Will kick off with the most notable reporter notes:
The Indiana starting 5 actually beat OKC 41-39 last game (in 16 minutes), while any other 5-man lineup was outscored by 18 points in the other 32 minutes. In the NBA Finals, the Indiana Pacers have a +3.3 NETRTG with Haliburton is on the court and a -34.9 NETRTG when off.
Haliburton also noted that he has been starting bad, and that The Pacers must start strong and “have to figure out how to be better earlier in games…”
As we have seen so often in this postseason run, Haliburton did have an ultra-productive 4th quarter, notching 12 points and 2 assists in those 8 minutes of run. Tyrese had 4 of his 5 makes come off action with Myles Turner, to attack the Hartenstein drop coverage and get Haliburton moving downhill. In turn, Turner had 2 assists in his 5 minutes from handoffs to Tyrese.
Carlisle: “There are so many things that have to go right on a set of two possessions to get the ball into the heart of their defense. You know, you’ve got to get a stop, a rebound. You’ve got to be able to get the ball up the floor without a turnover, and then you have to be able to get it to the lane and to the rim. It’s a tough task.”
The OKC defense has switched to a single big for this series, which makes sense given this matchup. The way Chet has defended Turner has been completely relaxed, and he produced 17 rebound chances as a product of that.
However, Pacers decided that Chet roaming free as a rim protection anchor is not ideal, so they went straight at him out of half. Possession log out of half:
– Turner drive on Chet (fouled)
– Turner 3PA
– Turner Elbow Jumper
– Turner drive (fouled)
– Turner post up (fouled)
– Turner drive layup attempt
– Turner 3PA
After this run, Hartenstein subbed in pretty fast, cutting Chet’s rotation to just under 3 minutes. Turner in that 2H notched 8 FGA, 3 from deep, and produced 12 points. He ended with 5 FGA on both Holmgren and Hartenstein individually, yet all of his FTA & 3 of his 3PA vs on Chet.
Turner and Siakam both should see big rises in usage for Game 3. Pascal Siakam had just 1 post possession last game, with Tyrese noting during the game (mic’d up), “Keep sealing! Just keep doing it! I’ll get it to you, come on!”. Siakam notched 3 2H FGA last game. A goal of Indiana has to be to get him more immediate touches, especially on SGA. If game runs through Siakam, then Holmgren rebounds is back on the table – but hard to rely on him staying on the court.
When looking at the Indiana defense, the main problems that have arose were OKC’s PnR and Haliburton facing offball screens. OKC in Game 2 had an average Pick-and-Roll start distance of 29.2′ – which was the highest mark of their entire season, practically starting at the logo. Of course this was productive, as they produced 1.3 Pts per possession that featured PnR.
Indiana should look to pursue going under on screens, which would return SGA back to being a Pullup 3PT shooter – similar to how Minnesota treated him defensively.
Carlisle: “We’re going to need our crowd. Caruso and Wiggins, both those guys shot it well and caused other problems… Shai you can mark down for 34 points before they even get on the play, the guy is going to score. We got to find ways to make it tough on him.“
Granted, it is hard to beat Shai when he is playing at his own tempo amidst the Indiana swarm. Shai had fewer zero-pass possessions in Game 2 than in Game 1, while also throwing in 8 assists. “I thought his floor game tonight was really, really in a great rhythm,” Daigneault said after Game 2.
Read an article the other day called, “The Answer to Every Question is Alex Caruso”, and wanted to throw out some great points from that piece. On top of ranking first in defensive estimated plus-minus (for the second time in three years) this season, Caruso also finished second among rotation players in “total field goal difference percentage”—which measures the difference in opponent field goal percentage when he contested any shot on the court—and fifth in total points saved per 100 contests (minimum 1,000 minutes).
Through 2 games, Haliburton has yet to score on Caruso, while he has held the trio of Siakam, Hali and Nembhard to combined 3-13 shooting.
From SGA, “He plays defense off of feel and awareness, almost like a lot of guys play offense. It’s pretty special to see up close and personal every day. It’s literally a talent of his, to feel the game the way he does defensively.”