The Indiana Pacers are looking up early this season. After finishing last year with a 47-35 record and sneaking into the Eastern Conference finals as a No. 6 seed, the club stumbled out of the blocks to a 1-3 record.

Indiana’s most recent defeat, a 119-115 road loss to the surging Orlando Magic (who improved to a 3-1 record on the year), showed that the team was a close match to last year’s powerhouse in terms of pace and space remembered. But ultimately, a loss is a loss, as head coach Rick Carlisle acknowledged in his postgame remarks to the press.

Read more: 3 Pacers-Magic Takeaways: Orlando outlasts Indiana behind Paolo Banchero 50-piece

“No disrespect to pigs, but I won’t put lipstick on a pig,” Carlisle said, according to Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. As Dopirak himself suspected, Carlisle didn’t want to base his criticism of the loss just on the fact that it was close and the Pacers did a lot of good.

Although Orlando small forward Franz Wagner missed most of the second half of the contest as a lingering illness made itself felt, 21-year-old Magic All-Star power forward Paolo Banchero was simply unstoppable scored the most 50 points of his career.

The biggest warning sign on the Pacers’ side was All-NBA point Tyrese Haliburton, who still can’t get his shots under control this year. In his first four contests of the 2024-25 season, the 6-foot-10 Iowa State player averaged just under 14.0 points on .339/.265/.636 shooting splits, 5.3 assists, 4.8 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 0.8 blocks per night. That’s hardly the kind of statistic that’s likely to land him on his third straight All-Star team.

Right now, power forward Pascal Siakam appears to have the lead in the clubhouse if a Pacers representative needs to be selected. The 6-foot-8 New Mexico alum is averaging 18.5 points on .545/.313/.750 shooting splits, 6.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.0 swipes per night.

This story will be updated…

Other Pacers: Magic Star is out for the remainder of Monday’s Indiana game