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Speaker 1: co slash audio. Well, hoops tonight, you're at the volume
Speaker 1: heavy Thursday. Every buddy, hope all of you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great week. Well, we went with Colly Coward
Speaker 1: last night. I wanted to take the time today to
Speaker 1: kind of dig a little bit further into the x's
Speaker 1: and o's and talk about some of the stuff that
Speaker 1: I learned from watching some more film this morning. As
Speaker 1: those of you guys who followed us over to playback,
Speaker 1: we rewatched the fourth quarter last night. I dug into
Speaker 1: some other portions of the game a little deeper, specifically
Speaker 1: the run in the early second quarter as well. I
Speaker 1: wanted to dive into just how the Pacers pulled off
Speaker 1: that big win last night, and then after that looking
Speaker 1: forward in the series, what we can expect as we
Speaker 1: move forward for both of these teams now that we
Speaker 1: only have a few games left in the matchup. You
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Speaker 1: you want any questions into our mail bags, member, we're
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Speaker 1: So show up for the live show and then just
Speaker 1: drop your questions in the chat and then we hit
Speaker 1: them in the mail bag at the tail end. We
Speaker 1: will definitely be doing a mail bag at the tail
Speaker 1: end of tomorrow night's show.
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So before we actually move into it, I figured this
Speaker 1: would be the perfect time for our Microsoft Course Correction
Speaker 1: segment because we had two guys last night and TJ
Speaker 1: McConnell and Ben Mathern that I think just deserve a
Speaker 1: special spotlight for the work that they did off the
Speaker 1: bench in these specific runs that I think won the
Speaker 1: game for the Pacers. So welcome to Course Correction, brought
Speaker 1: to you by Microsoft. Just like star players and teams
Speaker 1: navigating performance hurdles, business decision makers today are under immense
Speaker 1: pressure to get things right. They must rise to the occasion,
Speaker 1: turning challenges into opportunities. Microsoft empowers these visionaries with AI solutions,
Speaker 1: simplified cloud and data management, and trustworthy responsible AI. And
Speaker 1: when you're in the NBA, you have your own hurdles
Speaker 1: to face. In this segment, we will highlight the player
Speaker 1: every week that has risen to the occasion when his
Speaker 1: team needed him whatever challenge you're facing, micro Soft empowers
Speaker 1: you with the expertise to say, bring it on. This
Speaker 1: week's Players of the Week are TJ McConnell and Ben Mathron.
Speaker 1: University of Arizona A lumps. For those of you guys
Speaker 1: who forget, I'm from Tucson, Arizona, still currently live there.
Speaker 1: Big Arizona fan here. I used to be a bigger
Speaker 1: fan of the UVA before excuse me, bigger fan of
Speaker 1: college basketball in general, before I started working in this business.
Speaker 1: I was lamenting that to a buddy of mine at
Speaker 1: the gym the other day. Like ever since I got
Speaker 1: into the NBA and it's become my profession, I have
Speaker 1: had way less time to watch college hoops, which has
Speaker 1: been something that's made me a little sad. Maybe I'll
Speaker 1: be able to find some more balance with that over
Speaker 1: the years.
Speaker 2: But I grew up.
Speaker 1: You know, when as I was growing up, the UVE
Speaker 1: was the team that I rooted for. It was you know,
Speaker 1: if you asked me who my favorite team was, it
Speaker 1: wasn't any NBA team Like the Suns didn't do a
Speaker 1: great job marketing down to Tucson, even though we were
Speaker 1: an hour and a half down the road. It was
Speaker 1: the University of Arizona. That was what we rooted for.
Speaker 1: It's a huge cultural.
Speaker 2: Thing here, just like it is in any.
Speaker 1: Other college town for those of you guys who live
Speaker 1: in college towns and you know what it's like. And
Speaker 1: I was lucky to get to play with a lot
Speaker 1: of these guys that came through the system. TJ McConnell
Speaker 1: has always been one of my favorite players. I've told
Speaker 1: this story on the show before. It's been a very
Speaker 1: long time, but TJ and I I played pick up
Speaker 1: with and against him at various points at the u
Speaker 1: of A. And my first time meeting TJ in person,
Speaker 1: I was this young, just asshole, for lack of a
Speaker 1: better word, and I was playing in a game against
Speaker 1: TJ and some U of A guys, and I was
Speaker 1: bringing this like crazy competitive energy to the game because
Speaker 1: I was like viewing it as an opportunity to try
Speaker 1: to like test myself, you know that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: And I was just being a dumb young basketball player.
Speaker 1: But I vividly remember in that environment a lot of
Speaker 1: the guys kind of playing the too cool for school,
Speaker 1: like whatever, we're just out here messing around kind of thing.
Speaker 1: And there was one guy on the other team that
Speaker 1: had no desire to things that way and that wanted
Speaker 1: to win that game at all costs. And I saw
Speaker 1: the competitive fire in TJ's eyes in that game when
Speaker 1: we were playing against each other and he was talking
Speaker 1: shit to me and all that kind of stuff. Totally
Speaker 1: was like an exposure to the fact that, like TJ
Speaker 1: is one of the APEX competitors that you'll meet, he
Speaker 1: is a guy that that regardless. I always have thought
Speaker 1: that a guy who approaches a random pickup game with
Speaker 1: an insane amount of competitive energy even though he is
Speaker 1: a pro, even though he is a guy that has
Speaker 1: played at in the college level, at the overseas level,
Speaker 1: in the NBA level, like that, to me is an
Speaker 1: indicator of a guy that has a competitive motor that
Speaker 1: is there regardless of surrounding circumstances. And I just remember,
Speaker 1: like I remember being struck by TJ the first time
Speaker 1: I met him, just by how intense he was. And
Speaker 1: I do think that that has been a huge driving
Speaker 1: force behind what has made him a ten year NBA
Speaker 1: pro and has just been one of my favorite players
Speaker 1: to root for over the years. But I've been fortunate
Speaker 1: to see a bunch of u A guys come through Tucson,
Speaker 1: and it was obviously a lot of fun last night
Speaker 1: to watch TJ and Ben to uf alums put a
Speaker 1: huge mark on an NBA Finals game that the Pacers
Speaker 1: basically won that game with two runs. There was a
Speaker 1: twenty five to ten run in the early second quarter
Speaker 1: that took them from down eight to up seven, and
Speaker 1: then there was a twenty three to eleven run in
Speaker 1: the early fourth quarter that put them from down five
Speaker 1: to up seven, and those were really the stretches that
Speaker 1: swung this game back towards Endy. The early second quarter
Speaker 1: run was mostly TJ McConnell. Again, We've talked about this
Speaker 1: a lot in the series preview, but he has one
Speaker 1: of like TJ is actually one of the better athletes
Speaker 1: in the league when it comes to getting straight line
Speaker 1: speed and changing direction. At straight line speed, he can
Speaker 1: bring the ball out the floor with pace and he
Speaker 1: just kind of sets it up for a strong right
Speaker 1: hand drive and he counters it with a right to
Speaker 1: left crossover and then he spins, he gets cut off,
Speaker 1: and he just brings a lot of downhill power in
Speaker 1: those drives and it just makes him very, very difficult
Speaker 1: to guard and like, there were a lot of plays
Speaker 1: like there was one where he dropped off the ball
Speaker 1: to Pascal Siakam for an easy layup. During that run
Speaker 1: where he just was staring down Cason Wallace like head
Speaker 1: to head and just got into the lane. And that
Speaker 1: ultimately is the thing that breaks down any defense is
Speaker 1: the ability to beat your primary defender and to draw
Speaker 1: and help. And on this play he beat Cason Wallace
Speaker 1: and drew and Alex Caruso, which opened up a little
Speaker 1: drop off to Pascal Siakam and he got an easy layup.
Speaker 1: And there were a lot of opportunities for guy like
Speaker 1: he had a big transition drive where he drew a foul.
Speaker 1: He had another drive out of pick and roll where
Speaker 1: he beat Caseon Wallace towards the baseline. He just was
Speaker 1: consistently getting past his man, which was making all of
Speaker 1: these positive trickle down effects. And guys were getting open
Speaker 1: on cuts I talked about Siakam, Ben Mathern got open
Speaker 1: on a cut, Obie Toppen got open running his lane
Speaker 1: and transition on the left side of the floor. That
Speaker 1: was when TJ got one of his inbound steals. If
Speaker 1: you remember, he stole the inbound pass immediately after scoring
Speaker 1: like TJ was just all over the place in that
Speaker 1: early second quarter run and brought the life back into
Speaker 1: the arena after Oklahoma City threw a hell of a
Speaker 1: punch in the first quarter and left Indiana just a
Speaker 1: tiny bit shook at that point, but TJ dug him
Speaker 1: out of it and got him.
Speaker 2: Back into the game.
Speaker 1: And then on the other end of the floor, Jdubb
Speaker 1: took and missed a couple of tough mid range pull
Speaker 1: ups the two man game with Hartenstein and Chet. That
Speaker 1: was a too big look for the Thunder that didn't
Speaker 1: work in this game. Again, I talked about that after
Speaker 1: Game one, like I don't really the different looks that
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City has are more or less irrelevant to me
Speaker 1: because each one of them can succeed. It's just are
Speaker 1: they going to do the job or are they not?
Speaker 1: And this was an example where the two big look
Speaker 1: didn't work. They switched the two man game at the
Speaker 1: top of the key and forced Chat into a tough
Speaker 1: fade away that he missed. It was just in general
Speaker 1: a cold spell for Oklahoma City. Indiana jumped and took
Speaker 1: the lead there and then in the early fourth quarter
Speaker 1: it was Ben Matherin again a twenty three to eleven
Speaker 1: run that took them from down five to put him
Speaker 1: up seven. Ben Matherin, we talked about him before the series,
Speaker 1: is another one of those guys that has that size
Speaker 1: and athleticism to get to his spots against this Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City defense. I talked about this a little bit last
Speaker 1: night with Colin and we talked about it on playback.
Speaker 1: But the if you look at Nie Smith, Neie Smith
Speaker 1: is a very good athlete, but he doesn't handle the
Speaker 1: ball like TJ or Ben, not close right, And Nemhard
Speaker 1: is a great ball handler, but he's not not anywhere
Speaker 1: near the athlete that TJ McConnell and Ben Mathern are.
Speaker 1: And so TJ and Ben bring that combination of like
Speaker 1: kind of apex athletic traits and also the ability to
Speaker 1: handle the basketball that brings a real problem for Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City to be able to handle. And like I know,
Speaker 1: a TJ doesn't really have the reputation of being that
Speaker 1: type of athlete.
Speaker 2: I think he is.
Speaker 1: I think he's very big and strong and is a
Speaker 1: very strong, like straight line speed guy that can change direction.
Speaker 1: I think that's an elite athletic trade and that is
Speaker 1: what has allowed those guys to be successful against a
Speaker 1: very very good perimeter defense from Oklahoma City. But we
Speaker 1: discussed Ben before the series as a guy that could
Speaker 1: be a real scoring boost for this Pacers team, and
Speaker 1: he got a bunch of buckets. In that early fourth
Speaker 1: quarter stretch, he drove into Jdubb's chest and spun off
Speaker 1: of him and got an and one floater. He had
Speaker 1: this ridiculous shot and drop coverage where he like softly
Speaker 1: fed a left handed layup up off the glass. That
Speaker 1: was just a remarkable piece of shot making. That's a
Speaker 1: shot that the vast majority of even NBA players are
Speaker 1: going to overcook off the glass and probably end up missing,
Speaker 1: and Ben mather and made it. He had a pull
Speaker 1: up three versus drop coverage along the right side of
Speaker 1: the floor. He had several pull up jump shots in
Speaker 1: the game, and if you watch him, he just gets
Speaker 1: such great lift and that's really the thing for him,
Speaker 1: Like if he can just get to his spot and
Speaker 1: rise up, these thunder players literally aren't big enough to
Speaker 1: really get a great contest on him there, and he
Speaker 1: was able to get some really good pull up jump
Speaker 1: shot looks in this game. And then TJ had another
Speaker 1: stretch in that in that run where he he had
Speaker 1: a driving layup where he ran like kind of a
Speaker 1: decoy ballscreen on the left side and got Casen to
Speaker 1: think he was gonna switch. Instead he just hit the
Speaker 1: Jets with one of those right handed drives and got
Speaker 1: a layup. Immediately stole the inbounds pass and got another layup. Like,
Speaker 1: those guys were just massive in this game. Ten points,
Speaker 1: five assists and five steals for TJ. McConnell, twenty seven
Speaker 1: points in an NBA Finals game on just twelve shots
Speaker 1: for Ben mathurin just huge NBA Finals moments for those
Speaker 1: two guys. And if they win the title, obviously as
Speaker 1: a local Tucson guys in Arizona guy, it will be
Speaker 1: a game that I look back on very fondly. That's
Speaker 1: it for this week's course correction. Remember Microsoft's AI solutions
Speaker 1: empower you to take bold steps and make informed decisions,
Speaker 1: sparking new ideas to help drive your business forward. With
Speaker 1: Microsoft as your trusted partner, you can navigate your journey
Speaker 1: with confidence, finding innovative solutions, and reaching new possibilities. Visit
Speaker 1: Microsoft dot com Slash Challengers to learn more. It's worth
Speaker 1: mentioning that in the fourth quarter that during that run
Speaker 1: their defense was incredible as well. The big thing that
Speaker 1: really started to have some effect was just overall ball denials.
Speaker 1: There was a possession where Nemard had a quality denial
Speaker 1: of Shay on a sideline out of bounds where he
Speaker 1: was trying to get a post up and because they
Speaker 1: didn't throw it to him and ended up getting worked
Speaker 1: around to j Dubb for a miss.
Speaker 2: There were multiple plays.
Speaker 1: Where guys like got denied and they tried to back
Speaker 1: cut out of the denial and then part and Sign
Speaker 1: or someone else like threw a pass on a back
Speaker 1: door cut to try to get them open against the
Speaker 1: denial that led into turnovers. So like, lots and lots
Speaker 1: of success from ball denials, lots and lots of success
Speaker 1: from just overall ball pressure. We're gonna talk about it
Speaker 1: in a minute, but I thought Oklahoma City really looked fatigued.
Speaker 1: Down the stretch defense was a huge element of those
Speaker 1: fourth quarter runs as well. Now down the stretch once again,
Speaker 1: in classic Pacers fashion, a little bit of everybody right
Speaker 1: Tyres Halliburton, who all night long started just taking the
Speaker 1: I thought he came out the first couple minutes a
Speaker 1: little passive, but hit the jets there in the middle
Speaker 1: of that first quarter, and just did a great job
Speaker 1: all night of just taking the conceited coverage beating looks
Speaker 1: that he wasn't taking for the first three quarters of
Speaker 1: Game two. It's not on every possession. Sometimes they beat
Speaker 1: him over the top of the screen. He wasn't able
Speaker 1: to get some clean looks. But all throughout this series,
Speaker 1: again in the drop coverage, he's had mildly contested pull
Speaker 1: up jump shots coming off of ball screens and mildly
Speaker 1: contested floaters going downhill in ball screens. All against variations
Speaker 1: of drop coverage. Those shots have been there for him,
Speaker 1: and he just didn't take them for the first three
Speaker 1: quarters of Game two. Did a much better job tonight
Speaker 1: of taking them, and he was making them tonight, So
Speaker 1: not only was he keeping himself in a rhythm, but
Speaker 1: he was actually providing some real scoring pop for his team.
Speaker 1: But in the fourth quarter, hit a huge three at
Speaker 1: the top of the key that broke a tie that
Speaker 1: put them up by three. Late in the game, he
Speaker 1: had a beautiful skip pass and pick and roll that
Speaker 1: led to an Aaron Nee Smith three in the right corner.
Speaker 1: Nie Smith hit a couple of massive threes in the
Speaker 1: second half of this game, despite having we talk all
Speaker 1: the time about just find a way to make a
Speaker 1: play when you're having a rough night. And Nie Smith
Speaker 1: was getting cooked by J. Dubb in io and in
Speaker 1: ball screens all night long. He was missing shots. It
Speaker 1: was like a really rough Nie Smith game. And he
Speaker 1: just hit a couple of huge threes late and he
Speaker 1: got a couple of big stops on Jdublade and who
Speaker 1: the hell cares what happened before that. Pacers got the
Speaker 1: win right, but really nice skip pass from Haliburton there.
Speaker 1: I thought he actually missed another one that could have
Speaker 1: gotten to Siakam three in the left corner where he
Speaker 1: forced the ball to Turner instead, but Halliburton did a
Speaker 1: really nice job down the stretch.
Speaker 2: Nemhard hit two huge jumpers.
Speaker 1: There was a play where TJ McConnell just straight up
Speaker 1: broke off Sga on an ISO, but he smoked the
Speaker 1: layup on the tap The tap out that happened after
Speaker 1: Nemhardt hill a pretty tough little mid range jump shot
Speaker 1: over Chet. He had another one and dropped coverage. That
Speaker 1: was a big shot in crunch time, Miles Turner, after
Speaker 1: having a brutally bad game for three quarters, just getting
Speaker 1: absolutely fried in is at the level coverage and missing
Speaker 1: shots all over the floor, he Chet on a pocket
Speaker 1: pass where he caught the ball and just got downhill
Speaker 1: and then just bumped Chet off and Chet went flying
Speaker 1: and he got a little easy layup. He blocked Chet
Speaker 1: three times in the fourth quarter, twice at the rim
Speaker 1: in another play at the three point line. Once again,
Speaker 1: rough game for Miles for three quarters. Just find a
Speaker 1: way to make a play. Now, we will remember Game
Speaker 1: three as a game where Miles Turner made huge plays
Speaker 1: and helped his team win, and no one's gonna care
Speaker 1: about what happened in the first three quarters. It's such
Speaker 1: as these were such classic examples of like, for you
Speaker 1: young basketball players out there, no matter what happens in
Speaker 1: the first quarter, no matter what happens in the second quarter,
Speaker 1: no matter what happens in the third, no matter what
Speaker 1: happens in the first half of the fourth quarter, Like,
Speaker 1: just find a way to make a play and do
Speaker 1: something to put your team in position to win, and
Speaker 1: no one's gonna give a shit about what happened during
Speaker 1: the remainder of that game.
Speaker 2: Obi top in.
Speaker 1: A huge sequence, a two way sequence where he had
Speaker 1: a tip dunk and then got a block. On the
Speaker 1: other end, Tyres was running a guard guard screen on
Speaker 1: the left side of the floor. He rejected the screen
Speaker 1: and got great dribble penetration. And when you get great
Speaker 1: dribble penetration trickle down effects. Right lou Dord has to
Speaker 1: step over off of the weak side corner in low manhelp.
Speaker 1: Alex Cruso, who's guarding Toppin, has to drop an account
Speaker 1: for the corner. That opens up a runway for Obi
Speaker 1: Toppen to just shoot down that right wing lane line
Speaker 1: and he just gets up and throws down a massive
Speaker 1: two handed dunk. They go down to the other end
Speaker 1: down the stretch. The pacers were way way better with
Speaker 1: their at the level coverages with their forwards. He at
Speaker 1: the level coverage with Turner doesn't work. It's causing all
Speaker 1: sorts of problems. We're going to talk about that in
Speaker 1: a minute. But with Siakamen Topping in particular, they got
Speaker 1: multiple stops on switches in actions that looked to attack
Speaker 1: them with either JDub or Shay And the big part
Speaker 1: of it was One of the problems they were having
Speaker 1: in those hedges or in those switches with those forwards
Speaker 1: is one either the on ball guy would lose contain
Speaker 1: and share or JDub would just reject the screen, at
Speaker 1: which case would be an automatic four on three, or
Speaker 1: they would go off the screen and then just immediately
Speaker 1: top In or split Siakam and get right downhill and
Speaker 1: suddenly it would be another four on three. Those four
Speaker 1: on threes have been a major issue for Indiana's defense
Speaker 1: over the course of the last two games, but in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, one of the things they were doing
Speaker 1: the on ball guy was more strongly overplaying towards the
Speaker 1: screen to make it so that Shay or Jadubb could
Speaker 1: not reject the screen, Almost like an ice coverage where
Speaker 1: you're like forcing him to go a certain way, except
Speaker 1: for instead of in an ice coverage, you forced the
Speaker 1: guard to go away from the screen. In this case,
Speaker 1: they were overplaying him to the screen, and then the
Speaker 1: guy Siakam or Topping weren't getting split Toppin was meeting
Speaker 1: him a little further back. Siakam same thing, using his
Speaker 1: length to contest. After the tip dunk, Toppin switched on
Speaker 1: to j Dubb, slid his feet, kept his chest in
Speaker 1: front of that shoulder, met Jdubb at the rim and
Speaker 1: swatted his ass. Huge play down the stretch of that
Speaker 1: game and then their defense. We talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about it earlier, but after really struggling to guard Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City for basically seven quarters row, they got the stops
Speaker 1: they needed in that fourth quarter again Siakam in top
Speaker 1: in those switches. Siakam locked up SGA and ISO twice,
Speaker 1: once got him to pass out of a little step
Speaker 1: back three attempt, another one where he contested a really
Speaker 1: like a really nice contested ISO, like eighteen foot off
Speaker 1: of the left elbow where he got to stop. He
Speaker 1: also had a really sharp close out on Cruso on
Speaker 1: a play where he had a foot in the paint,
Speaker 1: passed went out to Cruso.
Speaker 2: Crusoe looked open.
Speaker 1: We talked about this in the Knick series too, but
Speaker 1: Siakam has been really good with his like help and
Speaker 1: recover closeouts on the weak side. He got a really
Speaker 1: good close out on Cruso that forced him to pass
Speaker 1: out of what looked like in open three. They started
Speaker 1: to snuff out specific actions we talked earlier about there
Speaker 1: at the level coverages with their forwards. We won't go
Speaker 1: any further into that, but they finally got to stop
Speaker 1: on that SGA backscreen action. We talked about this in
Speaker 1: game In game one, they had Shay backscreen for Cason Wallace.
Speaker 1: Caseon Wallace got a wide open layup because Nemhar didn't
Speaker 1: want to help off of SGA on screens. They ran
Speaker 1: it again early in the fourth quarter tonight for Chet
Speaker 1: SGA screen for him. Nemhar didn't want to help. Chet
Speaker 1: got an easy layup out of it. They ran it
Speaker 1: again in crunch time, and finally the Pacers snuffed it out.
Speaker 1: Nemhard slid over and showed while it was one of
Speaker 1: the biggs. I think it was Siakam, it might have
Speaker 1: been Turner. I think it was Turner. Actually, Turner lingered
Speaker 1: for just a second on Shay while Nemhard lingered for
Speaker 1: just a second showing on the Chet backcut, and then
Speaker 1: they recovered to each other's man shut down the action again.
Speaker 1: That's what happens in these playoff series. As things progress,
Speaker 1: you see things enough times, you start to kind of
Speaker 1: snuff out the actions. You know what you're looking for,
Speaker 1: what you're waiting for, and it all of a sudden
Speaker 1: becomes a little bit more about getting one on one
Speaker 1: buckets or where you can create an advantage because the
Speaker 1: actions aren't working as well. And then in general ball
Speaker 1: pressure and fatigue. You'll notice I've been pretty critical of
Speaker 1: the Turner at the level coverages, especially in this series,
Speaker 1: but I haven't been too worried about the ball pressure.
Speaker 1: There's been some downsides where they've given up dribble penetration.
Speaker 1: But the big difference between this team and Jaden McDaniels
Speaker 1: is when Jada McDaniels would get beat, he's not as
Speaker 1: quick footed to get back into the play. Nie Smith,
Speaker 1: Nemhar tj. These guys are so quick footed that even
Speaker 1: when they give up dribble penetration in their ball pressure,
Speaker 1: they can pressure from behind and rush the ball handler
Speaker 1: into making mistakes. I'm advocating with Turner for a deeper
Speaker 1: drop coverage.
Speaker 2: We'll see.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about that when we get a little bit
Speaker 1: later into the show. But those that is a specific
Speaker 1: issue that they were having with Minnesota, that Minnesota was
Speaker 1: having where Shaye would beat ball pressure and then he
Speaker 1: was just getting wherever he wanted on the floor for
Speaker 1: the most part, Indy's been able to like actually cause
Speaker 1: some issues with their dribble drive guys into rushing, into
Speaker 1: making mistakes and turning the basketball over. And there's a
Speaker 1: huge fatigue element to ball pressure in denials. And I
Speaker 1: thought Oklahoma City looked tired down the stretch Shae in particular,
Speaker 1: hands on knees, not fighting for loose balls like Shaye
Speaker 1: looked really tired down the stretch of this game. That
Speaker 1: is a cumulative wear and tear effect that comes from
Speaker 1: that ball pressure. But once again for the Pacers, everybody
Speaker 1: made plays and that continues to be the story for
Speaker 1: this Pacers team. They have seven guys averaging double figures
Speaker 1: for them in this series. Nobody's averaging twenty, but seven
Speaker 1: dudes are averaging at least ten. Juxtaposed with a Thunder
Speaker 1: team that has two dudes averaging twenty in five dudes
Speaker 1: total averaging ten. They are just a They are just
Speaker 1: a cumulative force of nature. On any given night, it's
Speaker 1: somebody different doing something different. But they're just a remarkably
Speaker 1: balanced basketball team. They as a team, forced a bunch
Speaker 1: of turnovers, blocked a bunch of shots. They continue to
Speaker 1: be one of my favorite playoff teams that I've ever watched.
Speaker 1: I actually thought it was funny. I saw a comment
Speaker 1: from you guys after last night's show where there are
Speaker 1: a lot of Pacers fans that think that, like I
Speaker 1: want the Thunder to win, that's not true. Like I
Speaker 1: think the Thunder are going to win. I picked them
Speaker 1: to win the series because you'd be foolish not to
Speaker 1: given what we knew about the two teams coming in.
Speaker 1: But like I find the Pacers to be a more
Speaker 1: likable basketball team than the Thunder, I find the Pacers
Speaker 1: to be a funner team to watch than the Thunder.
Speaker 1: Me and my basketball pick is not the same as
Speaker 1: what my basketball heart believes, so to speak, And I
Speaker 1: will flatly say that the Pacers are one of my
Speaker 1: favorite teams that I've ever watched, and I'll just freely
Speaker 1: admit I have been rooting for them in this series.
Speaker 1: It's just an authentic basketball feeling that I have when
Speaker 1: I'm watching this team. I'm watching them and I want
Speaker 1: them to win. So like that is that I believe
Speaker 1: in the Thunder and I have so much respect for
Speaker 1: the Thunder. And we're going to talk about the specific
Speaker 1: reasons why I think they still deserve to be favored
Speaker 1: in the series. But yeah, Like I'm sitting on the
Speaker 1: couch and I find myself rooting for the Pacers because
Speaker 1: they're just such an unbelievably likable basketball team that plays
Speaker 1: such a beautiful brand of basketball. You've got a couple
Speaker 1: of U of A guys on the roster that's obviously
Speaker 1: gonna appeal to me in my sentimentality a certain amount, right, So,
Speaker 1: like this is they They've just I think they've been
Speaker 1: such such an excellent showcase for the next generation of
Speaker 1: basketball fans to see what the best version of modern
Speaker 1: basketball looks like. And I just really enjoyed watching them
Speaker 1: in this playoff run on the Oklahoma City front. They
Speaker 1: look to be in a really strong position for three quarters.
Speaker 1: After Jadubb hit that little side step three at the
Speaker 1: top of the key at the end of the third
Speaker 1: quarter that put them up five, I thought they were
Speaker 1: gonna pull that game out. It mostly came down to turnovers.
Speaker 1: Their half court offensive rating wasn't good. I think it
Speaker 1: was like a ninety three if I remember correctly, But
Speaker 1: they were they were efficient in their specific actions. When
Speaker 1: they didn't turn the ball over, they got good looks
Speaker 1: and I'm sure that's what deag Naught will be talking
Speaker 1: about when he watches the film and he talks to
Speaker 1: his guys. He's gonna be like, look, when we don't
Speaker 1: take when we don't turn the basketball over and we
Speaker 1: get the ball through their defense, we get quality looks.
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City shot the ball really well last night. Like
Speaker 1: that's the other thing too, Like, if you're a Pacers fan,
Speaker 1: you're looking for another upside, Like you won Game one
Speaker 1: despite the insane amount of turnovers.
Speaker 2: You won Game three.
Speaker 1: Despite the fact that Oklahoma City shot substantially better than
Speaker 1: you did. There's a lot of upside there if you're
Speaker 1: a Pacers fan looking for some optimism looking forward in
Speaker 1: the series. But Oklahoma City did when they didn't turn
Speaker 1: the ball over, they did get good looks. They were
Speaker 1: very efficient in pick and roll. This is the in
Speaker 1: this entire series, Oklahoma City has been extremely well, especially
Speaker 1: in Game two and three. I should say Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: has been very, very efficient attacking and pick and roll.
Speaker 1: They have a lot of upside that they've been able
Speaker 1: to identify through three games. They just can't turn the
Speaker 1: ball over as much as they did. They they did
Speaker 1: get away from their pet action like it's funny. Every
Speaker 1: team has to have a pet action that they trust
Speaker 1: in order to have success later in playoff series. And
Speaker 1: I think the Shai Gilles Alexander ball screens where they're
Speaker 1: attacking Miles Turner in space are really really good and
Speaker 1: they're getting great stuff out of them. Even in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, they got a wide open three for lou
Speaker 1: Dort out of the left corner and out of that action,
Speaker 1: and they should have got another wide open three for
Speaker 1: lou Dort, but Chet missed a read off of a
Speaker 1: short roll a catch. But like they consistently get four
Speaker 1: on threes out of it because either the guy shows
Speaker 1: too high and Shaye dumps it over the top and
Speaker 1: that guy gets a four on three on the roll,
Speaker 1: or Shay's just beating that that at the level show
Speaker 1: from Turner because he's too slow to keep him in
Speaker 1: front in space, or Shay's rejecting the screen and now
Speaker 1: Turner is on the wrong side of the screen and
Speaker 1: he's getting four on three. Anyway, they get a lot
Speaker 1: of really good stuff out of that, but they didn't
Speaker 1: spam it enough, like classic example, the one that Dort missed,
Speaker 1: like Shaye runs the ball screen with chet top of
Speaker 1: the key. They get a wide open three for lou
Speaker 1: Dort out of it. So like textbook process and lou
Speaker 1: Dort's been shooting the shit out of the basketball in
Speaker 1: this series. Dort misses the three. So instead of being like,
Speaker 1: we ran good process, got a great shot, let's go
Speaker 1: back to it, they went right down the floor on
Speaker 1: the next possession, shade it and see the ball they
Speaker 1: went through. They went through Jadub and it's like, I
Speaker 1: get it, Like Jadub was having success. He was attacking
Speaker 1: knees Smith and having some success. But like, by far
Speaker 1: the most reliable action for the Thunder in the series
Speaker 1: has been Shaye attacking turner and ball screens at the
Speaker 1: level they get great stuff out of it every single time.
Speaker 1: And I didn't think they ran it nearly enough in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. And that's the thing with young basketball players.
Speaker 1: They struggle to identify what's working and replicate it, and
Speaker 1: identify what's not working and get away from it. And
Speaker 1: so I do think there was a little bit of
Speaker 1: an execution misstep in that fourth quarter. Looking forward in
Speaker 1: the series, again, as we talk about as series progress,
Speaker 1: the low hanging fruit stuff becomes harder and harder to
Speaker 1: come by, you know, unless you're playing the Knicks and
Speaker 1: suddenly they play their worst transition defense and overall details
Speaker 1: game in game six.
Speaker 2: That's kind of.
Speaker 1: Unusual, but most for the most part, teams kind of
Speaker 1: get a little better at identifying and staying in front
Speaker 1: of that stuff as series progresses. As the series progresses,
Speaker 1: and then actions get snuffed out right, and so all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, it becomes what are your reliable, unguardable actions.
Speaker 1: What are the things you can run that are guaranteed
Speaker 1: to generate you a good shot in the half court
Speaker 1: because they don't have a good option to defend it.
Speaker 1: And I think Oklahoma City has a really reliable action
Speaker 1: that they can go to to generate a good shot,
Speaker 1: and it's that Shay high ballscreen with Miles Turner where
Speaker 1: they're just consistently getting four on threes out of it.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure Indy has established any one single action
Speaker 1: that reliable. It's been kind of different stuff in every
Speaker 1: different part of the game. It's very much like a
Speaker 1: flow in a rhythm that Indiana gets that involves everybody.
Speaker 1: So I still would make Oklahoma City a favorite to
Speaker 1: win the series at this point, but to be clear,
Speaker 1: we have officially entered into the Pacers have a great
Speaker 1: chance to win this series territory. That's where we're at now.
Speaker 1: You know, we always talk about like you got to
Speaker 1: take it one game at a time, all the stuff
Speaker 1: that you hear in press conferences when teams are just
Speaker 1: saying all the meaningless platitudes that we hear.
Speaker 2: But it's true.
Speaker 1: It's one game at a time, Right, you play again
Speaker 1: on Friday. If you beat the Thunder on Friday, you're
Speaker 1: in an excellent position to win the series. It's two
Speaker 1: days off between every game from that point forward. You'll
Speaker 1: have two days off between Game five and Game six
Speaker 1: back in Indiana, and that city will be on fire.
Speaker 1: And you win one game in game six, suddenly you
Speaker 1: win the championship. So everything centers around Friday. Win Friday.
Speaker 1: The pathway is there for you to win the series.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden. I think I'd make you a
Speaker 1: favorite if you win on Friday. So it is incredibly achievable.
Speaker 1: You did the job. You did the job to this point.
Speaker 1: You stole home court advantage and you won one of
Speaker 1: your home games. It's win two home games and the
Speaker 1: trophy is yours. It is right there for the taking.
Speaker 1: But as you know that expression that, like in baseball,
Speaker 1: that momentum is only as strong as your next night
Speaker 1: starting pitcher, the point being like, doesn't matter if you
Speaker 1: won five games in a row or four games in
Speaker 1: a row, doesn't matter, you know what positive momentum you've
Speaker 1: built up. If the next dude who comes to town
Speaker 1: has like a one hundred and two mile an hour
Speaker 1: two seemer that he keeps down in the zone and
Speaker 1: no one can hit, and he counters it with a
Speaker 1: slider that everyone's swinging out of their shoes even though
Speaker 1: it lands, you know, eighteen inches outside of the strike zone. Like,
Speaker 1: if that is what's happening, and your dudes are all
Speaker 1: swinging out of their shoes and they can't make contact,
Speaker 1: no one cares about your momentum. No one cares about
Speaker 1: what kind of like like vibe you've got going in
Speaker 1: the dugout right. Similarly, in the NBA, momentum is only
Speaker 1: as strong as, like, can you score against Oklahoma City's
Speaker 1: defense when they really really tighten the screws, And as
Speaker 1: we saw in the third quarter in particular, they can
Speaker 1: tighten the screws on this Pacers team and cause problems
Speaker 1: for him. I think they only had twenty points in
Speaker 1: that quarter, and it was a lot of the same
Speaker 1: stuff we saw in Game two, like super intense closeouts
Speaker 1: that were kind of shaking Indiana spot up shooters.
Speaker 2: They went really cold.
Speaker 1: There is there's a level that Oklahoma City can get
Speaker 1: too athletically, and I believe that they will reach that
Speaker 1: point in Game four, understanding the desperation of the situation
Speaker 1: for the majority of that game, and so I think
Speaker 1: it's going to be a much much tougher game to win.
Speaker 1: And in that setting, Oklahoma City has this really reliable
Speaker 1: action they can go to at the top of the
Speaker 1: key to get great shots. Not to mention just Shae
Speaker 1: Iso is a relatively reliable action in this matchup, and
Speaker 1: so it's gonna be tough. That's the challenge that Game
Speaker 1: four is going to be the toughest game of the
Speaker 1: series by far for the Pacers. I absolutely think they
Speaker 1: can win it. I absolutely think they have a great
Speaker 1: chance to win this series. But at this point, I
Speaker 1: think Oklahoma City's defense at its ceiling has proven to
Speaker 1: be a little bit better than Indiana's, and I think
Speaker 1: they have a reliable action that they can go to
Speaker 1: I think Oklahoma City is going to win Game four,
Speaker 1: win Game five, and then win one of the next
Speaker 1: two games. So I'm gonna stick with Oklahoma City in
Speaker 1: six or seven. But the Pacers have done exactly what
Speaker 1: we hoped they would do. They have put themselves in
Speaker 1: a position to win this series coming into the series
Speaker 1: despite it being one of the most substantial favorites in
Speaker 1: recent NBA history. So shout out to the Pacers for
Speaker 1: making this an entertaining series. One last note on that
Speaker 1: action we talked about that high ball screen attacking turner
Speaker 1: in space. I want to dive into this action just
Speaker 1: a tiny bit further for just a couple minutes, and
Speaker 1: then we'll be done. So why would you bring a big.
Speaker 2: Up to the level.
Speaker 1: You bring a big up to the level to dissuade
Speaker 1: a pull up shooter. So like, let's say you're playing Steph.
Speaker 1: You don't want him coming off of screens and shooting
Speaker 1: pull up three. So you need someone at the level
Speaker 1: that can kind of like take away that shot right
Speaker 1: or two to take away the runway right. So like
Speaker 1: athletic guards that are really good dribble drive guys. A
Speaker 1: lot of times you'll show at the level just so
Speaker 1: that they can't curl the screen and get going. They
Speaker 1: curl the screen and run into somebody before they can
Speaker 1: get their momentum, and so it like stops them from
Speaker 1: giving dribble penetration right or three to blitz get the
Speaker 1: ball out of their hands.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But the problem that the Pacers are having in this action,
Speaker 1: and the reason why these shape ball screens with Chet
Speaker 1: and Hartenstein that attack Turner in space have been so effective,
Speaker 1: is that Turner's going up to the level and he's
Speaker 1: not containing the ball and Shay's getting past him or
Speaker 1: the role man's getting past him. The ball is getting
Speaker 1: past Turner almost every time when he gets up to
Speaker 1: the level, and so that literally defeats the purpose if
Speaker 1: you're that defeats the purpose unless you're consistently getting the
Speaker 1: ball out of Shay's hands. But Shae himself is dribbling
Speaker 1: past Turner much of the time. Like there were a
Speaker 1: couple plays in the second half where they were more
Speaker 1: blitzy with Turner and he was super aggressive and he
Speaker 1: forced Hey to get rid of the basketball. That's fine,
Speaker 1: at the very least, you're forcing them to play four
Speaker 1: on three without Shae in the action, but like, there's
Speaker 1: way too many examples of Turner coming up to the
Speaker 1: level and Shae's dribbling right around him, and so my
Speaker 1: thing is keep pressure in him. But if Shay's gonna
Speaker 1: get past him, if the ball's gonna get past him,
Speaker 1: no matter what, you might as well have him at
Speaker 1: the rim or closer to the rim. And so all
Speaker 1: I'm advocating for is just running a deeper drop coverage
Speaker 1: with Turner. Well, that have its issues, of course, Now
Speaker 1: all of a sudden he's gonna have to deal with
Speaker 1: someone coming downhill at him, but at least he's got
Speaker 1: length to bother at the rim. Now you're gonna concede
Speaker 1: a lot of pull up mid range jump shots in
Speaker 1: drop coverage around the elbows, Okay, but I'd rather give
Speaker 1: that up than some of the stuff they're getting out
Speaker 1: of these four on threes, especially when Shay himself beats
Speaker 1: the at the level coverage. And so my thing is like,
Speaker 1: don't bring Turner up to the level unless he can
Speaker 1: either contain the ball or force Shay to get rid
Speaker 1: of it, and he hasn't been able to do that
Speaker 1: in this series. So I would have him in more
Speaker 1: of a deeper drop, or at least you're making his
Speaker 1: length a factor at the rim, because again, like that
Speaker 1: is the action they're gonna have to find a way
Speaker 1: to guard. If they're gonna win this series, They're gonna
Speaker 1: have to find a way to guard that SGA ballscreen
Speaker 1: that attacks Miles Turner in space. All right, guys, It's
Speaker 1: all I have for today is always to sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We
Speaker 1: will be back tomorrow night after the final buzzer of
Speaker 1: Game four of the NBA Finals. I'm incredibly excited. It'll
Speaker 1: be just me that night, me and Jackson. We're breaking
Speaker 1: it down. We'll have a mail bag. We'll also head
Speaker 1: over to playback and take questions and watch some film.
Speaker 1: Really looking forward to Game four. I will see you
Speaker 1: guys then. But some guys, as always, im preciate you
Speaker 1: for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. They would actually
Speaker 1: be really helpful for us if you guys would take
Speaker 1: a second and leave a rating and a review.
Speaker 2: As always, I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 1: Supporting us, but if you could take a minute to
Speaker 1: do that, I really appreciate it. The volume