Rick Carlisle explains why he didn't call timeout at end of Pacers' Game 3 loss to Celtics

Trailing 112-111 with 7 seconds left, the ball was in Andrew Nembhard's hands heading up court off a defensive rebound with a chance to win and get the Pacers back in these Eastern Conference finals.

Indiana coach Rick Carlisle decided not to call timeout, and Nembhard had the ball poked away by Jrue Holiday, helping secure the Celtics a 114-111 Game 3 win and a 3-0 series stranglehold.

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Nembhard had a monster game with star point guard Tyrese Haliburton sidelined with a hamstring injury. He scored 32 points on 12-of-21 shooting, so rather than calling a timeout and drawing up a play for a game-winning shot, Carlisle opted to let the Pacers attack the Celtics in transition as has been his philosophy in such scenarios for most of the season.

"With eight or nine seconds left and you're in transition after a miss, I trust our players to be able to create a better shot than calling a timeout, having them set their defense and run our end-of-game stuff that on video they've shown their players," Carlisle said. "It's more of a play-basketball type situation. And we've done well this year trusting our players."

Carlisle was trending on X after the game, which usually isn't a good thing. It's been a rough series for Carlisle with criticism piling up. First in Game 1, Carlisle was criticized for not calling timeout late as the Pacers collapsed in the final seconds of an overtime defeat. And in Game 2's lopsided beatdown, it appeared the Pacers coach threw in the towel in the fourth quarter, resting starters and letting seldom-used reserves get extended minutes.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Rick Carlisle on why he didn't call timeout at end of Pacers' loss