June 21, 2025 • 21 mins
Jason reacts to Game 6 of the NBA Finals in which the Indiana Pacers defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in a blowout to force a Game 7. Jason applauds the Pacers defense for stepping up and making adjustments to force Thunder stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams into bad decision making. He also applauds Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton for fighting through injury. Then Jason lays out the game plan for the Pacers to pull off an upset against the stingy Thunder defense on the road in Game 7 and believes it involves Haliburton and Pascal Siakam's continued effort on the defensive end against SGA and the Thunder.
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(02:00):
All right, wellcoon to hoopsin. I here at the volume
heavy Friday. Everybody, Oh Balt, you guys are having a
great end to your week. Well, this morning I woke
up and I rewatched Game six of the finals, and
I looked at it through the lens of what from
this game is translatable forward to game seven? Is there
anything from this that we can take in terms of
giving Indiana a better chance to win on the road.
(02:20):
I talked about after the Pacers lost Game two in
Oklahoma City. I talked about how Oklahoma City can hit
a point in terms of leveraging their athleticism that makes
me feel like Indiana might not be able to win
in Oklahoma City if they needed to get a game there.
And so at that point in the series, after Game two,
I had talked about how I thought Indiana needed to
(02:41):
win all three of their home games if they were
going to win the finals. But a last that's not
what happened. They lost Game four, obviously with what happened
down the stretch in that game, and so now Indiana
needs to win another game in Oklahoma City. And so
now they're staring down the barrel of a Game seven
on the road, and so I want to look into
some of the stuff that I noticed on film from
(03:02):
last night's game and to see if any of that
translates forward to a Game seven. We're going to talk
about one specific adjustment that Indi animated in the game.
They didn't really change really their coverages, but they changed
their pickup points. So we're going to dive into that
concept a little bit, just like what it does to
these coverages, what it took away, what it did change,
what it didn't change. What has Oklahoma City seen this before?
(03:24):
As Oklahoma City had success against this before. I really
want to dive into that topic and then just some
of the key swing factors as we head into a
Game seven on Sunday. You guys, owe the Joe before
we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops and I YouTube channels.
You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
on Twitter at underscore, JCNLTS. You guys, don't miss you announcements.
Don't forget about our podcast for few wherever you get
your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful
(03:44):
if you leave a rating and a review on that front.
Jackson's doing great work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
and TikTok.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Make sure you guys follow us there.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
In the last but not least, keep dropping mail back
questions in those YouTube comments so we can get to
them in our mail bags. Next one will be on Sunday,
after the final buzzer of Game seven. All right, let's
talk some basketball. So there's a hot button NBA buzzword
every playoff run, and it's usually attached to a specific
basketball dynamic that is prevalent in that playoff run. So,
(04:15):
for instance, last year, we had lots of talk about
point of attack defense, right, because there's so much of
a narrative surrounding Luca and the Dallas Mavericks, and like
his point of attack defense was a story from the
Clippers series all the way through to the finals, right,
we also had a similar dynamic with the Wolves and
what they were able to do to the Suns and
(04:35):
Nuggets on both ends of the floor, really strangling and
containing the ball on one end and then having the
ability to penetrate the defense easily on the other end
of the floor. In twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two,
we talked a ton about drop coverage, right, because that
was one of the most common coverages we saw in
the league at that point in time, and there were
teams that were starting to have success against it.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
And in twenty twenty one, we talked about Trey Young
in the day he did to the Sixers in the
Eastern Conference semi finals.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
In twenty twenty two, Steph Curry against Boston's drop coverage
and the dynamic at play. I mean Udoka talking about
how he wanted to run drop coverage to try to
prevent the Warriors from getting into their easy four on
threes where the ball's popping around. They wanted to force
Steph to take contested pull up threes, and guess what,
he took them, and he made them, right. But that
(05:26):
was kind of the hot button issue in that couple
of seasons, and this year it's the pickup point, and
once again it's tied to the teams that are playing.
And again, all a pickup point means and all these
are just fancy words that mean basic things. Point of
attack defense is literally just one on one defense, right,
It's just containing the ball at the beginning of possessions.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
The idea of a pickup point is just where are
you guarding the ball? Are you guarding the ball like
right when it's inbounded, Are you guarding the ball at
half court? Are you guarding the ball at the three
point line? Where are you deciding to offer resistance to
the guy holding the basketball? And the reason why it's
been such a hot button issue in this postseason run
is the thunder and Pacers are two really good ball
(06:06):
pressure teams, right and the Thunder in particular, have faced
two very different pickup points throughout this postseason run, like
stuff like the Nugget series where teams are sagging back
and trying to or where the Nuggets are sagging back
and trying to contain the ball in front. Then to
the Wolves series and for much of this Pacers series,
where there's a lot of full court pressure and.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
It's a very very different dynamic for the ball handler. Right.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, we did get a slight adjustment from the Indiana
Pacers last night right out the gates. They changed their
pickup point for both Shay and Jadab to basically right
at half court, like you could see Nem Hard for
Shay or Nie Smith for Jadab, literally waiting like toes
just beyond the half court, just behind the half court line,
just waiting for the guy to come at them, And
that kind of moved back and forth. There were portions
(06:51):
of the game where they were still up at half court.
There are portions of the game where they were a
little further back like in that like just outside the
above the break line, like twenty five thirty feet from
the basket, But it was a change from the earlier
portions of the series where they were picking up full
court and trying to deny the basketball more on inbounds
and things along those lines. Now, it's important to mention
(07:13):
this did not change the coverages that Indiana was using
against action. So in ball screens, they were still chasing
over the top with ball pressure, they were still meeting
the ball handler up at the level with their bigs.
They were still hedging and recovering hard with Tyreese Haliburton,
and they were using Tyrese Haliburton to rotate and chet
when he would pop out of ball screens. Many of
(07:34):
the same dynamics that we've seen throughout this series, right,
and all of that is still the same for Oklahoma
City's ball handlers in terms of making reads.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Out of that action.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
We're going to talk about that a little bit later
in the show today, but in terms of process for
Oklahoma City, it's still more or less the same. The
main thing that that did accomplish for Indiana is it
neutralized one of the specific actions that Oklahoma City has
torched Indiana with all series, and that's the extended ball
screens when they were attacking Indiana's ball pressure. They were
(08:06):
bringing heart and sign and shut out to screen, sometimes
past half court, sometimes just inside a half court. But
all of these ball screens were really far extended, and
so Carlisle had Turner and Thomas Bryan and going all
the way up to the level, Tony Bradley coming all
the way out to the level fifty sixty feet from
the basket sometimes and Shay or Jada was able to
(08:29):
pretty easily get around that guy, and they give up
a lot of layups and fouls and things along those
lines because of that extended ball screen coverage. Now, in
this coverage where you're sitting further back on the ball,
there were no examples of Turner or Bradley needing to
come out that far. Now they're never having to come
(08:50):
out further than twenty five thirty feet from the basket.
That's just a little bit more achievable for them. Now, again,
it's still the same dynamic. There were still plays in
this game where Shaye was able to beat Turner at
the level and get into the teeth of the defense
and generate advantages. But Turner did log some of his
best at the level reps of this series because there
(09:10):
were some relatively normal looking ball screens. I talked about
this after Game five, But if you guys remember I
don't have a problem with the at the level coverage.
I have a problem with running the bigs up to
the level when it's at half court. At the level
at the three point line is a lot more achievable
in terms of preventing Shae from getting ahead of steam
(09:33):
when he's coming over the top of the ball screen
out at half court, because he's beating ball pressure. There's
just such a runway for him to get going and
it's just really difficult. But if you're not picking up
Shaye until you know, thirty to twenty five feet from
the basket and here comes the ball screen and he's
chasing over the top, Shaye doesn't have a running start,
and so it just gives Turner a little bit better
(09:55):
chance of staying in front. And he did have some
of his best at the level reps of this series.
But to me, the biggest impact by far was just
the change. This is not some foreign coverage that Oklahoma
City's ball handlers haven't seen before. This is more or
less what Denver did, and it's something we've seen a
little bit in the Minnesota series towards the end, and
now a little bit at the end of the Finals.
(10:16):
But for the most part, in this series and in
the Minnesota series, they haven't seen this coverage, so it's
just a little bit different, and it served as a
catalyst for triggering some of the variants that they needed
to pull off this Game six win. But as we've
talked about extensively on the show, the Thunder have solved
these puzzles in this postseason every time they've absolutely needed to. So,
(10:39):
for instance, I talked about how in the aggregate before
last night that Denver actually logged the best defensive rating
of any team versus Oklahoma City. It has a lot
to do with the coverage. We'll talk about that in
a minute, But in Game five and in Game seven,
the two final games that Oklahoma City absolutely needed to
(11:00):
win with the Nuggets running a similar lower pickup point,
the Thunder logged two games in Game five and in
Game seven of half court offensive ratings over one oh.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Five, which is really good.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
They've gone over one oh five and a half court
just once in this series, even with the extended ball pressure.
So even though in the aggregate, Denver did a good
job guarding Oklahoma City in the two biggest games of
the series Pivotal game series tied to two game five,
series tied at three game seven. They were able to
score against Denver scheme at a very efficient level in
(11:35):
the half court that as I mentioned before, the actual
coverages in action are still more or less the same.
It's still similar reads as a similar decision making process.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
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Speaker 2 (12:22):
If anything, if there was a key mistake that Shay
made last night, he got baited by the lack of
ball pressure into some mediocre ISOs. He logged ten ISOs
in last night's game. That was his second highest total
of the series. Behind you guessed it Game four when
I thought he was pretty bad by his standards. And
(12:43):
so when Shay gets baited into those ISOs and takes
a bunch of those mediocre shots, it does disrupt Oklahoma
City's flow.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
So I'm sure that'll be.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
A particular sticking point from our dagnal in the film room.
We got to run action against this defensive look. You
could literally see it, like the Pacers guys would be
sitting back and kind of like a passive look. But
then here would come the ball screen. And when the
ball screen would come, Ben Shephard or Andrew Nemhart, whoever
it was, would all of a sudden jump up pressure
the ball and fight over the top of the screen,
(13:12):
which is more or less the same dynamic that they've
been seeing throughout the series. And so all of a sudden,
the same openings are there, right Like, if Turner is
at the level, Shay can still try to beat him
with his speed and get into the teeth of the defense.
Chet is still wide open when he's popping out of
those ball screens they're defending at three on two. By
having Tyrese Haliburton rotate off of Dort to Chet popping
(13:36):
above the break. That's a three on two, meaning you
can get the defense in rotation if you make simple
reads and make good decisions out of it. The openings
are still there. Even on the ISOs when Shay's driving,
they're still helping hard, and that kick to the opposite
wing is still open. Every single time when Shay is
posting up on the block, he's still drawing a double
(13:57):
team from the guy who's making the post entry the
doubling from the top side. Shay had examples last night
where he passed out of it well and they.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Got decent looks.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
He had other possessions last night where he turned the
ball over against that double team. So like the openings
are still there, it's still a similar decision making process
to what Oklahoma City has seen throughout this postseason. But
that shift, that abrupt change after doing something different for
most of the series served to shake Oklahoma City's foundation
enough for Indiana to get a big win. Now for
(14:31):
the record, from the Pacers perspective, I do think this
is the appropriate game plan. As I said before last night,
Denver did actually have the best defensive rating against Oklahoma
City of any playoff team. This is despite Denver being
a piss poor defense for most of the year. Contain
the ball, force Oklahoma City to process with their brains
(14:53):
and to make the kickouts and for guys to knock
down semi contested catch and shoot threes. But again, as
I said last night, there is no magic adjustment at
this point in the playoff series.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It's all about execution.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I have seen Indiana beat Oklahoma City twice in this
series with full court ball pressure, and I've seen Oklahoma
City beat Denver and Minnesota in multiple important late series
games against a passive contain the ball approach. None of
the game plan stuff matters if it's not executed properly,
(15:28):
so that containment of the ball issue will be the
primary swing factor in Game seven for both teams. Focusing
on Indiana, they need to keep Shae and JDub in
front now again in their more aggressive looks, they did
it with hard help on the back line, forcing Shay
to make kickouts. In this more contained the ball approach,
it's more about like kind of digging down and like
(15:50):
stunting and recovering in the off ball guys and for
the on ball guy, anticipating movement and beating the player
to the spot and absorbing contact with his chest right.
It looks a little different in this coverage, but it's
still the same kind of idea. If they can keep
the ball in front, they can make Shane and JDub
make kickouts, and they can force role players to make shots.
I do think that approach gives Indiana their best chance,
(16:13):
But on the other side of the floor, they there's
a similar containment issue in the sense that if Oklahoma
City prevents Indiana from getting out in transition, keeps the
ball in front, forces them to do all that weird
dribble handoff interchange stuff at the top of the key
where no one's actually turning the corner, they will force turnovers,
they will get out in transition, and then Oklahoma City
(16:35):
doesn't have to solve your coverage because they're living in
transition where they can do a ton of damage. I
think this coverage gives Indy their best chance, but it's
still about execution, and ultimately they'll need to pass that test,
the final test that no team has been able to
pass in this postseason run, which is when Oklahoma City's
back is against the.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Wall and all of it's on the line and.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
All the pressure is there, Oklahoma City tightens the screws
with their defense, and Indiana is gonna have to not
turn the ball over. And Indiana is gonna have to
get the ball into their flow and try to generate
quality shots.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
That's gonna be the big swing in Game seven.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Now, a couple of other takeaways from the film session
this morning before we get out of here. I thought
ty Reeves was incredible all night in his help and
recover situations. You know, we're gonna talk a little bit
about release of speed when we get to Chet Holmgren,
But Lou Dort has a similar issue where like his
release is a little bit loaded up and it takes
(17:34):
a second for him to get it off. And now
he makes up for that by kind of leaning back
and shooting a moon ball, so it kind of makes
up for some of that lack of release speed. But
Tyree's Halliburton is so fast that he in his ability
to kind of shade off of Dort and towards the ball,
whether it's like double teaming in action, like he would
throw double teams at shape post ups, or he'd come
(17:56):
in the lane and put his body in front in
a drive, or he'd rotate to the popping big or
whatever it is. He's able to get out to Dort
relatively quickly and get a good contest. And so Tyresee
has found a defensive role in this series that has
been very impactful, which is his ability to get off
of dirt and to get back to Dort and basically
function as a disruptor off the ball. Chet Holmger needs
(18:20):
to quicken his release. He got nearly blocked by Tony
Bradley on one three and then did get blocked by
Miles Turner on another three, and on both plays he
looked open. And what's happening is he's really got this
slow load up and he already shoots the ball pretty
much right in front of his face, and he shoots
it without a ton of arc, and so it's an
easy shot to contest under any circumstances. That's not a problem.
(18:42):
Steph shoots the ball from down in front of his face.
But Steph has the quickest release in the sport. And
so the idea there is Chet when we get into
the summertime, needs to have a little bit more of
a focus in terms of streamlining his release. He's got
to get that thing off quickly because even if he
is knocking down threes, it's not going to be effective
if teams are able to get good closeouts on him
(19:04):
because his release is too slow. Pascal Siakam's individual defense
on Shay. He got Shay a bunch in transition cross
matches and then in switches where he was applying like
kind of a soft switch approach, meaning he'd meet Shay
on the other side of the screen and kind of
sit further back, which I think is smart because again,
like as we talked about earlier in the series, Topping
and Siakam have both given up splits when they've been
(19:26):
really aggressive in their switches when they come out too
far to the perimeter. But I thought last night Siakam
was excellent on Shae, sliding his feet, keeping his hands
out and not fouling, and getting great contests on SHA's
over the top shot making. And then lastly, I thought
the double teams of Shay's back shoulder, especially when he's
driving against an engaged defender. So again we talked about
(19:48):
this last night, But like if a guy cleanly beats
his man off the dribble and he's just screaming downhill,
he's unguarded and he's surveying the floor and he's gonna
be able to make decisions relatively But if you stay
relatively attached, mean, Shae's driving, but you're on his hip
and get your arms out. He's engaged with the defender,
it's a little bit harder for him to see what's
(20:09):
happening around him. And Indiana had a lot of success
last night doubling the ball behind him when he would
get on those drives and so on the one hand,
for Shay, he's got to anticipate that sort of thing
and take advantage of those kickouts. Again, the kickouts to
the opposite wing on his drive is open every single time.
And then on the pacers front, it's something to explore
(20:29):
in game seven is another opportunity to try to force
turnovers and get out in transition. So yeah, that's my
takeaway after rewatching the game. I think the pickup point
change is certainly Indiana's best chance, but it doesn't really
change too much about the dynamic in game seven. It's
still going to be the same concepts on both ends
of the floor that are going to dictate win or
loss for these two teams. The final test, the final
(20:53):
boss in the video game for Indiana's Oklahoma City's defense
under desperation, and we're gonna find out really quickly on
Sunday whether or not they're up to that challenge. All right, guys,
That's all I have for today is always as sincerely
appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
We'll be back on Sunday after the final buzzer of
Game seven. Not sure if we're gonna have Colin yet,
I'll let you guys know. I would imagine we probably will,
(21:14):
but we'll be live with Colin after the game, and
then we'll be on playback after the YouTube show finishes,
taking callers and just talking hoops with our fans for
a little bit.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
After that. We will see you guys on Sunday. What's
up guys?
Speaker 2 (21:27):
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Hoops tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
And leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
The volume
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
The NBA Finals are here. This is your last chance
to bet on the NBA until next season, and DraftKings
Sportsbook and official sports betting partner of the NBA is
pulling out all the stops to make this a finals.
To remember, one team will be crown champ and the
other will be lost to history. Who you got winning
at all? Put your hoops expertise to the test. All
season long, DraftKings has been the go to spot for
(00:27):
NBA player props and that doesn't stop now. Who's going
to carry their team to the chip? Try placing a
bet on your personal MVP to drop thirty, forty or
maybe even over fifty. Ready to place your own bet,
download the DraftKings sports Book app, lock in your bets
and finish the season as a winner. Here's something special
for first timers. New DraftKings customers. Bet five dollars to
(00:48):
get three hundred dollars in bonus bets if your bet wins.
Don't miss your last chance to bet on the NBA
this season. Download the DraftKings sports Book app and use
code hoops that's hoop. That's code hoops for new customers
to get three hundred dollars in bonus bets. If your
bet wins. When you bet five bucks only on DraftKings,
the crown is yours. Gambling problem called one hundred gambler
(01:10):
In New York call eight seven seven eight hope and why,
or text hope and why to four six seven three
sixty nine and Connecticut help is available for problem gambling
Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Or visit CCPG dot org.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort
in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by
jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bet must win to receive reward
minimum minus five hundred odds required. Bonus bets expire one
hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms
and responsible gaming resources, see dkang dot co slash audio.
(02:00):
All right, wellcoon to hoopsin. I here at the volume
heavy Friday. Everybody, Oh Balt, you guys are having a
great end to your week. Well, this morning I woke
up and I rewatched Game six of the finals, and
I looked at it through the lens of what from
this game is translatable forward to game seven? Is there
anything from this that we can take in terms of
giving Indiana a better chance to win on the road.
(02:20):
I talked about after the Pacers lost Game two in
Oklahoma City. I talked about how Oklahoma City can hit
a point in terms of leveraging their athleticism that makes
me feel like Indiana might not be able to win
in Oklahoma City if they needed to get a game there.
And so at that point in the series, after Game two,
I had talked about how I thought Indiana needed to
(02:41):
win all three of their home games if they were
going to win the finals. But a last that's not
what happened. They lost Game four, obviously with what happened
down the stretch in that game, and so now Indiana
needs to win another game in Oklahoma City. And so
now they're staring down the barrel of a Game seven
on the road, and so I want to look into
some of the stuff that I noticed on film from
(03:02):
last night's game and to see if any of that
translates forward to a Game seven. We're going to talk
about one specific adjustment that Indi animated in the game.
They didn't really change really their coverages, but they changed
their pickup points. So we're going to dive into that
concept a little bit, just like what it does to
these coverages, what it took away, what it did change,
what it didn't change. What has Oklahoma City seen this before?
(03:24):
As Oklahoma City had success against this before. I really
want to dive into that topic and then just some
of the key swing factors as we head into a
Game seven on Sunday. You guys, owe the Joe before
we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops and I YouTube channels.
You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me
on Twitter at underscore, JCNLTS. You guys, don't miss you announcements.
Don't forget about our podcast for few wherever you get
your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful
(03:44):
if you leave a rating and a review on that front.
Jackson's doing great work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
and TikTok.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Make sure you guys follow us there.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
In the last but not least, keep dropping mail back
questions in those YouTube comments so we can get to
them in our mail bags. Next one will be on Sunday,
after the final buzzer of Game seven. All right, let's
talk some basketball. So there's a hot button NBA buzzword
every playoff run, and it's usually attached to a specific
basketball dynamic that is prevalent in that playoff run. So,
(04:15):
for instance, last year, we had lots of talk about
point of attack defense, right, because there's so much of
a narrative surrounding Luca and the Dallas Mavericks, and like
his point of attack defense was a story from the
Clippers series all the way through to the finals, right,
we also had a similar dynamic with the Wolves and
what they were able to do to the Suns and
(04:35):
Nuggets on both ends of the floor, really strangling and
containing the ball on one end and then having the
ability to penetrate the defense easily on the other end
of the floor. In twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two,
we talked a ton about drop coverage, right, because that
was one of the most common coverages we saw in
the league at that point in time, and there were
teams that were starting to have success against it.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
And in twenty twenty one, we talked about Trey Young
in the day he did to the Sixers in the
Eastern Conference semi finals.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
In twenty twenty two, Steph Curry against Boston's drop coverage
and the dynamic at play. I mean Udoka talking about
how he wanted to run drop coverage to try to
prevent the Warriors from getting into their easy four on
threes where the ball's popping around. They wanted to force
Steph to take contested pull up threes, and guess what,
he took them, and he made them, right. But that
(05:26):
was kind of the hot button issue in that couple
of seasons, and this year it's the pickup point, and
once again it's tied to the teams that are playing.
And again, all a pickup point means and all these
are just fancy words that mean basic things. Point of
attack defense is literally just one on one defense, right,
It's just containing the ball at the beginning of possessions.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
The idea of a pickup point is just where are
you guarding the ball? Are you guarding the ball like
right when it's inbounded, Are you guarding the ball at
half court? Are you guarding the ball at the three
point line? Where are you deciding to offer resistance to
the guy holding the basketball? And the reason why it's
been such a hot button issue in this postseason run
is the thunder and Pacers are two really good ball
(06:06):
pressure teams, right and the Thunder in particular, have faced
two very different pickup points throughout this postseason run, like
stuff like the Nugget series where teams are sagging back
and trying to or where the Nuggets are sagging back
and trying to contain the ball in front. Then to
the Wolves series and for much of this Pacers series,
where there's a lot of full court pressure and.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
It's a very very different dynamic for the ball handler. Right.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Well, we did get a slight adjustment from the Indiana
Pacers last night right out the gates. They changed their
pickup point for both Shay and Jadab to basically right
at half court, like you could see Nem Hard for
Shay or Nie Smith for Jadab, literally waiting like toes
just beyond the half court, just behind the half court line,
just waiting for the guy to come at them, And
that kind of moved back and forth. There were portions
(06:51):
of the game where they were still up at half court.
There are portions of the game where they were a
little further back like in that like just outside the
above the break line, like twenty five thirty feet from
the basket, But it was a change from the earlier
portions of the series where they were picking up full
court and trying to deny the basketball more on inbounds
and things along those lines. Now, it's important to mention
(07:13):
this did not change the coverages that Indiana was using
against action. So in ball screens, they were still chasing
over the top with ball pressure, they were still meeting
the ball handler up at the level with their bigs.
They were still hedging and recovering hard with Tyreese Haliburton,
and they were using Tyrese Haliburton to rotate and chet
when he would pop out of ball screens. Many of
(07:34):
the same dynamics that we've seen throughout this series, right,
and all of that is still the same for Oklahoma
City's ball handlers in terms of making reads.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Out of that action.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
We're going to talk about that a little bit later
in the show today, but in terms of process for
Oklahoma City, it's still more or less the same. The
main thing that that did accomplish for Indiana is it
neutralized one of the specific actions that Oklahoma City has
torched Indiana with all series, and that's the extended ball
screens when they were attacking Indiana's ball pressure. They were
(08:06):
bringing heart and sign and shut out to screen, sometimes
past half court, sometimes just inside a half court. But
all of these ball screens were really far extended, and
so Carlisle had Turner and Thomas Bryan and going all
the way up to the level, Tony Bradley coming all
the way out to the level fifty sixty feet from
the basket sometimes and Shay or Jada was able to
(08:29):
pretty easily get around that guy, and they give up
a lot of layups and fouls and things along those
lines because of that extended ball screen coverage. Now, in
this coverage where you're sitting further back on the ball,
there were no examples of Turner or Bradley needing to
come out that far. Now they're never having to come
(08:50):
out further than twenty five thirty feet from the basket.
That's just a little bit more achievable for them. Now, again,
it's still the same dynamic. There were still plays in
this game where Shaye was able to beat Turner at
the level and get into the teeth of the defense
and generate advantages. But Turner did log some of his
best at the level reps of this series because there
(09:10):
were some relatively normal looking ball screens. I talked about
this after Game five, But if you guys remember I
don't have a problem with the at the level coverage.
I have a problem with running the bigs up to
the level when it's at half court. At the level
at the three point line is a lot more achievable
in terms of preventing Shae from getting ahead of steam
(09:33):
when he's coming over the top of the ball screen
out at half court, because he's beating ball pressure. There's
just such a runway for him to get going and
it's just really difficult. But if you're not picking up
Shaye until you know, thirty to twenty five feet from
the basket and here comes the ball screen and he's
chasing over the top, Shaye doesn't have a running start,
and so it just gives Turner a little bit better
(09:55):
chance of staying in front. And he did have some
of his best at the level reps of this series.
But to me, the biggest impact by far was just
the change. This is not some foreign coverage that Oklahoma
City's ball handlers haven't seen before. This is more or
less what Denver did, and it's something we've seen a
little bit in the Minnesota series towards the end, and
now a little bit at the end of the Finals.
(10:16):
But for the most part, in this series and in
the Minnesota series, they haven't seen this coverage, so it's
just a little bit different, and it served as a
catalyst for triggering some of the variants that they needed
to pull off this Game six win. But as we've
talked about extensively on the show, the Thunder have solved
these puzzles in this postseason every time they've absolutely needed to. So,
(10:39):
for instance, I talked about how in the aggregate before
last night that Denver actually logged the best defensive rating
of any team versus Oklahoma City. It has a lot
to do with the coverage. We'll talk about that in
a minute, But in Game five and in Game seven,
the two final games that Oklahoma City absolutely needed to
(11:00):
win with the Nuggets running a similar lower pickup point,
the Thunder logged two games in Game five and in
Game seven of half court offensive ratings over one oh.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Five, which is really good.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
They've gone over one oh five and a half court
just once in this series, even with the extended ball pressure.
So even though in the aggregate, Denver did a good
job guarding Oklahoma City in the two biggest games of
the series Pivotal game series tied to two game five,
series tied at three game seven. They were able to
score against Denver scheme at a very efficient level in
(11:35):
the half court that as I mentioned before, the actual
coverages in action are still more or less the same.
It's still similar reads as a similar decision making process.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
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Speaker 2 (12:22):
If anything, if there was a key mistake that Shay
made last night, he got baited by the lack of
ball pressure into some mediocre ISOs. He logged ten ISOs
in last night's game. That was his second highest total
of the series. Behind you guessed it Game four when
I thought he was pretty bad by his standards. And
(12:43):
so when Shay gets baited into those ISOs and takes
a bunch of those mediocre shots, it does disrupt Oklahoma
City's flow.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
So I'm sure that'll be.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
A particular sticking point from our dagnal in the film room.
We got to run action against this defensive look. You
could literally see it, like the Pacers guys would be
sitting back and kind of like a passive look. But
then here would come the ball screen. And when the
ball screen would come, Ben Shephard or Andrew Nemhart, whoever
it was, would all of a sudden jump up pressure
the ball and fight over the top of the screen,
(13:12):
which is more or less the same dynamic that they've
been seeing throughout the series. And so all of a sudden,
the same openings are there, right Like, if Turner is
at the level, Shay can still try to beat him
with his speed and get into the teeth of the defense.
Chet is still wide open when he's popping out of
those ball screens they're defending at three on two. By
having Tyrese Haliburton rotate off of Dort to Chet popping
(13:36):
above the break. That's a three on two, meaning you
can get the defense in rotation if you make simple
reads and make good decisions out of it. The openings
are still there. Even on the ISOs when Shay's driving,
they're still helping hard, and that kick to the opposite
wing is still open. Every single time when Shay is
posting up on the block, he's still drawing a double
(13:57):
team from the guy who's making the post entry the
doubling from the top side. Shay had examples last night
where he passed out of it well and they.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Got decent looks.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
He had other possessions last night where he turned the
ball over against that double team. So like the openings
are still there, it's still a similar decision making process
to what Oklahoma City has seen throughout this postseason. But
that shift, that abrupt change after doing something different for
most of the series served to shake Oklahoma City's foundation
enough for Indiana to get a big win. Now for
(14:31):
the record, from the Pacers perspective, I do think this
is the appropriate game plan. As I said before last night,
Denver did actually have the best defensive rating against Oklahoma
City of any playoff team. This is despite Denver being
a piss poor defense for most of the year. Contain
the ball, force Oklahoma City to process with their brains
(14:53):
and to make the kickouts and for guys to knock
down semi contested catch and shoot threes. But again, as
I said last night, there is no magic adjustment at
this point in the playoff series.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
It's all about execution.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I have seen Indiana beat Oklahoma City twice in this
series with full court ball pressure, and I've seen Oklahoma
City beat Denver and Minnesota in multiple important late series
games against a passive contain the ball approach. None of
the game plan stuff matters if it's not executed properly,
(15:28):
so that containment of the ball issue will be the
primary swing factor in Game seven for both teams. Focusing
on Indiana, they need to keep Shae and JDub in
front now again in their more aggressive looks, they did
it with hard help on the back line, forcing Shay
to make kickouts. In this more contained the ball approach,
it's more about like kind of digging down and like
(15:50):
stunting and recovering in the off ball guys and for
the on ball guy, anticipating movement and beating the player
to the spot and absorbing contact with his chest right.
It looks a little different in this coverage, but it's
still the same kind of idea. If they can keep
the ball in front, they can make Shane and JDub
make kickouts, and they can force role players to make shots.
I do think that approach gives Indiana their best chance,
(16:13):
But on the other side of the floor, they there's
a similar containment issue in the sense that if Oklahoma
City prevents Indiana from getting out in transition, keeps the
ball in front, forces them to do all that weird
dribble handoff interchange stuff at the top of the key
where no one's actually turning the corner, they will force turnovers,
they will get out in transition, and then Oklahoma City
(16:35):
doesn't have to solve your coverage because they're living in
transition where they can do a ton of damage. I
think this coverage gives Indy their best chance, but it's
still about execution, and ultimately they'll need to pass that test,
the final test that no team has been able to
pass in this postseason run, which is when Oklahoma City's
back is against the.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Wall and all of it's on the line and.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
All the pressure is there, Oklahoma City tightens the screws
with their defense, and Indiana is gonna have to not
turn the ball over. And Indiana is gonna have to
get the ball into their flow and try to generate
quality shots.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
That's gonna be the big swing in Game seven.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Now, a couple of other takeaways from the film session
this morning before we get out of here. I thought
ty Reeves was incredible all night in his help and
recover situations. You know, we're gonna talk a little bit
about release of speed when we get to Chet Holmgren,
But Lou Dort has a similar issue where like his
release is a little bit loaded up and it takes
(17:34):
a second for him to get it off. And now
he makes up for that by kind of leaning back
and shooting a moon ball, so it kind of makes
up for some of that lack of release speed. But
Tyree's Halliburton is so fast that he in his ability
to kind of shade off of Dort and towards the ball,
whether it's like double teaming in action, like he would
throw double teams at shape post ups, or he'd come
(17:56):
in the lane and put his body in front in
a drive, or he'd rotate to the popping big or
whatever it is. He's able to get out to Dort
relatively quickly and get a good contest. And so Tyresee
has found a defensive role in this series that has
been very impactful, which is his ability to get off
of dirt and to get back to Dort and basically
function as a disruptor off the ball. Chet Holmger needs
(18:20):
to quicken his release. He got nearly blocked by Tony
Bradley on one three and then did get blocked by
Miles Turner on another three, and on both plays he
looked open. And what's happening is he's really got this
slow load up and he already shoots the ball pretty
much right in front of his face, and he shoots
it without a ton of arc, and so it's an
easy shot to contest under any circumstances. That's not a problem.
(18:42):
Steph shoots the ball from down in front of his face.
But Steph has the quickest release in the sport. And
so the idea there is Chet when we get into
the summertime, needs to have a little bit more of
a focus in terms of streamlining his release. He's got
to get that thing off quickly because even if he
is knocking down threes, it's not going to be effective
if teams are able to get good closeouts on him
(19:04):
because his release is too slow. Pascal Siakam's individual defense
on Shay. He got Shay a bunch in transition cross
matches and then in switches where he was applying like
kind of a soft switch approach, meaning he'd meet Shay
on the other side of the screen and kind of
sit further back, which I think is smart because again,
like as we talked about earlier in the series, Topping
and Siakam have both given up splits when they've been
(19:26):
really aggressive in their switches when they come out too
far to the perimeter. But I thought last night Siakam
was excellent on Shae, sliding his feet, keeping his hands
out and not fouling, and getting great contests on SHA's
over the top shot making. And then lastly, I thought
the double teams of Shay's back shoulder, especially when he's
driving against an engaged defender. So again we talked about
(19:48):
this last night, But like if a guy cleanly beats
his man off the dribble and he's just screaming downhill,
he's unguarded and he's surveying the floor and he's gonna
be able to make decisions relatively But if you stay
relatively attached, mean, Shae's driving, but you're on his hip
and get your arms out. He's engaged with the defender,
it's a little bit harder for him to see what's
(20:09):
happening around him. And Indiana had a lot of success
last night doubling the ball behind him when he would
get on those drives and so on the one hand,
for Shay, he's got to anticipate that sort of thing
and take advantage of those kickouts. Again, the kickouts to
the opposite wing on his drive is open every single time.
And then on the pacers front, it's something to explore
(20:29):
in game seven is another opportunity to try to force
turnovers and get out in transition. So yeah, that's my
takeaway after rewatching the game. I think the pickup point
change is certainly Indiana's best chance, but it doesn't really
change too much about the dynamic in game seven. It's
still going to be the same concepts on both ends
of the floor that are going to dictate win or
loss for these two teams. The final test, the final
(20:53):
boss in the video game for Indiana's Oklahoma City's defense
under desperation, and we're gonna find out really quickly on
Sunday whether or not they're up to that challenge. All right, guys,
That's all I have for today is always as sincerely
appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
We'll be back on Sunday after the final buzzer of
Game seven. Not sure if we're gonna have Colin yet,
I'll let you guys know. I would imagine we probably will,
(21:14):
but we'll be live with Colin after the game, and
then we'll be on playback after the YouTube show finishes,
taking callers and just talking hoops with our fans for
a little bit.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
After that. We will see you guys on Sunday. What's
up guys?
Speaker 2 (21:27):
As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting
Hoops tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us
if you guys would take a second.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
And leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if
you could take a minute to do that, I'd really
appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
The volume
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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