Pacers Aim to Clean up Early Mistakes

Three games into the regular season, when the games count and details matter, the Pacers are realizing what teams before them learned long ago.

It takes time to adjust to a new coach's system, and to get acquainted with new teammates.

That's hardly groundbreaking analysis, but it's the bottom line of what the Pacers experienced over the weekend, when they lost at Brooklyn on Friday after giving up a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter, and then failed to compete in Chicago on Saturday.

Coach Nate McMillan knew it already, but was hoping to avoid the trap that usually trips up teams who open their season in a maze full of mirrors.

"Normally that's the case with teams when you make as many…