“If your desire in life is to lead and to teach, NBA head coaching is the ultimate crucible,” Carlisle said to The Athletic Sunday night in his office ab0ut 25 minutes after his Pacers had dropped 80 points on Cleveland in an exquisite first half and won Game 4 of the series, shredding the Cavs’ 3-2 zone that had flummoxed the Pacers just 48 hours earlier. “Everything is at such a high level,” Carlisle said. “It’s such a fever pitch. You’ve got to learn from a lot of mistakes that you make, and you’ve got to try to learn from watching other coaches who do it well. Watching guys like (Gregg) Popovich, Phil Jackson and (Pat) Riley. I worked for Chuck Daly for two years. I worked for Bill Fitch for three years. These guys were all best of the best, Hall of Famers.