It was theDecember 8th when he Indiana Pacerswinning at home against the Sacramento Kings, gave coach Rick Carlisle success number 999 in his illustrious career. As disastrous as this season was already at the time (the team’s 6-18 record), no one would have expected it that victory number 1000 would be so long in coming. In fact, from that game onwards the Pacers have ended a streak of 13 consecutive defeats, the longest in franchise historysinking to a 6-31 record to finish in last place in the Eastern Conference. For Carlisle, in fact it was an almost uninterrupted month of continuous postponements of the celebration for the round number, having to face heavy defeats such as the -18 suffered in Miami suffering 142 points as well as point-to-point defeats such as the one a few days ago against Orlando decided by a basket by Paolo Banchero. Even this night the Pacers failed to defend the 9-point lead they had gained against the Cleveland Cavaliersbeing recovered and beaten by a great Darius Garland (14 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter) in the final. The next opportunity for the coveted 1,000th victory will arrive on the night between Thursday 8th and Friday 9thexactly one month after the last success of the reigning NBA vice-champions, away at the Charlotte Hornets field.
