June 6, 2025 • 57 mins
Jason breaks down the film on Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder. He discusses how Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam were able to attack, what Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams were doing wrong, plus what OKC and SGA can do moving forward in the series.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Speaker 2 (02:00):
All right, welcome to hoo tonight. You're at the volume
heavy five day. Everybody.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Hope all of you guys are having a great end
to your week well as promised. Today, we're going to
hit our film session on game one of the twenty
twenty five NBA Finals.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
We have eighty five clips to go through today.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
We're going to get into a ton of detail and
a bunch of specific concepts happening on both ends of
the floor, a couple of big picture takeaways, and we'll
talk about this a lot more in tomorrow's mail bag.
I'll go into some more detail. But there were some
obvious things that Oklahoma City could improve on. There's a
certain identity with the Pacers that is going to be
(02:34):
there every single game, no matter what, right, and I
think that that specifically is one of the rationalizations or
explanations for some of the crazy shot making that we
see from the Pacers. There's this joke that we've been
thrown around about devil magic and voodoo and all this
crazy stuff that the Pacers have going for them as
(02:55):
they continue to hit these crazy tough.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Shots at the end of games to win.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
But you know, there is some to be said about
the way that they move the ball around and the
way that they keep everyone involved. And so it wasn't
just tough shot making. It was a bunch of different
guys making tough shots, Like Andrew Nemhardt hits that crazy
step back, Aaron Nesmith hits that crazy movement three out
of the left corner, Miles Turner hits a step back
(03:21):
three off of the left wing, and a couple of
really tough shots on picking pops right. We have Tyrese
Halliburton in the Crazy outha dribble jump shot he hits
going to his right. All four of those dudes hit
huge shots down the stretch, and there is something to
be said about keeping the ball moving, keeping everyone involved,
(03:43):
an offense that has a lot of flow and rhythm
to it, and how that keeps people in rhythm and
makes it so that it's more likely for multiple players
to feel good in a big spot late in the game.
In this game on the thunder side, or two dudes
who looked comfortable shooting anything away from the rim now
(04:04):
shake Gil Just Alexander and lou Door and as you
guys will see in the film, a lot of opportunities,
a lot of missed kickout reads. I talked last night
about how I liked Shake gild justs Alexander and his approach,
specifically with respect to attacking the game to try to
get his rhythm early on after going back and rewatching
a lot of his shots. I thought there were several
(04:25):
in there that were pretty questionable pretty early in the
clock and part of the reason why that rhythm didn't
exist for his team. Jay dut came out just settling
for really tough seventeen to nineteen foot pull up jump shots.
Once he started attacking, good stuff happens. You'll see this
in the film. We also saw some explanation for why
(04:46):
Mark Dagnault went away from his bigs down the stretch,
specifically Isaiah Hartenstein leaving shooters wide open. That was a
big issue all night long. Is just his natural tendency
as a big is to sink into the paint, something
you can't really do against this Indiana team. And then
Chet Holmgren, you're gonna see a couple of mistakes on offense,
a couple of mistakes, and like transition defense, he just
(05:08):
looked like he wasn't super mentally engaged in the game,
and so that led to the inevitable rebounding problems that
the Thunder had down the stretch. But again, a lot
of the same stuff with Oklahoma City in terms of processing,
making the appropriate kickouts, guys knocking down threes, them getting
into their ball and player movement, as opposed to just
(05:30):
their two top guys trying to force bad shots every
single time down the floor, right, So we're gonna get
into a bunch of examples tonight again or today again.
As I said, we have eighty five clips. I'm gonna
kind of work through it with you as we go along,
and you guys will see some of the stuff that
I'm talking about quickly before we get started, Subscribe to
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Make sure you guys follow us there to continue to
get content throughout the remainder of the seasons. Talk some basketball.
So I talked a lot last night on the live.
If you guys remember about the at the level coverage
(06:11):
is not working for Indiana because them losing contained. So
we saw a lot of this classics Shae chet two
man game to start this game, and the main thing
that you're gonna see right away is Turners at the level,
But the entire purpose of the at the level is
not to take away the pull up jump shot like
turn I guarantee you Carlisle's not worried about Shae like
(06:33):
taking a bunch of like rear view contest, pretty tough
pull up threes. What he does have Turner up there for, though,
is to stop Shae from turning the corner if he
If he If Turner's way back here and Chet lays
a screen on Shae, Shay can really get ahead of
Steam on this runway, and then this could be tougher
to deal with. Right turn her up at the level,
(06:54):
but he loses contained and Shaye gets all the way
to the basket. It's a nice finish, but that's an
example of that cover not working because they can't contain
the ball at the level. Similarly, another two man game
at the top of the key here, this time with
Shay and Chet. Again, let's fast forward a little bit.
We have Turner at the level. Chat's open on the
(07:14):
pick and pop close out. Right, here's our close out opportunity,
and Turner gets beat on the closeout. So Turner came
around and was great down the stretch of this game,
the Pacers pivoted to more of a deep drop coverage,
which you guys will see, and Turner got super hot
as a jump shooter. It hit three big ones late
and so, and he also did some work beating switches
(07:34):
as you guys will see in the game. So Turner
came around but early in the game struggling in the
base coverage against the Shay Chat pick and roll. Here's
an example of Indiana just starting to offer more help
in this Shay Chet pick and roll. Once again, same thing,
we're up at the level. Notice that Turner is a
little hesitant to leave Chet now because he just got
(07:56):
beat on a pop. Right, So how does Indiana adjust.
We have Halliburton and Nie Smith basically ignoring their guys
to sag into the paint. As Shaye drives, there's Nie
Smith waiting. There's the bump on the shoulder and a
block at the basket. Once again, look at the approach
from Shay. Shae has done the job. He's brought a
(08:18):
third defender in into a two man game.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Jadub is open again.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
You throw the swing pass here In all likelihoods, Siakam
closes out. Then Halliburton goes to close out to Dort
kase on Wallace sets a pin and flair there. They're
going to get an open a shot for Dort in
the corner, but instead we're forcing the issue through traffic
and getting blocked. You're going to see a lot of
that kind of thing from Shae and j Dub in
this game. Another Shaye Chet ballscreen. The Thunder ran over
(08:49):
fifty ball screens last night. Steady dose of this. The
Pacers were in like the mid thirties if I remember correctly,
so substantially more pick and roll from the Thunder in
this game than what we saw from Indiana. Same sort
of thing where we see Turner kind of hesitant to
leave Chet. See that he's just hesitant to leave check
because he just got burned on the pop a couple
possessions ago, hard help from Siakam in the lane, and
(09:14):
then this is poor spacing. We talk a lot about
the importance of spacing. As Shay's driving, Dort wants to
go through to the dunker spot, and so instead of
occupying this wing, they occupy the dunker spot in the corner.
That puts Halliburton in a position where he can get
underneath Dort, and he feels comfortable closing out to case
(09:35):
On in the case, and then Siakam is comfortable splitting
the difference between Dort and Shay because Dort doesn't really
bring much in the way of vertical spacing ability, and
so if Dort is way up here, that creates a
much easier simple two on one read. If this guy
steps over and helps on Shay, it's either swing to
the corner or swinging to the wing.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
You get it open. Three.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I thought that was just poor spacing from Oklahoma City.
But again, you're gonna see a consistent theme here the
thunder when they get in the paint, lots of bodies
from the Pacers waiting for them right at the basket.
There's a I thought the Pacers did we We've talked
about this a lot coming into this series. This has
been kind of the story of the Pacers postseason run.
(10:16):
But overall, with exception of the turnovers which they cleaned
up in the second half, I thought the Pacers did
an excellent job of beating mismatches with size throughout the game.
You're gonna see a ton of examples in the film session.
Here we get a simple double drag right, So we
throw the ball to Halliburton. Here's your double drag, meaning
it's basically just a staggered ball screen. Seacam sets the
first one, he set the second one. We get a switch, right,
(10:39):
So now j dub is on Halliburton, Dort is on
Nie Smith, and Cason Wallace is on Siakam. Watch how
quickly so they have the switch. Seacam's on the left wing.
They're in kind of like five out spacing. Watch how
quickly they get the ball to a cleared side with
Siakam swing turner gets the heck out. Siakam dives to
the block. Now all these do are above the break
(11:01):
to force Oklahoma City to make some decisions. They make
the decision to stay hugged up to their man. That
leaves a clean one on one down. Here a case
in tries to basically three quarter front. That gives the
baseline to Siakam and Siakam just quick attacks and scores.
So like again, look at how quickly they get from
oh cool.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
We got our switch. We got the switch.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
We wanted clear the side clear the get everybody above
the break to clear space, pitch it down. Siakam quickly
goes to work. That's just how surgical the pacers can
be attacking mismatches. Triple handoff. Get Siakam on the case
on again. Right here we get the DHL quick switch.
(11:48):
This time they attack it right from the middle of
the floor. Siakam goes quick right shoulder fade. Really nice
little jump shot there. Talk the last night about how
in the traditional coverages that the pacers were using it
conceded quite a few open shots. Here's another example of that.
And again, like guys like I in the big picture,
(12:10):
the actual the percentages were actually pretty solid. Uh for Indiana.
They did hold Oklahoma City, including passes below a point
per pick and roll. But I think it's a little
bit more complicated than that because there were these like
clear huge mistakes and openings that you'll see. But then
there are also like a lot of possessions where there
are openings that Shae and Ja Dove just shoot some
(12:32):
stupid shot instead of moving the ball through. So like
there's a version of it where Oklahoma City can be
much more efficient against these coverages. And so I do
think that over the course of the series, if Oklahoma
City does start processing better in burning these coverages more frequently,
that Indiana might have to consider doing more switching. But again,
watch as the hedge. So this is the hedge right
Casein comes to set the screen for Shae. We have
(12:54):
a lingering hedge from Halliburton to try to prevent Shae
from turning the corner. And then right as Nemhard gets
off of Casin to recover, him and Haliburton run into
each other and that ends up clearing all this space
for Shay to settle into a wide open pull up
three and one of the best.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Looks he got all night.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
I talked last night about how I thought Turner's drop
coverage is actually pretty effective against j Dub. Here's an
example of that. Just drop, drop, drop and force him
to take these tough mid range jump shots. And the
thing is is JDub is just not as good at
this as Shay is. And so it's one of those
things where like J Dub is letting them off the
hook when he takes that type of shot, and you're
(13:38):
gonna see a steady dose to this, Like there's seventeen
seconds on the shot clock. He could have tried to
turn the corner and get downhill into Turner's chest. He's
setting the tone here. This is the kind of shot
JDub wanted to take early in this game, a contested
eighteen footer off, another deep mid ranger from j Dub again,
plenty of time on the shot clock. You have a
(13:59):
power miss Matt here. Just like these are tough shots
to like get going with, you know what I mean.
Like this is how he started the game and to
kind of set the tone for the way he played.
Right on the other end of the floor, we have
our first failed attempt for the Pacers to get the
ball to a mismatch. So on this like little cutthrough action,
you're gonna see a lot of this sort of thing
(14:19):
from Chet. You'll there are several examples tonight or from
the last night's game that you'll see in this film session.
The Thunder will do these kinds of switches where they
want to try to keep Chet in lowman positions so
that he's in position to help at the rim. So
he just points up and goes case and you go
get Miles Turner. I'm gonna stay down here to get
Obi toppin that way I can be ready to help
at the rim. But as soon as Turner clears out. Now, now,
(14:42):
Chet and Turner are really far away and we're gonna
end up with a mismatch. We get the mismatch with
Turner on Cason Wallace. Casin does a great job fronting
the post and they fail to get the ball in.
Topping dribbles himself into some trouble and ends up throwing
the ball away. We had a similar turnover to this
(15:03):
one earlier in the game. This is actually the second
time that the Thunder stripped Turner on a roll. This
is an example of just the damage the Thunder can
do digging down from the weak side. So we get
our screen, we get our role pocket pass watch Dort.
Dort comes flying in boom strips it. That processing in
the middle of the floor without turning the ball over
(15:24):
is the key to the series for Indiana.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
They will get open looks.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Turner misses this shots it's a pick and pop three,
but this is open and it's gonna keep being open.
So again the pick and pop. It's just a simple concept.
Right as Demhar turns the corner, Case's chasing chet is
in drop that leaves Turner open on the pop misses it.
But that look is something that the Pacers should be
able to get consistently throughout the remainder of the series.
(15:54):
Here's an example of the Pacers. You know, I talked
a lot of the in the video with Sam Vessini
about how I think their best bet to get stops
is just to really load up on ball screens and
force Oklahoma City to shoot. And you're gonna see an
example of it here. You get a ball screen. They're
up at the level. This is a good at the
level coverage from Turner. Notice he doesn't let Shay turn
the corner. He's up there before he gets ahead of
(16:16):
Steam forces him to get rid of the ball. Check
gets over the top. That forces low man help from
Obi Toppin, who tags the roller. Now we have our
two on one. On the weak side, Halliburton just stays
attached to Dort enough to make him not throw that pass.
But notice he's got all that weight on that inside
foot so he can push out on the close out.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
There's the kickout.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Haliburton almost gets a hand on it and then gets
a great contest on Cason Wallace there on the weak side.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
That is the strong base.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Scheme that I really like for Indiana in this series,
just loading up on ball screens and forcing them to
shoot on the weak side. Another example of Turner losing
contain at the level. Again this is this is the
same coverage right ball screen at the level, but he
gets split and now he's dead to rights and ends
(17:07):
up giving up the layup right. So again, same coverage.
And when we talk about adjustments in the postseason, we
always talk like, oh, well, this doesn't work. That doesn't work.
Everything can work if it's done right. Last possession turners
at the level. He stops the ball.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
It works.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
This possession turners at the level. He doesn't stop the ball.
It doesn't work. Right. Execution is the majority of the
battle here. Alrighty uh, Shay's gonna beat Aaron Nee Smith
off the dribble here, but watch the way all the
pacers react. So gets beat off the dribble. Boom, three
(17:43):
pacers meet Shae in help. Dort is wide open on
the right wing. Cruso's wide open on the left wing.
There's even a decent little vertical spacing opportunity here with
Hartenstein twenty seconds on the shot clock. This is the
shot Shay takes. I guess you'd call that a pass,
some kind of lob pass something. But again in traffic.
(18:05):
There are reeds there, there are reads there, but the
reeds are being missed and stuff is getting forced in traffic.
This next possession is attached to that. On the miss
Shae falls down. As Shay falls down, he's on the ground.
(18:26):
We have a five on four going the other way.
Look at how fast the Pacers run I talked about
last night. The Pacers, in their commitment to running, is
responsible for a good portion of their success in this postseason.
Look at everybody run and as a result, they end
up getting an open three for Halliburton in the five
(18:46):
on four. Here's an example of a classic backcut pass
from Hartenstein to Shay that ends up leading to an
open three. So backcut, Hartenstein hits him, forces siak him
to step up, passed to dort TJ McConnell rotates Caruso's
the extra pass, big time shot on this turnover. A
(19:17):
kind of an overcooked pocket pass from Haliburton. I actually
thought that was Haliburton's fault, just through it a little
too hard and Shay just taking a lot of these
like like look at that, like that like nineteen thirteen,
you're getting double teamed. Okay, on the double team, you
drive in you face more help and there's fourteen on
(19:40):
the shock, like zero passes on the possession. You don't
have separation and you're just rising and firing into a
really tough contested little fourteen footer. Like I just didn't
think that was a very good shot. A lot of
that kind of stuff. That's like he played himself into
a rhythm and it worked out over the course of
the game for him, but the team was in a rhythm.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
TJ.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Mcconne's gonna get a lay up here, and you're going
to see an example of the role gatty that Turner
brings to the table on the ball screen to watch
hart and Stein that little step there. Hartenstein has the
chance to cut off the drive, but he doesn't want
to leave Turner and so easy little scoop shot layup
for TJ. Hartenstein had a rough night leaving shooters open.
(20:27):
You guys are going to see some examples throughout this
film session. But he did kick Thomas Bryant's butt on
the glass and he just threw him out of the
way there and got another put back, kind of reminiscent
of the Mitchell Robinson problem.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
In the last round.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
The obvious targets for post mismatches against this team for
Indiana are Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace. I even thought TJ.
McConnell had some success just attacking with power. You're going
to see that here against Isaiah Joe. Quick spin, little
right shoulder fade away. That's a Those matchups are matchups
(21:03):
I really like for Indiana in this series. Here's another
example of one of those traditional coverages not working for Indiana.
All you have is Thomas Bryan on the ball, Caruso
coming off. Neither of these guys are huge offensive threats,
so I'd probably just switched this.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
But they don't.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So as Siakam runs through, he ends up getting in
Thomas Bryant's way and basically screens Thomas Bryant, and that
leaves Isaiah Hartenstein.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Open for the layup.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I'm really really interested to see because I do think
Oklahoma City will process better. I've dag Nault's gonna be
seeing all this, these same stupid shots that Shane Ja
Dubb took, so like, I'm almost certain that Oklahoma City's
gonna come out and move the ball more in Game two,
and so I'm just really curious to see how well,
Indiana's based like base coverages work, not so much in
(21:57):
like the ball screens with Shaye, like I want to
load up on the ball screens with Shay. It's more
just in these like other coverages off the ball, there's
a lot of like simple switches that could have taken
away some of these easy opportunities that you'll see. Here's
the first three that Hartenstein concedes. So we get like
a little ball screen here on the right and Siakam
(22:23):
screening for TJ or planning to the Pacers will run
a lot of these, like early Siakam screens to try
to get switches, but there's no reason to even run
that action because Toppin's being ignored by Hartenstein. Easy swing
past to TJ McConnell and Top and knocks it down.
(22:47):
And you'll see several examples of that with Hartenstein throughout
the rest of this game. All right, watch the transition
defense off of this steal, so Shay Ripsney Smith. Watch
the Pacers sprint back. That effort stops Shay from getting
(23:08):
a lay up, and you're gonna see so many examples
of that. Top and Kate got off to a really
rough start in this game. He really heated up from
three and got himself back on track and was huge
for the Pacers in this game. This is a tough
shot against basically a set defender in Hartenstein. But again
Hartenstein sagging a little bit, not too bad. Probably needs
(23:30):
to apply a little bit more pressure there. You'll see
a couple more examples like that. Another kind of mediocre
pull up two from JADEB comes off with this little
action with Caruso, turns the corner and just immediately settles
like just ten on the shot clock. He just he's
coming off the screen looking to shoot pull up jump
(23:53):
shots instead of looking to attack. And you will see
that shift as we get later into the game. Another
Hartenstein open shot. He's got Ben Sheppard. Okay, Ben Shepherd
can shoot the ball. You need to be paying attention.
That's just bad defense. Like look, all it is is
just a simple relocation that cut through from Matherin kind
(24:18):
of occupies Isaiah's attention for a second, but Wiggins is
not beat that. There's no passing angle there, so Hartenstein
is just leaving another shooter open. And again there's several
examples of that, and I think if I had to
guess why Dagnaut went away from his bigs late. It
was ultimately that it was ultimately he didn't trust them
(24:39):
to be in the right spots on defense. I showed you,
So there's two that I've shown you already. There was
a third early in the first quarter, and at the
very beginning of this Hartenstein ship where he left Andrew
and Emhard wide open in the left quarter. All three
of those threes went in. So that's nine points already
(25:00):
of Indiana's twenty eight points that came off of Hartenstein
leaving shooters open. And we're fifteen minutes into the game.
Jadub finally attacks, gets rewarded for it. Look, just gets
Ben Mathurn on his hip and attacks, draws a foul,
gets rewarded for it, finally stops settling. We get a
(25:30):
Turner mismatch against Jadub. He's trying to get them to
set up for another post up. Look how he's pointing,
but once the ball gets swung then he ducks in.
As soon as the ball gets swung over to his
side on the floor, he ducks in, ducks in on
JDub creates the passing angle, draws a foul. Turner did
(25:55):
a really nice job in this game. We got some
aj Mitchell minutes, some rookie NBA Finals minutes in the
first half of this game. This is a couple of
shots there and then gets beat by the classic tyrese Haliburton.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Fly By.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Gets a little bit inattentive on this screen, doesn't appear
to see the screen coming and gets hit. You could
tell he notices it at the last second. And then
I always talk about that top foot right when I'm
talking about good screen navigation.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Look at his left foot.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
That's the foot that you got to get above Miles
Turner's left foot, and he just doesn't because he's caught
off guard. So he gets drilled by the screen that
puts him in trail position. Then all Halliburton has to
do is basically show him the ball and then he'll
go flying by. Shay's starting to get his jumper going here,
(26:52):
let's pass forward a little bit. One upside to taking
all those mediocre shots is it just kind of helps
get his rhythm. Nice little step back twenty footer. I
thought Chet had a few of these kind of poor
forces early in this game. Here again a zero pass
(27:15):
possession where he just tries to drive through Turner and
just kind of just doesn't have an angle and just
forces it up and bad. Miss lou Dort did a
great job in this game of hitting like these kind
of short, close out contested threes. Here's an example, like
Siakam is digging down off the strong side corner. Skam
(27:36):
closes out Dort like kind of like pump fakes, but
then he just shoots that like semi contested short corner
three and knocks it down. Sga gets a steal in
the post entry here, great defense, but immediately runs down
(27:57):
after his good defense and just jacks up a bad
shot again right away. Again not a terrible shot for Sga.
We know he can make that, but it's just one
of those things, you know, where he's just struggling to
really feel the flow of the game. Jdeb attacks, something
(28:22):
good happens, doesn't Settle, puts his shoulder into Siakam, draws
Haliburton in help, creates an open corner three. First teammate
another turnover on a post entry. But watch the transition defense.
(28:45):
So TJ looks away, swing the Nie Smith Nie Smith
forced Caruso plays the passing lane, gets the steal. Watch
the pacer sprint. Look at Obi toppin' man, and you'll see,
like with the way the floor is set up, you
have good floor balance. Right, I've got dudes above the
(29:06):
break basket and ball. Right, we have two guys stop
in the ball. We're matched up off with TJ McConnell
and Obi topping. They force at least a semi contested
three in transition off of a turnover. A lot of
really good transition defense in this game. Another good example here,
(29:28):
turnover these two guys, the two guys back, watch them
both ball in basket ready, top in basket, TJ McConnell, ball,
watch everyone else sprint back and get matched up, and
Shae does them all favor. I'm telling you, Like I
(29:50):
I always get a different feel for a game after
I rewatch it, and I was like, oh, like Shay's
working his way into rhythm. Like I see he's attacking
the finals. And I go back and watch and I'm like, like,
this is just you're making the game a lot tougher
than it needs to be.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
By forcing the issue the way that he did.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Another good attack from j dub here, and like it's
it's about like an intentional unwillingness to accept being cut
off like Nie Smith beats him to the spot here, retreat, dribble,
(30:34):
attack again, going the other way, Just keep going, make
something happen. Pretty clear, Uh, pretty clear. Pretty obvious difference
in performance from JDub based on whether or not he
was settling versus attacking. I talked in the series preview
about TJ McConnell and his ability to beat people off
the dribble and the value there. He beats Shay, that
(30:57):
forces Dort to help off of top end, that creates
a cut top and shows the ball, gets Dort to jump,
that forces Shay to step up and help. TJ McConnell's
wide open right there in the dunker spot, easy little shot,
nice driving kick sequence started by TJ mcconne's dribble penetration.
Here's a great low man possession from Tyrese Aliburton, and
(31:18):
I think Tyre's Alliburton's defense has been very underrated in
this postseason run. He's done good in ISO's you'll see
some examples. Turner at the level forces Chet to roll
past Turner, Shaye makes the past, and Haliburton ties him
up over the top with his length. Really nice defensive
play from Halliburton. All right, Pacers are gonna beat another
(31:45):
pick and roll switch here with Turner. So we have
Dort and Chet. Good screen from Turner noted that's the
beginning there. Dort does such a good job of navigating
screens on this one. He gets hit that forces the switch.
Turner dives physical seal from Turner on the one that
(32:07):
he turned over, the one that Haliburton threw that bounce
pass if you watch it, if you go back and
watch it, it was just not a very physical seal
from Turner. Much more physical seal here. Creates a good
clean passing angle, gets a bucket. Really nice work from Turner.
Here's that recurring theme I was talking about with the
(32:29):
pacer sending lots of help on drives. You're gonna see
a lot of that in the second half. Shay's gonna
get downhill beats them hard. Watch boom three pacers coalesce
around him. Jew Is open misses the shot. In order
for the Thunder to break the Pacers of this sort
(32:50):
of hard help at the rim, they're gonna have to
hitch shots. Notice Turner is in a softer drop like
a deeper drop coverage in the second half of this game.
That was the big adjustment from uh Ra Carlisle. As
the game progressed, Shay started to get a little bit
more free in the mid range in drop coverage. I
(33:11):
thought this was a really bad transition defense sequence from Chet.
Chet literally just gets outrun by Siakam. Here, look at Siakam,
beautiful bounce pass from Halliburton, and again Chet like, if
you're having a rough offensive night, that's fine, that's part
of the game. You're a young player, it's the NBA Finals.
But those are the mistakes you can't make if you're
(33:32):
also having your rough offensive game. Rare example of Cason
Wallace actually beating Halliburton one on one. Isaiah Joe and
Cason Wallace did a lot of attacking Halliburton in action
and in one on one, and Haliburton held up pretty well.
But this is a rare example of Caseon actually having
(33:52):
some success. Beats him with a little scoop shot. Here's
another example of Oklahoma City really just conceding three by overhelping.
Look at nies Smith like, there's no advantage here that
would dictate Jadab being this far in the lane. Like
Turner's on the roll, but dorts with him.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
This is an.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Overhelp swing swing open three for Nie Smith. Good close
out from Jadab But again, like these are, this is
a team that's been shooting really well on those kickouts
all postseason. And this is just an example of what
I talked about last night in terms of the Thunder
having options, in terms of loosening up their coverage a
little bit, not being so crazy with their help. Kind
(34:37):
of another recurring theme down the stretch of this game,
the Pacers doing damage against switches on the offensive glass.
So we get a ball screen. There's our ball screen.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Switch. Siakam dives. At this point.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
You can try to throw it into the poet, but
you also can just get it up on the rim.
There's five seconds on the shot clock. Mammart has to
do something quickly, kick out a little bit of an
overhelp from Chet. Chet actually gets a piece beautiful close out,
but look at our mismatch. This is the other side
of the switch, and Siakam ends up getting an easy
(35:20):
put back to erase the good defensive play from Chet.
We talked about in a series preview about Halliburton's hedge
and recovers not being very good against slips.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Here was an example.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
So as Haliburton hedges good hard, aggressive hedge to stop
Shae from turning the corner, but Cason gets behind him
an easy little kick ahead pass for a layup. Another
example of Tyre's Haliburton holding up in ISO. I believe
this one was also against Cason. Wallace hedge a little
(36:01):
bit of a nail help casing one on one against Hallie,
slides beats into the spot. Good contest, Really nice work
there from Haliburton. Now this is like a chaotic sequence,
but I thought it was another example of an overhelp
and it led to another wide open three for Obi toppin.
(36:31):
Again like lost control of the ball, it's nearly turned
over and Nemhart saves it.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Blah blah blah blah. But like, look as this.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Is happening, Nemhart is not in an advantageous position, and
yet Dort is sitting right under the basket and leaving
Obi top and open Chats there to help too, and
they end up just conceding and open three to top
in on the weak side. Obi top in transition cross
(37:06):
match on the run ahead ends up getting You can
actually see them all identify it. Thomas Bryant identifies it
and goes oh, Toppin's got a mismatch. I'm gonna clear
to the corner. He clears out Hartenstein's kind of lingering.
But then they swing the ball around. And when they
swing the ball around, now Hartenstein has to account for
(37:28):
Thomas Bryant in his corner three point shooting that creates
the over the top passing angle. Perfect feed from themhard,
nice finish Pacers, just absolutely relentless, punishing mismatches. I talked
a lot in the series throughout this postseason, like what
you need to score against Oklahoma City is the size
(37:51):
to beat mismatches, the passing ability to pass through their aggression,
and then the shooting ability to knock down shots when
they double team. And the Pacers do have those piece
it's just a question of like can they take care
of the ball, which they did it in the first half,
and then they did in the second half. They went
from forty five points to sixty six points or whatever
they had in the second half.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Failed grift from Shae.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
This was such a smart play from TJ McConnell, beating
a pre switch with a little swing pass.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
So again TJ comes.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Up here, he wants to try to attack Shay right
so he's gonna call Mathin up into the action. Matherine
goes to go up into the action so that TJ
can attack Shay, but Alex Cruso goes, no, dude, I'll
go that way. I can switch it that way, you
can stay home. But in that brief interchange as they
both ran up with Ben to try to pre switch,
(38:44):
there's a little bit of a miscommunication as Shay doesn't
seem to understand what's happening. TJ rifles the swing, passes
Siakam in the corner, and he knocks it down. Beautiful
work from the pacers. Really nice kind of patient pick
and roll attack here from JDub with Isaiah Hartenstein.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Ball screen. Jadub puts him in jail.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Okay gets some trapped on his backside, and then Hartenstein
clears out Thomas Bryant with a gortat screen clears him
out with that screen so that JDub can slither right
in behind and get the layup. Ben Matherin's athleticism was
really popping in this game. Simple backcut on Alex Cruso
(39:32):
draws a foul. He's an apex athlete among athletes, and
that is an advantage in a series like this, where
Oklahoma's athleticism can be overwhelming at times. I thought this
was great defense. Wigans ends up drawing a foul on
a back cut here, but like watch Matherin, watch him
navigate the screen boom and then beats him to the spot.
(39:54):
Really really sharp defense from mather and Shakam just ends
up giving up a back cut here and drawing a foul.
You know, Ben Matherin, if there's something to get really
excited about. If you're a Pacers fan too, you're already
nearly you know, you're at least in the conversation for
being a championship level team if you can compete in
the series, right, and Ben Matherin just still has so
(40:15):
much room to improve over the course of the coming years.
Ben Matherin again, Alex Caruso just beats him off the
dribble with the hesitation. Dribble once again, nothing fancy, just
right here, high hesitation, just for a second, right there, hesitation.
Then he hits the Jets and beats Alex off the
dribble again. So much potential there in the big picture.
(40:39):
JDub attacking again, gets downhill against Thomas Bryant, gets into
his body and finishes like. That's what I mean when
I say that Oklahoma City has these obvious ways to
play better. They obviously can play a lot better just
by Jdab being more of an attacking force and then
both guys passing through passing through the aggressive help more efficiently.
(41:00):
Baseline out of bounce, we talked a little bit about
this last night on playback. Usually on baseline out of
bounce plays, the fallback option if nothing is open is
this guy who's on the strong side in line with
the lane line will just seal and then the guy
will throw it over the top pass. That's a super
common kind of like release valve you'll see on baseline
out of bounds plays at every level. Ben Matherin messes
up though, because his action is dictating that he runs
(41:21):
to this corner specifically so that he can clear Jaydub out.
But he does and he drifts out to the wing,
so then when the over the top pass comes, Jadub
just jumps it.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
A nice little bit of gamesmanship too from Isaiah Hartenstein.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
You can actually see him pull on Thomas Bryant's jersey
right there to stop him from being able to beat
Jadub to the ball.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
This is a ridiculous and.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
One from Andrew Nemhard driving through Alex Caruso very well defended,
runs through the double drag. Cruso gets through both screens,
beats him to the spot, and Nemhar just powers through
him for an and one ridiculous shot. Watch the way
(42:12):
that Indiana guards this ball. Screen ball goes to j
Dubb two man game with Hartenstein. Look at them hard.
He's got Cason Wallace and he's just defending the action.
Three on two is a free safety and conceding this
swing pass contested three to case and he misses it again.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
That's the coverage. You can see it pretty clearly.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Indiana is leaving dudes open and Oklahoma City's going to
have to hit those shots. Really nice move here from Caruso.
He beats Obi Topping with just a simple in and
out dribbles fast forward a little bit hard in and
out right here Boom buckles him, gets in, draws the
and one a little another example of overhelp from the
(43:04):
thunder here, and again it's a recurring theme. Both teams
are doing it. The difference is is the Pacers are
like this super reliable catch and shoot team and the
thunder a little bit more. You know, it depends on
the night. And like that's the thing is If if
both teams get away with this or run this sort
of coverage and the Pacers shoot the way that they're
capable of shooting, and the thunder go hot and cold
at times, the Pacers have a very good chance to
(43:24):
win this series.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Look at this.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
Ball, scream it's topping to go to the ball. Hartenstein
is there and help, so is Wiggins. We're triple teaming
the ball and leaving shooters open and when they pass
it out, they're gonna knock them down. It's really that simple,
nothing too crazy. JDub missus A Reid here.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
Comes.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
It comes off of a ball screen with Hartenstein attacks
draws the help. You've done your job, you drew Nemharden help.
Halliburton is coming over to tag Cason Wallace. Aaron Wiggins
is wide open on the right wing and stead he
shoots over a double team misses it.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
All right.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Time for the Pacers Devil Magic to start heating up
a little bit. It's gonna start with a Miles Turner
semi contested three along the right wing, and again it's
all about the rhythm. Everyone's involved. Throughout this game, Turner
just catches and fires over the top of Hartenstein knocks
it down. We get a time out eight point game
(44:46):
out of the time out. Really smart play design from
Mark Dagnelt, taking advantage of the fact that the Pacers
are not switching a lot of these off ball actions.
They just simply have Shay backscreen for Cason Wallace because
Nemhar doesn't want to help and these guys don't want
to switch, so Cason's able to just sneak right behind
(45:07):
for the layup. Really nice play design from Dagnault. We
get a hedge and recover on this sequence. Here a
lot of guard screens attacking Halliburton, topping and siakam down
the stretch of this game. We get the hedge and recover.
It works, they stop him from turning the corner. Haliburton
(45:27):
gets back and doesn't concede the easy kickout, but then
he sits in some nail help digs down on Shay.
Cason's open just can't make them pay again, Like if
this is the way they're going to guard, Shay's making
the reads now. But at this point in the game,
these guys are out of rhythm. If he invested more
earlier in the game and trying to get these guys
(45:48):
some cleaner looks, as he was kind of forcing the
issue in traffic, there's a better chance of these guys
knocking down shots late in the game, right like Turner
missed early in the game, two wide open above the
break threes. That's an investment from Halliburton into his shooting
that pays off later in the game. We're gonna get
(46:11):
a random double team here on a Nies Smith drive.
Nie Smith drives, okay, and look at Dort. So Dort
is on the weak side with Obi Toppin. Nie Smith
is driving, not threatening, Okay, they're hounding him around the baseline.
(46:32):
Dort brings this random double team. In the random double team,
Nie Smith just powers through, pivots around really well. Now
Toppin's wide open again, kick out knockdown. So like it
paid off in the first half when they forced a
bunch of turnovers, but in the second half when they
stopped forcing turnovers as the Pacers kind of settled down
taking care of the basketball, all that overhelp, all that
(46:54):
gambling ended up leading to open threes.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Dort misses another kickout.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
On this play, Turner's helping, but in the close out
from Turner and we end up with another transition cross match.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
Because Turner is.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
The guy who closes out at Dort, he's first up
the floor. Because he's first up the floor, chats all
the way back at the basket, we're gonna get a
cross match. That cross match leaves Jadub against Turner. Nie
Smith misses the corner three, but there's Turner rebound draws
the foul. Another example of the Pacers beating size mismatches
(47:33):
on the offensive glass more Pacers Voodoo, this time Miles
Turner shows the ball, beats Chet with a step back,
and banks it in. I don't know in retrospect, judging
by the celebration from Turner, I'm gonna guess it probably
(47:54):
was not an intentional thing. Another example hedge and recover,
this time not working. Topping throws the hedge. By the
time he recovers, he kind of gets in Nemhard's way
a little bit, so by the time Demhard picks up
the ball, he's already south of the foul line. Shay's
got too much momentum and he's able to power through
(48:15):
and draw foul. Another beautiful Miles Turner shot in the
pocket in a ball screen. Let's fast forward a little
bit here screen the reset. I think the pass actually
comes from nemhard ball screen. In the pocket. This is
a tough shot, like a leaning, drifting pocket elbow jumper.
(48:37):
Really nice work from Myles Turner. Another example of a
good drop cover drap from Miles Turner against j Dub
Chase give ground, meet him at the rim. Great contest
(48:58):
forces a miss. He's JDub didn't settle, but I do
like that coverage for Indiana in that particular action. On
the other end, Halliburton gets a little semi transition opportunity
to attack Shake Gills as Alexander beats him off the
dribble for the scoop shot.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Nice finish. Chet makes a I.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
Thought a fine attack here, beats Turner and he's right
at the rim.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
He makes that layup.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
Oklahoma City's in pretty good shape and maybe Chet stays
in the game, but he misses that one and Dagnauld
ends up pivoting off of him here in just a
couple possessions. This is a really nice split from Shay
against Siakam. Watch how he just immediately attacks and protects
the dribble with a kind of a scissor dribble right
(49:52):
as he gets onto Siakam, immediate scissor dribble to change
direction and protect the ball. And again look at Siakam's
right here. That's why you need to use the scissor
dribble instead of the crossover. A low gather is a
way to draw a foul. There again, as you if
you do a low gather, you might catch his arm
and draw foul. But another way to protect the basketball
(50:13):
and to not necessarily grift, but to just beat someone
off the dribble, but try to not turn the ball
over is protect the ball by going through your legs.
He does quick change his direction, gets all the way
to the rim in a really nice finish in traffic.
Chet defensive switch. I thought, pretty well, here switch ball,
scream with Turner, they pass it back to Halliburton looks
(50:38):
to attack Chat. I thought this was a really nice contest.
Forces the miss, and now we have Chet out of
the game. So with Chat out of the game, we
have six five sixty six sixty six six four six
(50:58):
two sixty three. Really a small lineup out there for
Oklahoma City. Watch Siakam, Haliverton misses, but Siakam is just
taller than all these dudes and not really anything they
can do, and he just gets it over the top
of him and draws a foul. We are up nine
(51:26):
Oklahoma City with less than three minutes left, and we
get to more devil magic. In this case, watched aaron
NEI Smith running out to this corner three on the move,
rising and firing against the contest. Insane shot from aaron
Ne Smith, and again we're calling it devil magic as
a joke. It's part of the rhythm that Indiana invests
(51:49):
throughout the game. Another packed paint on a drive the split,
nice work. Three pacers meet Shae in the lane. There's
our kickout Jadub missus. Little extra detail to watch Haliburton's
close out. Halliburton's close out is not going at Jadub.
(52:12):
It's going right in between him and Cason. It's a
passing lane close out, and the result is it forces
j Dub to throw a pass fake. He throws a
pass fake that breaks his rhythm a little bit and
is part of the reason why he leaves that shot
just a tiny bit short. Here's the insane Andrew Nemhard
(52:35):
step back against Shay. Unbelievable stuff, just elite one on
one work brings his game.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
Back to three.
Speaker 1 (52:50):
We get a guard guard screen attacking Haliburton in the hedge.
Two on the ball, Cason slips, Pacers react door to Oh.
These are the good looks that Oklahoma City got down
the stretch that they were missing. Unbelievable block from lou
(53:12):
Dort here vertical takes the contact blocks him on the
way down. Shaye beats everyone to the ball and then
somehow finishes this layup their two bodies at the rim.
Speaker 2 (53:24):
Big time sequence.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
At that point you're thinking the game's over right, but nope,
big time stop here from Nemhart and Siakam on Shae.
I thought Nemhar just did a nice job of staying
body to body with Shae and disrupting his base. Like
this little bump right there. That little bump as he
(53:47):
fights through gets Shay a little off balance. Now watch
Shay's footwork as he elevates on Siakam. He kind of
goes to a right left takeoff off two feet, but
he just doesn't yet much lyft because his footwork is
a little off because of the bump from Nemhard and
so Siakam is able to beat him at the rim.
Watch him again, I'm gonna watch it, and played him
(54:08):
full speed. Watch Shae just get a little bit bumped
off balance right before he takes off. That makes it
so he doesn't get as much lyft, which is why
he gets blocked at the rim. An excellent little two
man stop there from those two guys. Another Sam offensive
rebound off of the miss. Because Shae misses the layup,
(54:32):
he's last thunder up the floor. These four guys are
ahead of him. Siakam's trailing, so as a result, in
the transition cross match, we have Skam on Shay right
or Shae on Siakam. I should say he takes him
right down. They go like they're gonna go to the post.
But instead of going to the post, Nemhard goes, well,
I just hit this crazy step back, might as well
try another, but look at Siakam. He just dives on Shae,
(54:54):
gets inside position and gets the put back.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
Huge huge play in this game.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
On the other end, Shay overcooks the mid range jump
shot against Nemhard actually gets a decent look. He kind
of like sheds Nemhard with the body bump here gets
a really good look, just misses it off the back
rim rebound.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
You guys know the rest. Tyre's Halliburton.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
Makes an aggressive driving move against Cason Wallas. Watch Cason
Walls is squared up, but as Halliburton starts to turn
the corner, Cason has to bail on being squared.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
Up to recover. Look at his hips.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
He's got his hips completely turned towards the baseline. That is,
right when Tyre's Halliburton decides to pop up off the ground.
Speaker 2 (55:47):
Game over one, oh Indiana heading into Game two crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (55:54):
As you guys can see pretty clearly from the film,
there's some obvious fixable things for Oaklham City. Shay's got
to make more of an effort early in the game
to invest in the rhythm of his teammates by making
the appropriate kickouts j dub He's at his best when
he's attacking, not settling. And then guys are gonna have
to hit those open catch and shoot jump shots when
(56:15):
Indiana overhelps and on drives and then on the other
end of the floor, a little bit more selective of
when to swarm, because Indiana, when they take care of
the basketball, is gonna get the ball out against you,
and they're gonna hit those threes again. I am not
worried about Indiana having a letdown in Game two. They're
gonna come out and they're gonna play Pacers basketball. But
Oklahoma City is certainly capable of coming out with force
(56:38):
and playing a lot better. I believe they will, and
I believe they'll win Game two. But really really impressive
work from the Indiana Pacers to steal game one on
the road. All right, guys, this all I have for
today is always sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us
and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with a
mail bag based on the NBA Finals as well as
some other topics going on around the NBA, and then
(56:58):
back for Game two live on YouTube after the final
buzzer on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (57:02):
What's up guys?
Speaker 1 (57:03):
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second and leave a
rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
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Speaker 2 (02:00):
All right, welcome to hoo tonight. You're at the volume
heavy five day. Everybody.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Hope all of you guys are having a great end
to your week well as promised. Today, we're going to
hit our film session on game one of the twenty
twenty five NBA Finals.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
We have eighty five clips to go through today.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
We're going to get into a ton of detail and
a bunch of specific concepts happening on both ends of
the floor, a couple of big picture takeaways, and we'll
talk about this a lot more in tomorrow's mail bag.
I'll go into some more detail. But there were some
obvious things that Oklahoma City could improve on. There's a
certain identity with the Pacers that is going to be
(02:34):
there every single game, no matter what, right, and I
think that that specifically is one of the rationalizations or
explanations for some of the crazy shot making that we
see from the Pacers. There's this joke that we've been
thrown around about devil magic and voodoo and all this
crazy stuff that the Pacers have going for them as
(02:55):
they continue to hit these crazy tough.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Shots at the end of games to win.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
But you know, there is some to be said about
the way that they move the ball around and the
way that they keep everyone involved. And so it wasn't
just tough shot making. It was a bunch of different
guys making tough shots, Like Andrew Nemhardt hits that crazy
step back, Aaron Nesmith hits that crazy movement three out
of the left corner, Miles Turner hits a step back
(03:21):
three off of the left wing, and a couple of
really tough shots on picking pops right. We have Tyrese
Halliburton in the Crazy outha dribble jump shot he hits
going to his right. All four of those dudes hit
huge shots down the stretch, and there is something to
be said about keeping the ball moving, keeping everyone involved,
(03:43):
an offense that has a lot of flow and rhythm
to it, and how that keeps people in rhythm and
makes it so that it's more likely for multiple players
to feel good in a big spot late in the game.
In this game on the thunder side, or two dudes
who looked comfortable shooting anything away from the rim now
(04:04):
shake Gil Just Alexander and lou Door and as you
guys will see in the film, a lot of opportunities,
a lot of missed kickout reads. I talked last night
about how I liked Shake gild justs Alexander and his approach,
specifically with respect to attacking the game to try to
get his rhythm early on after going back and rewatching
a lot of his shots. I thought there were several
(04:25):
in there that were pretty questionable pretty early in the
clock and part of the reason why that rhythm didn't
exist for his team. Jay dut came out just settling
for really tough seventeen to nineteen foot pull up jump shots.
Once he started attacking, good stuff happens. You'll see this
in the film. We also saw some explanation for why
(04:46):
Mark Dagnault went away from his bigs down the stretch,
specifically Isaiah Hartenstein leaving shooters wide open. That was a
big issue all night long. Is just his natural tendency
as a big is to sink into the paint, something
you can't really do against this Indiana team. And then
Chet Holmgren, you're gonna see a couple of mistakes on offense,
a couple of mistakes, and like transition defense, he just
(05:08):
looked like he wasn't super mentally engaged in the game,
and so that led to the inevitable rebounding problems that
the Thunder had down the stretch. But again, a lot
of the same stuff with Oklahoma City in terms of processing,
making the appropriate kickouts, guys knocking down threes, them getting
into their ball and player movement, as opposed to just
(05:30):
their two top guys trying to force bad shots every
single time down the floor, right, So we're gonna get
into a bunch of examples tonight again or today again.
As I said, we have eighty five clips. I'm gonna
kind of work through it with you as we go along,
and you guys will see some of the stuff that
I'm talking about quickly before we get started, Subscribe to
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(05:51):
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get content throughout the remainder of the seasons. Talk some basketball.
So I talked a lot last night on the live.
If you guys remember about the at the level coverage
(06:11):
is not working for Indiana because them losing contained. So
we saw a lot of this classics Shae chet two
man game to start this game, and the main thing
that you're gonna see right away is Turners at the level,
But the entire purpose of the at the level is
not to take away the pull up jump shot like
turn I guarantee you Carlisle's not worried about Shae like
(06:33):
taking a bunch of like rear view contest, pretty tough
pull up threes. What he does have Turner up there for, though,
is to stop Shae from turning the corner if he
If he If Turner's way back here and Chet lays
a screen on Shae, Shay can really get ahead of
Steam on this runway, and then this could be tougher
to deal with. Right turn her up at the level,
(06:54):
but he loses contained and Shaye gets all the way
to the basket. It's a nice finish, but that's an
example of that cover not working because they can't contain
the ball at the level. Similarly, another two man game
at the top of the key here, this time with
Shay and Chet. Again, let's fast forward a little bit.
We have Turner at the level. Chat's open on the
(07:14):
pick and pop close out. Right, here's our close out opportunity,
and Turner gets beat on the closeout. So Turner came
around and was great down the stretch of this game,
the Pacers pivoted to more of a deep drop coverage,
which you guys will see, and Turner got super hot
as a jump shooter. It hit three big ones late
and so, and he also did some work beating switches
(07:34):
as you guys will see in the game. So Turner
came around but early in the game struggling in the
base coverage against the Shay Chat pick and roll. Here's
an example of Indiana just starting to offer more help
in this Shay Chet pick and roll. Once again, same thing,
we're up at the level. Notice that Turner is a
little hesitant to leave Chet now because he just got
(07:56):
beat on a pop. Right, So how does Indiana adjust.
We have Halliburton and Nie Smith basically ignoring their guys
to sag into the paint. As Shaye drives, there's Nie
Smith waiting. There's the bump on the shoulder and a
block at the basket. Once again, look at the approach
from Shay. Shae has done the job. He's brought a
(08:18):
third defender in into a two man game.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Jadub is open again.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
You throw the swing pass here In all likelihoods, Siakam
closes out. Then Halliburton goes to close out to Dort
kase on Wallace sets a pin and flair there. They're
going to get an open a shot for Dort in
the corner, but instead we're forcing the issue through traffic
and getting blocked. You're going to see a lot of
that kind of thing from Shae and j Dub in
this game. Another Shaye Chet ballscreen. The Thunder ran over
(08:49):
fifty ball screens last night. Steady dose of this. The
Pacers were in like the mid thirties if I remember correctly,
so substantially more pick and roll from the Thunder in
this game than what we saw from Indiana. Same sort
of thing where we see Turner kind of hesitant to
leave Chet. See that he's just hesitant to leave check
because he just got burned on the pop a couple
possessions ago, hard help from Siakam in the lane, and
(09:14):
then this is poor spacing. We talk a lot about
the importance of spacing. As Shay's driving, Dort wants to
go through to the dunker spot, and so instead of
occupying this wing, they occupy the dunker spot in the corner.
That puts Halliburton in a position where he can get
underneath Dort, and he feels comfortable closing out to case
(09:35):
On in the case, and then Siakam is comfortable splitting
the difference between Dort and Shay because Dort doesn't really
bring much in the way of vertical spacing ability, and
so if Dort is way up here, that creates a
much easier simple two on one read. If this guy
steps over and helps on Shay, it's either swing to
the corner or swinging to the wing.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
You get it open. Three.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I thought that was just poor spacing from Oklahoma City.
But again, you're gonna see a consistent theme here the
thunder when they get in the paint, lots of bodies
from the Pacers waiting for them right at the basket.
There's a I thought the Pacers did we We've talked
about this a lot coming into this series. This has
been kind of the story of the Pacers postseason run.
(10:16):
But overall, with exception of the turnovers which they cleaned
up in the second half, I thought the Pacers did
an excellent job of beating mismatches with size throughout the game.
You're gonna see a ton of examples in the film session.
Here we get a simple double drag right, So we
throw the ball to Halliburton. Here's your double drag, meaning
it's basically just a staggered ball screen. Seacam sets the
first one, he set the second one. We get a switch, right,
(10:39):
So now j dub is on Halliburton, Dort is on
Nie Smith, and Cason Wallace is on Siakam. Watch how
quickly so they have the switch. Seacam's on the left wing.
They're in kind of like five out spacing. Watch how
quickly they get the ball to a cleared side with
Siakam swing turner gets the heck out. Siakam dives to
the block. Now all these do are above the break
(11:01):
to force Oklahoma City to make some decisions. They make
the decision to stay hugged up to their man. That
leaves a clean one on one down. Here a case
in tries to basically three quarter front. That gives the
baseline to Siakam and Siakam just quick attacks and scores.
So like again, look at how quickly they get from
oh cool.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
We got our switch. We got the switch.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
We wanted clear the side clear the get everybody above
the break to clear space, pitch it down. Siakam quickly
goes to work. That's just how surgical the pacers can
be attacking mismatches. Triple handoff. Get Siakam on the case
on again. Right here we get the DHL quick switch.
(11:48):
This time they attack it right from the middle of
the floor. Siakam goes quick right shoulder fade. Really nice
little jump shot there. Talk the last night about how
in the traditional coverages that the pacers were using it
conceded quite a few open shots. Here's another example of that.
And again, like guys like I in the big picture,
(12:10):
the actual the percentages were actually pretty solid. Uh for Indiana.
They did hold Oklahoma City, including passes below a point
per pick and roll. But I think it's a little
bit more complicated than that because there were these like
clear huge mistakes and openings that you'll see. But then
there are also like a lot of possessions where there
are openings that Shae and Ja Dove just shoot some
(12:32):
stupid shot instead of moving the ball through. So like
there's a version of it where Oklahoma City can be
much more efficient against these coverages. And so I do
think that over the course of the series, if Oklahoma
City does start processing better in burning these coverages more frequently,
that Indiana might have to consider doing more switching. But again,
watch as the hedge. So this is the hedge right
Casein comes to set the screen for Shae. We have
(12:54):
a lingering hedge from Halliburton to try to prevent Shae
from turning the corner. And then right as Nemhard gets
off of Casin to recover, him and Haliburton run into
each other and that ends up clearing all this space
for Shay to settle into a wide open pull up
three and one of the best.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Looks he got all night.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
I talked last night about how I thought Turner's drop
coverage is actually pretty effective against j Dub. Here's an
example of that. Just drop, drop, drop and force him
to take these tough mid range jump shots. And the
thing is is JDub is just not as good at
this as Shay is. And so it's one of those
things where like J Dub is letting them off the
hook when he takes that type of shot, and you're
(13:38):
gonna see a steady dose to this, Like there's seventeen
seconds on the shot clock. He could have tried to
turn the corner and get downhill into Turner's chest. He's
setting the tone here. This is the kind of shot
JDub wanted to take early in this game, a contested
eighteen footer off, another deep mid ranger from j Dub again,
plenty of time on the shot clock. You have a
(13:59):
power miss Matt here. Just like these are tough shots
to like get going with, you know what I mean.
Like this is how he started the game and to
kind of set the tone for the way he played.
Right on the other end of the floor, we have
our first failed attempt for the Pacers to get the
ball to a mismatch. So on this like little cutthrough action,
you're gonna see a lot of this sort of thing
(14:19):
from Chet. You'll there are several examples tonight or from
the last night's game that you'll see in this film session.
The Thunder will do these kinds of switches where they
want to try to keep Chet in lowman positions so
that he's in position to help at the rim. So
he just points up and goes case and you go
get Miles Turner. I'm gonna stay down here to get
Obi toppin that way I can be ready to help
at the rim. But as soon as Turner clears out. Now, now,
(14:42):
Chet and Turner are really far away and we're gonna
end up with a mismatch. We get the mismatch with
Turner on Cason Wallace. Casin does a great job fronting
the post and they fail to get the ball in.
Topping dribbles himself into some trouble and ends up throwing
the ball away. We had a similar turnover to this
(15:03):
one earlier in the game. This is actually the second
time that the Thunder stripped Turner on a roll. This
is an example of just the damage the Thunder can
do digging down from the weak side. So we get
our screen, we get our role pocket pass watch Dort.
Dort comes flying in boom strips it. That processing in
the middle of the floor without turning the ball over
(15:24):
is the key to the series for Indiana.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
They will get open looks.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Turner misses this shots it's a pick and pop three,
but this is open and it's gonna keep being open.
So again the pick and pop. It's just a simple concept.
Right as Demhar turns the corner, Case's chasing chet is
in drop that leaves Turner open on the pop misses it.
But that look is something that the Pacers should be
able to get consistently throughout the remainder of the series.
(15:54):
Here's an example of the Pacers. You know, I talked
a lot of the in the video with Sam Vessini
about how I think their best bet to get stops
is just to really load up on ball screens and
force Oklahoma City to shoot. And you're gonna see an
example of it here. You get a ball screen. They're
up at the level. This is a good at the
level coverage from Turner. Notice he doesn't let Shay turn
the corner. He's up there before he gets ahead of
(16:16):
Steam forces him to get rid of the ball. Check
gets over the top. That forces low man help from
Obi Toppin, who tags the roller. Now we have our
two on one. On the weak side, Halliburton just stays
attached to Dort enough to make him not throw that pass.
But notice he's got all that weight on that inside
foot so he can push out on the close out.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
There's the kickout.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Haliburton almost gets a hand on it and then gets
a great contest on Cason Wallace there on the weak side.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
That is the strong base.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Scheme that I really like for Indiana in this series,
just loading up on ball screens and forcing them to
shoot on the weak side. Another example of Turner losing
contain at the level. Again this is this is the
same coverage right ball screen at the level, but he
gets split and now he's dead to rights and ends
(17:07):
up giving up the layup right. So again, same coverage.
And when we talk about adjustments in the postseason, we
always talk like, oh, well, this doesn't work. That doesn't work.
Everything can work if it's done right. Last possession turners
at the level. He stops the ball.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
It works.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
This possession turners at the level. He doesn't stop the ball.
It doesn't work. Right. Execution is the majority of the
battle here. Alrighty uh, Shay's gonna beat Aaron Nee Smith
off the dribble here, but watch the way all the
pacers react. So gets beat off the dribble. Boom, three
(17:43):
pacers meet Shae in help. Dort is wide open on
the right wing. Cruso's wide open on the left wing.
There's even a decent little vertical spacing opportunity here with
Hartenstein twenty seconds on the shot clock. This is the
shot Shay takes. I guess you'd call that a pass,
some kind of lob pass something. But again in traffic.
(18:05):
There are reeds there, there are reads there, but the
reeds are being missed and stuff is getting forced in traffic.
This next possession is attached to that. On the miss
Shae falls down. As Shay falls down, he's on the ground.
(18:26):
We have a five on four going the other way.
Look at how fast the Pacers run I talked about
last night. The Pacers, in their commitment to running, is
responsible for a good portion of their success in this postseason.
Look at everybody run and as a result, they end
up getting an open three for Halliburton in the five
(18:46):
on four. Here's an example of a classic backcut pass
from Hartenstein to Shay that ends up leading to an
open three. So backcut, Hartenstein hits him, forces siak him
to step up, passed to dort TJ McConnell rotates Caruso's
the extra pass, big time shot on this turnover. A
(19:17):
kind of an overcooked pocket pass from Haliburton. I actually
thought that was Haliburton's fault, just through it a little
too hard and Shay just taking a lot of these
like like look at that, like that like nineteen thirteen,
you're getting double teamed. Okay, on the double team, you
drive in you face more help and there's fourteen on
(19:40):
the shock, like zero passes on the possession. You don't
have separation and you're just rising and firing into a
really tough contested little fourteen footer. Like I just didn't
think that was a very good shot. A lot of
that kind of stuff. That's like he played himself into
a rhythm and it worked out over the course of
the game for him, but the team was in a rhythm.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
TJ.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Mcconne's gonna get a lay up here, and you're going
to see an example of the role gatty that Turner
brings to the table on the ball screen to watch
hart and Stein that little step there. Hartenstein has the
chance to cut off the drive, but he doesn't want
to leave Turner and so easy little scoop shot layup
for TJ. Hartenstein had a rough night leaving shooters open.
(20:27):
You guys are going to see some examples throughout this
film session. But he did kick Thomas Bryant's butt on
the glass and he just threw him out of the
way there and got another put back, kind of reminiscent
of the Mitchell Robinson problem.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
In the last round.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
The obvious targets for post mismatches against this team for
Indiana are Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace. I even thought TJ.
McConnell had some success just attacking with power. You're going
to see that here against Isaiah Joe. Quick spin, little
right shoulder fade away. That's a Those matchups are matchups
(21:03):
I really like for Indiana in this series. Here's another
example of one of those traditional coverages not working for Indiana.
All you have is Thomas Bryan on the ball, Caruso
coming off. Neither of these guys are huge offensive threats,
so I'd probably just switched this.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
But they don't.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
So as Siakam runs through, he ends up getting in
Thomas Bryant's way and basically screens Thomas Bryant, and that
leaves Isaiah Hartenstein.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Open for the layup.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
I'm really really interested to see because I do think
Oklahoma City will process better. I've dag Nault's gonna be
seeing all this, these same stupid shots that Shane Ja
Dubb took, so like, I'm almost certain that Oklahoma City's
gonna come out and move the ball more in Game two,
and so I'm just really curious to see how well,
Indiana's based like base coverages work, not so much in
(21:57):
like the ball screens with Shaye, like I want to
load up on the ball screens with Shay. It's more
just in these like other coverages off the ball, there's
a lot of like simple switches that could have taken
away some of these easy opportunities that you'll see. Here's
the first three that Hartenstein concedes. So we get like
a little ball screen here on the right and Siakam
(22:23):
screening for TJ or planning to the Pacers will run
a lot of these, like early Siakam screens to try
to get switches, but there's no reason to even run
that action because Toppin's being ignored by Hartenstein. Easy swing
past to TJ McConnell and Top and knocks it down.
(22:47):
And you'll see several examples of that with Hartenstein throughout
the rest of this game. All right, watch the transition
defense off of this steal, so Shay Ripsney Smith. Watch
the Pacers sprint back. That effort stops Shay from getting
(23:08):
a lay up, and you're gonna see so many examples
of that. Top and Kate got off to a really
rough start in this game. He really heated up from
three and got himself back on track and was huge
for the Pacers in this game. This is a tough
shot against basically a set defender in Hartenstein. But again
Hartenstein sagging a little bit, not too bad. Probably needs
(23:30):
to apply a little bit more pressure there. You'll see
a couple more examples like that. Another kind of mediocre
pull up two from JADEB comes off with this little
action with Caruso, turns the corner and just immediately settles
like just ten on the shot clock. He just he's
coming off the screen looking to shoot pull up jump
(23:53):
shots instead of looking to attack. And you will see
that shift as we get later into the game. Another
Hartenstein open shot. He's got Ben Sheppard. Okay, Ben Shepherd
can shoot the ball. You need to be paying attention.
That's just bad defense. Like look, all it is is
just a simple relocation that cut through from Matherin kind
(24:18):
of occupies Isaiah's attention for a second, but Wiggins is
not beat that. There's no passing angle there, so Hartenstein
is just leaving another shooter open. And again there's several
examples of that, and I think if I had to
guess why Dagnaut went away from his bigs late. It
was ultimately that it was ultimately he didn't trust them
(24:39):
to be in the right spots on defense. I showed you,
So there's two that I've shown you already. There was
a third early in the first quarter, and at the
very beginning of this Hartenstein ship where he left Andrew
and Emhard wide open in the left quarter. All three
of those threes went in. So that's nine points already
(25:00):
of Indiana's twenty eight points that came off of Hartenstein
leaving shooters open. And we're fifteen minutes into the game.
Jadub finally attacks, gets rewarded for it. Look, just gets
Ben Mathurn on his hip and attacks, draws a foul,
gets rewarded for it, finally stops settling. We get a
(25:30):
Turner mismatch against Jadub. He's trying to get them to
set up for another post up. Look how he's pointing,
but once the ball gets swung then he ducks in.
As soon as the ball gets swung over to his
side on the floor, he ducks in, ducks in on
JDub creates the passing angle, draws a foul. Turner did
(25:55):
a really nice job in this game. We got some
aj Mitchell minutes, some rookie NBA Finals minutes in the
first half of this game. This is a couple of
shots there and then gets beat by the classic tyrese Haliburton.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Fly By.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Gets a little bit inattentive on this screen, doesn't appear
to see the screen coming and gets hit. You could
tell he notices it at the last second. And then
I always talk about that top foot right when I'm
talking about good screen navigation.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Look at his left foot.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
That's the foot that you got to get above Miles
Turner's left foot, and he just doesn't because he's caught
off guard. So he gets drilled by the screen that
puts him in trail position. Then all Halliburton has to
do is basically show him the ball and then he'll
go flying by. Shay's starting to get his jumper going here,
(26:52):
let's pass forward a little bit. One upside to taking
all those mediocre shots is it just kind of helps
get his rhythm. Nice little step back twenty footer. I
thought Chet had a few of these kind of poor
forces early in this game. Here again a zero pass
(27:15):
possession where he just tries to drive through Turner and
just kind of just doesn't have an angle and just
forces it up and bad. Miss lou Dort did a
great job in this game of hitting like these kind
of short, close out contested threes. Here's an example, like
Siakam is digging down off the strong side corner. Skam
(27:36):
closes out Dort like kind of like pump fakes, but
then he just shoots that like semi contested short corner
three and knocks it down. Sga gets a steal in
the post entry here, great defense, but immediately runs down
(27:57):
after his good defense and just jacks up a bad
shot again right away. Again not a terrible shot for Sga.
We know he can make that, but it's just one
of those things, you know, where he's just struggling to
really feel the flow of the game. Jdeb attacks, something
(28:22):
good happens, doesn't Settle, puts his shoulder into Siakam, draws
Haliburton in help, creates an open corner three. First teammate
another turnover on a post entry. But watch the transition defense.
(28:45):
So TJ looks away, swing the Nie Smith Nie Smith
forced Caruso plays the passing lane, gets the steal. Watch
the pacer sprint. Look at Obi toppin' man, and you'll see,
like with the way the floor is set up, you
have good floor balance. Right, I've got dudes above the
(29:06):
break basket and ball. Right, we have two guys stop
in the ball. We're matched up off with TJ McConnell
and Obi topping. They force at least a semi contested
three in transition off of a turnover. A lot of
really good transition defense in this game. Another good example here,
(29:28):
turnover these two guys, the two guys back, watch them
both ball in basket ready, top in basket, TJ McConnell, ball,
watch everyone else sprint back and get matched up, and
Shae does them all favor. I'm telling you, Like I
(29:50):
I always get a different feel for a game after
I rewatch it, and I was like, oh, like Shay's
working his way into rhythm. Like I see he's attacking
the finals. And I go back and watch and I'm like, like,
this is just you're making the game a lot tougher
than it needs to be.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
By forcing the issue the way that he did.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Another good attack from j dub here, and like it's
it's about like an intentional unwillingness to accept being cut
off like Nie Smith beats him to the spot here, retreat, dribble,
(30:34):
attack again, going the other way, Just keep going, make
something happen. Pretty clear, Uh, pretty clear. Pretty obvious difference
in performance from JDub based on whether or not he
was settling versus attacking. I talked in the series preview
about TJ McConnell and his ability to beat people off
the dribble and the value there. He beats Shay, that
(30:57):
forces Dort to help off of top end, that creates
a cut top and shows the ball, gets Dort to jump,
that forces Shay to step up and help. TJ McConnell's
wide open right there in the dunker spot, easy little shot,
nice driving kick sequence started by TJ mcconne's dribble penetration.
Here's a great low man possession from Tyrese Aliburton, and
(31:18):
I think Tyre's Alliburton's defense has been very underrated in
this postseason run. He's done good in ISO's you'll see
some examples. Turner at the level forces Chet to roll
past Turner, Shaye makes the past, and Haliburton ties him
up over the top with his length. Really nice defensive
play from Halliburton. All right, Pacers are gonna beat another
(31:45):
pick and roll switch here with Turner. So we have
Dort and Chet. Good screen from Turner noted that's the
beginning there. Dort does such a good job of navigating
screens on this one. He gets hit that forces the switch.
Turner dives physical seal from Turner on the one that
(32:07):
he turned over, the one that Haliburton threw that bounce
pass if you watch it, if you go back and
watch it, it was just not a very physical seal
from Turner. Much more physical seal here. Creates a good
clean passing angle, gets a bucket. Really nice work from Turner.
Here's that recurring theme I was talking about with the
(32:29):
pacer sending lots of help on drives. You're gonna see
a lot of that in the second half. Shay's gonna
get downhill beats them hard. Watch boom three pacers coalesce
around him. Jew Is open misses the shot. In order
for the Thunder to break the Pacers of this sort
(32:50):
of hard help at the rim, they're gonna have to
hitch shots. Notice Turner is in a softer drop like
a deeper drop coverage in the second half of this game.
That was the big adjustment from uh Ra Carlisle. As
the game progressed, Shay started to get a little bit
more free in the mid range in drop coverage. I
(33:11):
thought this was a really bad transition defense sequence from Chet.
Chet literally just gets outrun by Siakam. Here, look at Siakam,
beautiful bounce pass from Halliburton, and again Chet like, if
you're having a rough offensive night, that's fine, that's part
of the game. You're a young player, it's the NBA Finals.
But those are the mistakes you can't make if you're
(33:32):
also having your rough offensive game. Rare example of Cason
Wallace actually beating Halliburton one on one. Isaiah Joe and
Cason Wallace did a lot of attacking Halliburton in action
and in one on one, and Haliburton held up pretty well.
But this is a rare example of Caseon actually having
(33:52):
some success. Beats him with a little scoop shot. Here's
another example of Oklahoma City really just conceding three by overhelping.
Look at nies Smith like, there's no advantage here that
would dictate Jadab being this far in the lane. Like
Turner's on the roll, but dorts with him.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
This is an.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Overhelp swing swing open three for Nie Smith. Good close
out from Jadab But again, like these are, this is
a team that's been shooting really well on those kickouts
all postseason. And this is just an example of what
I talked about last night in terms of the Thunder
having options, in terms of loosening up their coverage a
little bit, not being so crazy with their help. Kind
(34:37):
of another recurring theme down the stretch of this game,
the Pacers doing damage against switches on the offensive glass.
So we get a ball screen. There's our ball screen.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Switch. Siakam dives. At this point.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
You can try to throw it into the poet, but
you also can just get it up on the rim.
There's five seconds on the shot clock. Mammart has to
do something quickly, kick out a little bit of an
overhelp from Chet. Chet actually gets a piece beautiful close out,
but look at our mismatch. This is the other side
of the switch, and Siakam ends up getting an easy
(35:20):
put back to erase the good defensive play from Chet.
We talked about in a series preview about Halliburton's hedge
and recovers not being very good against slips.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Here was an example.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
So as Haliburton hedges good hard, aggressive hedge to stop
Shae from turning the corner, but Cason gets behind him
an easy little kick ahead pass for a layup. Another
example of Tyre's Haliburton holding up in ISO. I believe
this one was also against Cason. Wallace hedge a little
(36:01):
bit of a nail help casing one on one against Hallie,
slides beats into the spot. Good contest, Really nice work
there from Haliburton. Now this is like a chaotic sequence,
but I thought it was another example of an overhelp
and it led to another wide open three for Obi toppin.
(36:31):
Again like lost control of the ball, it's nearly turned
over and Nemhart saves it.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Blah blah blah blah. But like, look as this.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Is happening, Nemhart is not in an advantageous position, and
yet Dort is sitting right under the basket and leaving
Obi top and open Chats there to help too, and
they end up just conceding and open three to top
in on the weak side. Obi top in transition cross
(37:06):
match on the run ahead ends up getting You can
actually see them all identify it. Thomas Bryant identifies it
and goes oh, Toppin's got a mismatch. I'm gonna clear
to the corner. He clears out Hartenstein's kind of lingering.
But then they swing the ball around. And when they
swing the ball around, now Hartenstein has to account for
(37:28):
Thomas Bryant in his corner three point shooting that creates
the over the top passing angle. Perfect feed from themhard,
nice finish Pacers, just absolutely relentless, punishing mismatches. I talked
a lot in the series throughout this postseason, like what
you need to score against Oklahoma City is the size
(37:51):
to beat mismatches, the passing ability to pass through their aggression,
and then the shooting ability to knock down shots when
they double team. And the Pacers do have those piece
it's just a question of like can they take care
of the ball, which they did it in the first half,
and then they did in the second half. They went
from forty five points to sixty six points or whatever
they had in the second half.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Failed grift from Shae.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
This was such a smart play from TJ McConnell, beating
a pre switch with a little swing pass.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
So again TJ comes.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Up here, he wants to try to attack Shay right
so he's gonna call Mathin up into the action. Matherine
goes to go up into the action so that TJ
can attack Shay, but Alex Cruso goes, no, dude, I'll
go that way. I can switch it that way, you
can stay home. But in that brief interchange as they
both ran up with Ben to try to pre switch,
(38:44):
there's a little bit of a miscommunication as Shay doesn't
seem to understand what's happening. TJ rifles the swing, passes
Siakam in the corner, and he knocks it down. Beautiful
work from the pacers. Really nice kind of patient pick
and roll attack here from JDub with Isaiah Hartenstein.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
Ball screen. Jadub puts him in jail.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Okay gets some trapped on his backside, and then Hartenstein
clears out Thomas Bryant with a gortat screen clears him
out with that screen so that JDub can slither right
in behind and get the layup. Ben Matherin's athleticism was
really popping in this game. Simple backcut on Alex Cruso
(39:32):
draws a foul. He's an apex athlete among athletes, and
that is an advantage in a series like this, where
Oklahoma's athleticism can be overwhelming at times. I thought this
was great defense. Wigans ends up drawing a foul on
a back cut here, but like watch Matherin, watch him
navigate the screen boom and then beats him to the spot.
(39:54):
Really really sharp defense from mather and Shakam just ends
up giving up a back cut here and drawing a foul.
You know, Ben Matherin, if there's something to get really
excited about. If you're a Pacers fan too, you're already
nearly you know, you're at least in the conversation for
being a championship level team if you can compete in
the series, right, and Ben Matherin just still has so
(40:15):
much room to improve over the course of the coming years.
Ben Matherin again, Alex Caruso just beats him off the
dribble with the hesitation. Dribble once again, nothing fancy, just
right here, high hesitation, just for a second, right there, hesitation.
Then he hits the Jets and beats Alex off the
dribble again. So much potential there in the big picture.
(40:39):
JDub attacking again, gets downhill against Thomas Bryant, gets into
his body and finishes like. That's what I mean when
I say that Oklahoma City has these obvious ways to
play better. They obviously can play a lot better just
by Jdab being more of an attacking force and then
both guys passing through passing through the aggressive help more efficiently.
(41:00):
Baseline out of bounce, we talked a little bit about
this last night on playback. Usually on baseline out of
bounce plays, the fallback option if nothing is open is
this guy who's on the strong side in line with
the lane line will just seal and then the guy
will throw it over the top pass. That's a super
common kind of like release valve you'll see on baseline
out of bounds plays at every level. Ben Matherin messes
up though, because his action is dictating that he runs
(41:21):
to this corner specifically so that he can clear Jaydub out.
But he does and he drifts out to the wing,
so then when the over the top pass comes, Jadub
just jumps it.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
A nice little bit of gamesmanship too from Isaiah Hartenstein.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
You can actually see him pull on Thomas Bryant's jersey
right there to stop him from being able to beat
Jadub to the ball.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
This is a ridiculous and.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
One from Andrew Nemhard driving through Alex Caruso very well defended,
runs through the double drag. Cruso gets through both screens,
beats him to the spot, and Nemhar just powers through
him for an and one ridiculous shot. Watch the way
(42:12):
that Indiana guards this ball. Screen ball goes to j
Dubb two man game with Hartenstein. Look at them hard.
He's got Cason Wallace and he's just defending the action.
Three on two is a free safety and conceding this
swing pass contested three to case and he misses it again.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
That's the coverage. You can see it pretty clearly.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Indiana is leaving dudes open and Oklahoma City's going to
have to hit those shots. Really nice move here from Caruso.
He beats Obi Topping with just a simple in and
out dribbles fast forward a little bit hard in and
out right here Boom buckles him, gets in, draws the
and one a little another example of overhelp from the
(43:04):
thunder here, and again it's a recurring theme. Both teams
are doing it. The difference is is the Pacers are
like this super reliable catch and shoot team and the
thunder a little bit more. You know, it depends on
the night. And like that's the thing is If if
both teams get away with this or run this sort
of coverage and the Pacers shoot the way that they're
capable of shooting, and the thunder go hot and cold
at times, the Pacers have a very good chance to
(43:24):
win this series.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Look at this.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
Ball, scream it's topping to go to the ball. Hartenstein
is there and help, so is Wiggins. We're triple teaming
the ball and leaving shooters open and when they pass
it out, they're gonna knock them down. It's really that simple,
nothing too crazy. JDub missus A Reid here.
Speaker 2 (43:59):
Comes.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
It comes off of a ball screen with Hartenstein attacks
draws the help. You've done your job, you drew Nemharden help.
Halliburton is coming over to tag Cason Wallace. Aaron Wiggins
is wide open on the right wing and stead he
shoots over a double team misses it.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
All right.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Time for the Pacers Devil Magic to start heating up
a little bit. It's gonna start with a Miles Turner
semi contested three along the right wing, and again it's
all about the rhythm. Everyone's involved. Throughout this game, Turner
just catches and fires over the top of Hartenstein knocks
it down. We get a time out eight point game
(44:46):
out of the time out. Really smart play design from
Mark Dagnelt, taking advantage of the fact that the Pacers
are not switching a lot of these off ball actions.
They just simply have Shay backscreen for Cason Wallace because
Nemhar doesn't want to help and these guys don't want
to switch, so Cason's able to just sneak right behind
(45:07):
for the layup. Really nice play design from Dagnault. We
get a hedge and recover on this sequence. Here a
lot of guard screens attacking Halliburton, topping and siakam down
the stretch of this game. We get the hedge and recover.
It works, they stop him from turning the corner. Haliburton
(45:27):
gets back and doesn't concede the easy kickout, but then
he sits in some nail help digs down on Shay.
Cason's open just can't make them pay again, Like if
this is the way they're going to guard, Shay's making
the reads now. But at this point in the game,
these guys are out of rhythm. If he invested more
earlier in the game and trying to get these guys
(45:48):
some cleaner looks, as he was kind of forcing the
issue in traffic, there's a better chance of these guys
knocking down shots late in the game, right like Turner
missed early in the game, two wide open above the
break threes. That's an investment from Halliburton into his shooting
that pays off later in the game. We're gonna get
(46:11):
a random double team here on a Nies Smith drive.
Nie Smith drives, okay, and look at Dort. So Dort
is on the weak side with Obi Toppin. Nie Smith
is driving, not threatening, Okay, they're hounding him around the baseline.
(46:32):
Dort brings this random double team. In the random double team,
Nie Smith just powers through, pivots around really well. Now
Toppin's wide open again, kick out knockdown. So like it
paid off in the first half when they forced a
bunch of turnovers, but in the second half when they
stopped forcing turnovers as the Pacers kind of settled down
taking care of the basketball, all that overhelp, all that
(46:54):
gambling ended up leading to open threes.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Dort misses another kickout.
Speaker 1 (47:05):
On this play, Turner's helping, but in the close out
from Turner and we end up with another transition cross match.
Speaker 2 (47:11):
Because Turner is.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
The guy who closes out at Dort, he's first up
the floor. Because he's first up the floor, chats all
the way back at the basket, we're gonna get a
cross match. That cross match leaves Jadub against Turner. Nie
Smith misses the corner three, but there's Turner rebound draws
the foul. Another example of the Pacers beating size mismatches
(47:33):
on the offensive glass more Pacers Voodoo, this time Miles
Turner shows the ball, beats Chet with a step back,
and banks it in. I don't know in retrospect, judging
by the celebration from Turner, I'm gonna guess it probably
(47:54):
was not an intentional thing. Another example hedge and recover,
this time not working. Topping throws the hedge. By the
time he recovers, he kind of gets in Nemhard's way
a little bit, so by the time Demhard picks up
the ball, he's already south of the foul line. Shay's
got too much momentum and he's able to power through
(48:15):
and draw foul. Another beautiful Miles Turner shot in the
pocket in a ball screen. Let's fast forward a little
bit here screen the reset. I think the pass actually
comes from nemhard ball screen. In the pocket. This is
a tough shot, like a leaning, drifting pocket elbow jumper.
(48:37):
Really nice work from Myles Turner. Another example of a
good drop cover drap from Miles Turner against j Dub
Chase give ground, meet him at the rim. Great contest
(48:58):
forces a miss. He's JDub didn't settle, but I do
like that coverage for Indiana in that particular action. On
the other end, Halliburton gets a little semi transition opportunity
to attack Shake Gills as Alexander beats him off the
dribble for the scoop shot.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Nice finish. Chet makes a I.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
Thought a fine attack here, beats Turner and he's right
at the rim.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
He makes that layup.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
Oklahoma City's in pretty good shape and maybe Chet stays
in the game, but he misses that one and Dagnauld
ends up pivoting off of him here in just a
couple possessions. This is a really nice split from Shay
against Siakam. Watch how he just immediately attacks and protects
the dribble with a kind of a scissor dribble right
(49:52):
as he gets onto Siakam, immediate scissor dribble to change
direction and protect the ball. And again look at Siakam's
right here. That's why you need to use the scissor
dribble instead of the crossover. A low gather is a
way to draw a foul. There again, as you if
you do a low gather, you might catch his arm
and draw foul. But another way to protect the basketball
(50:13):
and to not necessarily grift, but to just beat someone
off the dribble, but try to not turn the ball
over is protect the ball by going through your legs.
He does quick change his direction, gets all the way
to the rim in a really nice finish in traffic.
Chet defensive switch. I thought, pretty well, here switch ball,
scream with Turner, they pass it back to Halliburton looks
(50:38):
to attack Chat. I thought this was a really nice contest.
Forces the miss, and now we have Chet out of
the game. So with Chat out of the game, we
have six five sixty six sixty six six four six
(50:58):
two sixty three. Really a small lineup out there for
Oklahoma City. Watch Siakam, Haliverton misses, but Siakam is just
taller than all these dudes and not really anything they
can do, and he just gets it over the top
of him and draws a foul. We are up nine
(51:26):
Oklahoma City with less than three minutes left, and we
get to more devil magic. In this case, watched aaron
NEI Smith running out to this corner three on the move,
rising and firing against the contest. Insane shot from aaron
Ne Smith, and again we're calling it devil magic as
a joke. It's part of the rhythm that Indiana invests
(51:49):
throughout the game. Another packed paint on a drive the split,
nice work. Three pacers meet Shae in the lane. There's
our kickout Jadub missus. Little extra detail to watch Haliburton's
close out. Halliburton's close out is not going at Jadub.
(52:12):
It's going right in between him and Cason. It's a
passing lane close out, and the result is it forces
j Dub to throw a pass fake. He throws a
pass fake that breaks his rhythm a little bit and
is part of the reason why he leaves that shot
just a tiny bit short. Here's the insane Andrew Nemhard
(52:35):
step back against Shay. Unbelievable stuff, just elite one on
one work brings his game.
Speaker 2 (52:47):
Back to three.
Speaker 1 (52:50):
We get a guard guard screen attacking Haliburton in the hedge.
Two on the ball, Cason slips, Pacers react door to Oh.
These are the good looks that Oklahoma City got down
the stretch that they were missing. Unbelievable block from lou
(53:12):
Dort here vertical takes the contact blocks him on the
way down. Shaye beats everyone to the ball and then
somehow finishes this layup their two bodies at the rim.
Speaker 2 (53:24):
Big time sequence.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
At that point you're thinking the game's over right, but nope,
big time stop here from Nemhart and Siakam on Shae.
I thought Nemhar just did a nice job of staying
body to body with Shae and disrupting his base. Like
this little bump right there. That little bump as he
(53:47):
fights through gets Shay a little off balance. Now watch
Shay's footwork as he elevates on Siakam. He kind of
goes to a right left takeoff off two feet, but
he just doesn't yet much lyft because his footwork is
a little off because of the bump from Nemhard and
so Siakam is able to beat him at the rim.
Watch him again, I'm gonna watch it, and played him
(54:08):
full speed. Watch Shae just get a little bit bumped
off balance right before he takes off. That makes it
so he doesn't get as much lyft, which is why
he gets blocked at the rim. An excellent little two
man stop there from those two guys. Another Sam offensive
rebound off of the miss. Because Shae misses the layup,
(54:32):
he's last thunder up the floor. These four guys are
ahead of him. Siakam's trailing, so as a result, in
the transition cross match, we have Skam on Shay right
or Shae on Siakam. I should say he takes him
right down. They go like they're gonna go to the post.
But instead of going to the post, Nemhard goes, well,
I just hit this crazy step back, might as well
try another, but look at Siakam. He just dives on Shae,
(54:54):
gets inside position and gets the put back.
Speaker 2 (54:57):
Huge huge play in this game.
Speaker 1 (55:00):
On the other end, Shay overcooks the mid range jump
shot against Nemhard actually gets a decent look. He kind
of like sheds Nemhard with the body bump here gets
a really good look, just misses it off the back
rim rebound.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
You guys know the rest. Tyre's Halliburton.
Speaker 1 (55:27):
Makes an aggressive driving move against Cason Wallas. Watch Cason
Walls is squared up, but as Halliburton starts to turn
the corner, Cason has to bail on being squared.
Speaker 2 (55:37):
Up to recover. Look at his hips.
Speaker 1 (55:39):
He's got his hips completely turned towards the baseline. That is,
right when Tyre's Halliburton decides to pop up off the ground.
Speaker 2 (55:47):
Game over one, oh Indiana heading into Game two crazy stuff.
Speaker 1 (55:54):
As you guys can see pretty clearly from the film,
there's some obvious fixable things for Oaklham City. Shay's got
to make more of an effort early in the game
to invest in the rhythm of his teammates by making
the appropriate kickouts j dub He's at his best when
he's attacking, not settling. And then guys are gonna have
to hit those open catch and shoot jump shots when
(56:15):
Indiana overhelps and on drives and then on the other
end of the floor, a little bit more selective of
when to swarm, because Indiana, when they take care of
the basketball, is gonna get the ball out against you,
and they're gonna hit those threes again. I am not
worried about Indiana having a letdown in Game two. They're
gonna come out and they're gonna play Pacers basketball. But
Oklahoma City is certainly capable of coming out with force
(56:38):
and playing a lot better. I believe they will, and
I believe they'll win Game two. But really really impressive
work from the Indiana Pacers to steal game one on
the road. All right, guys, this all I have for
today is always sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us
and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with a
mail bag based on the NBA Finals as well as
some other topics going on around the NBA, and then
(56:58):
back for Game two live on YouTube after the final
buzzer on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (57:02):
What's up guys?
Speaker 1 (57:03):
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second and leave a
rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys
supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
do that, I'd really appreciate it. The volume
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