Pacers coach Rick Carlisle to miss 2 games to attend daughter’s spring formal, will return Sunday

By Canadian Press on April 7, 2026.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle will miss the team’s next two games to attend his only daughter’s spring formal, he said following Tuesday night’s 124-104 loss to Minnesota.

The Pacers have the league’s second-worst record and have lost three straight. They’re just 4-22 in their last 26 games during an injury-plagued season in which All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton has not played a game after tearing his Achilles tendon during Game 7 of last year’s NBA Finals.

Lloyd Pierce will coach the team when they play Thursday in Brooklyn and host Philadelphia on Friday. Indiana closes out the season by hosting the Eastern Conference’s top seed Detroit, which also gave Carlisle his first head coaching job in 2001-02.

“Abby has an event at school and so Herb (Simon) and Kevin (Pritchard) cleared me to do that,” Carlisle said, referring to the Pacers team owner and president of basketball operations. “So Lloyd has the team for the next couple of games and I’ll be back Sunday.”

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The Associated Press