our show before you came on, Benedict Mathrin. And here's a guy who was I mean, he played at Arizona, Okay, he was a sixth overall pick. He's a first round choice and coming off the bench. I mean, maybe people are just not paying as close attention as they need to with the bench players as they should be. But we're hoping that they're getting more educated as they watch.
Last question for him, Miles Turner. I think has been really good. I like him. I think he kind of almost epitomizes what the NBA is becoming. He's three point shooting has steadily gotten better. He's going to be a free agent. Do you think he fits in the long term plans of Indiana?
Absolutely? I mean ten years here, I've said this, Matt. I think with all this said and done, and I hope he's a pacer for his entire career. I think he will be one of the most beloved pacers in the history of this franchise. He's meant that much to this team. He's great off the floor, He's a wonderful young man. I think ownership knows what they have right now and they're going to do whatever it takes to bring him back.
We're glad you're able to join us.
Man.
We appreciate the insight. You are a fantastic play by play man and you're a really good friend. Congratulations on the family growing, the career continuing, and good luck to the pacers the rest of the way. Thanks Kristin, I appreciate your time.
Buddy, Hey, thanks so much. Man, great to visit with you.