Carlisle: Pacers became too stagnant in Game 4 loss to Thunder

Rick Carlisle believes the Indiana Pacers allowed their offense to slow to a crawl in the second half of their 111-104 home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday.

"We just got too stagnant," Carlisle said postgame. "The ball was not being advanced quickly enough. We weren't creating problems, and we were up against the clock a lot, so things got very difficult.

"You gotta give Oklahoma credit. They made it very difficult."

The Pacers entered the fourth quarter with an 87-80 lead over the Thunder, buoyed by a 20-9 advantage in assists. However, Carlisle's squad mustered just one assist in the final frame, and that happened just over a minute in when T.J. McConnell found Obi Toppin in transition following a Thunder turnover on an inbound play.

That Toppin dunk was Indiana's only points within the first four minutes of the fourth. The Pacers were outscored 31-17 in the quarter, allowing the Thunder to even up the Finals.

Pacers star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who dropped 10 of his 18 points and a pair of his seven assists in the second half, blamed himself for his team's offense getting held up.

"I got to do a better job. I got to do a better job of keeping pace in the game," Haliburton said, according to Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints. "I did a much better job at that in the last game, especially down the stretch: keeping pace, getting rebounds, and really pushing.

"I think we got to do a better job of when we do get stops, getting out and running. A lot of times in that fourth we were fouling too much, taking the ball out, having to kind of run something, versus just running the basketball. ... That's on me. I got to get us playing faster down the stretch. I'll be better in Game 5."

Game 5 tips off Monday at 8:30 p.m. ET in Oklahoma City.