Pacers Reach Eastern Conference Finals for Second Consecutive Year as Cavaliers' Dream Season Ends in a Nightmare
The Indiana Pacers started the season 6-9 while the Cleveland Cavaliers started the season 15-0, but the numbers that matter the most for these teams are 4-1: that is the final tally of their second round series after Indiana won game five in Cleveland, 114-105. Tyrese Haliburton led the Pacers in scoring (31 points) and assists (eight). Pascal Siakam added 21 points, eight rebounds, and five assists as each Indiana starter scored at least 10 points. Donovan Mitchell scored a game-high 35 points, but he shot just 8-25 from the field and only had one assist. Evan Mobley contributed 24 points and 11 rebounds.
The Cavaliers finished first in the Eastern Conference with a 64-18
record and they went 34-7 at home--but they lost all three home games to
the Pacers in this series, culminating in game five when they
squandered a 19 point second quarter lead. The Pacers seized homecourt advantage in this series by winning game one in Cleveland 121-112, and then the Pacers took a commanding 2-0 lead by taking game two 120-119; the Cavaliers were missing three key players due to injury--Defensive Player of the Year/All-Star Evan Mobley, All-Star Darius Garland, and De'Andre Hunter--but that is no excuse for enabling the Pacers to outscore them 8-0 in the final 57.6 seconds. The Cavaliers avoided being swept by routing the Pacers 126-104 in Indiana in game three, but the Pacers eliminated any realistic chance for a Cleveland comeback by stomping the Cavaliers 129-109 in game four. The Pacers led 80-39 at halftime of game four while facing Cleveland's full roster, and the Pacers destroyed the Cavaliers in the paint (58-32) for the entire game, making a mockery of Cleveland's double big lineup featuring Mobley and Jarrett Allen. At least one commentator compared Mobley to Tim Duncan this season, and that madness needs to stop. Mobley is a talented and still improving player, but Duncan entered the NBA as a polished, MVP-level player who would have destroyed this Indiana team at both ends of the court.
Six Indiana players averaged between 11.4 ppg and 17.8 ppg in this series, with Siakam (17.8 ppg) and Haliburton (17.4 ppg) leading that balanced attack. Andrew Nembhard (7.2 apg) edged Haliburton (7.0 apg) for team-high honors in assists. Myles Turner had a solid series (16.2 ppg, team-high 7.2 rpg, team-high 2.8 bpg). The Pacers are not known as a physical team or a defensive-minded team, but they spent most of this series pushing the Cavaliers around at both ends of the court. After the game four rout, Coach of the Year Kenny Atkinson lamented that his Cavaliers did not play with enough force, but nothing much changed in game five.
Donovan Mitchell's playoff career is a mixed bag, and this abbreviated playoff run as the best player on the East's top seeded team embodies those contradictions. Mitchell is a dynamic scorer who owns the seventh highest scoring average (28.3 ppg) in ABA/NBA playoff history, and he has scored at least 30 points in eight straight series openers, breaking a record held by
Michael Jordan, who had two separate streaks of seven such games. In game one of this series, Mitchell scored 33 points, but he shot just 13-30 from the field and he only had six fourth quarter points. Mitchell scored 48 points on 15-30 field goal shooting in game two, but he shot 2-6 from the field with three turnovers in the fourth quarter as the Cavaliers blundered away the game down the stretch. Mitchell scored 43 points on 14-29 field goal shooting in Cleveland's only win, but then he had just 12 points on 3-11 field goal shooting in the first half of game four before coming up lame just prior to the second half with an ankle injury that caused him to miss the rest of the blowout loss. That all adds up to 34.2 ppg on .424 field goal shooting. Is Mitchell an MVP-caliber player who needs more help or just tougher players around him? Or is there something about the way Mitchell plays that is not conducive to deep playoff runs? Mitchell has never advanced past the second round.
As I noted in my series preview in which I picked Cleveland to beat Indiana in six games, the Cavaliers led the NBA in scoring (121.9 ppg) while ranking second in field goal
percentage (.491), third in defensive field goal percentage (.454),
sixth in rebounding (45.4 rpg), and 12th in points allowed. Their regular season point differential (9.5) is on par with the point differentials of all-time great championship
teams such as the 1986 Boston Celtics, the 1991 Chicago Bulls, and the
1997 Chicago Bulls. I also emphasized that all of those numbers mean nothing unless/until the Cavaliers validate those statistics with a deep playoff run. The Cavaliers failed miserably versus the Pacers, and their failure cannot be attributed just to injuries; the Pacers proved to be tougher, and they played smarter in key moments.
This will be a long offseason for the Cavaliers.
Meanwhile, after their sluggish start to the season the Pacers have reached the
Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight season, and they are
suddenly in excellent position to return to the NBA Finals for
the first time since 2000; the franchise known as the Boston Celtics of the ABA after capturing three ABA titles (1970, 1972-73) has not yet won an NBA title. Speaking of the Celtics, the Pacers await the winner of the Boston-New York series. Defending NBA champion Boston is without the services of Jayson Tatum, who ruptured his right Achilles in a game four loss that gave New York a commanding 3-1 series lead; after eliminating the best regular season team in the Eastern Conference, the Pacers may have a path to the NBA Finals that does not involve facing the Eastern Conference's other 60-plus win team.
Labels: Cleveland Cavaliers, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Indiana Pacers, Myles Turner, Pascal Siakam, Tyrese Haliburton
posted by David Friedman @ 8:44 PM
Celtics Rally From 18 Point Deficit to Put Pacers in 3-0 Hole
Jrue Holiday--who was so sick earlier in the day that he missed shootaround--scored Boston's last five points in the final 38.9 seconds as the Celtics recovered from an 18 point deficit to beat the Indiana Pacers 114-111 and take a 3-0 Eastern Conference Finals lead. Holiday finished with 14 points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals, but Boston's biggest star overall was Jayson Tatum, who had a game-high 36 points, a game-high 10 rebounds, and a team-high eight assists. Jaylen Brown had another strong performance (24 points on 10-18 field goal shooting), and soon to be 38 year old Al Horford had his second flashback performance in the past four games with 23 points, five rebounds, and three blocked shots. Horford shot 8-14 from the field, including 7-12 from three point range. Derrick White added 13 points, seven assists, five rebounds, and three steals as all five Boston starters scored at least 13 points. Boston's bench is depleted with Horford taking the starting spot of the injured Kristaps Porzingis, but Boston still has the league's best starting five.
Andrew Nembhard led the Pacers in scoring (32 points) and assists (nine). T.J. McConnell had an excellent game off of the bench (23 points, nine rebounds, six assists and just one turnover in 29 minutes). Myles Turner added 22 points while tying Tatum for game-high rebounding honors with 10. Pascal Siakam scored 22 points and dished for six assists. That quartet played very well, but the other Pacers combined to score just 12 points on 6-19 (.316) field goal shooting. The Pacers' ball movement, player movement, shooting, and passing were impeccable for the first two and a half quarters, but they did not maintain that high level execution in the game's final 18 minutes.
When Indiana's All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton was sidelined with a hamstring injury during Boston's 126-110 game two win, it looked as if Boston would have an easy path to two more victories to punch their ticket to the NBA Finals--and Boston seemed to confirm that view by storming to a 24-15 first quarter lead, but then Indiana outscored Boston 49-22 to take a 64-46 second quarter lead. The Pacers led 69-57 at halftime, shooting .636 from the field in a performance reminiscent of their sizzling shooting in their game seven win versus the New York Knicks.
It is easy to criticize the Celtics for taking things for granted and losing focus, but the Pacers should also get credit; they have several very talented players other than Haliburton, and those players played very well, but they just could not quite sustain that level for the entire game, particularly after the Celtics' defensive energy and intensity went up a notch down the stretch in the third quarter. The Pacers led 84-66 at the 6:04 mark of the third quarter, but the Celtics cut that lead in half and entered the fourth quarter trailing 90-81.
The Pacers never regained a double digit lead, and the Celtics chipped away during the final stanza, culminating in Holiday's two game-winning plays; his driving basket/three point play gave the Celtics their first lead (112-111) since the opening moments of the second quarter. After the teams exchanged misses, Holiday stole the ball from Nembhard and made two free throws to push the Celtics' advantage to 114-111. The Pacers called a timeout after Holiday's second free throw, and they ran an interesting inbounds play with 1.7 second left: four Pacers lined up in the backcourt like NFL wide receivers, and then they ran "crossing patterns" as they sprinted past midcourt, freeing Nesmith to take a corner three pointer; it is difficult to get off a quality shot against a good defensive team when you need a three pointer to tie with less than two seconds left, but the Pacers executed that situation as well as possible. As the saying goes, it is a make or miss league, and Nesmith missed.
Indiana Coach Rick Carlisle vowed after the game that the Pacers will go after the Celtics with even more intensity in game four--but the reality is that no NBA team has ever won a playoff series after trailing 3-0, and it is difficult to see the Pacers making such history under any circumstances, let alone without Haliburton.
Labels: Al Horford, Andrew Nembhard, Boston Celtics, Indiana Pacers, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, Myles Turner, T.J. McConnell, Tyrese Haliburton
posted by David Friedman @ 12:23 AM
Hot-Shooting Pacers Rout Knicks in New York to Advance to the Eastern Conference Finals
The Indiana Pacers could not miss and the New York Knicks could not stay healthy: that was the story as the Pacers defeated the Knicks 130-109 in game seven at New York, earning the right to face the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Pacers set an NBA playoff single game record by shooting .671 from the field (53-71), while the Knicks set an unofficial record by having five of their top eight rotation players unavailable by the end of game seven: Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson, and Bojan Bogdanovic did not play at all in game seven, OG Anunoby played less than five minutes after coming back too soon from a hamstring injury, and Jalen Brunson missed the last 15 minutes after breaking his left hand late in the third quarter. The Knicks won the first two games of this series at home, but lost four of the next five games as Anunoby missed three full games (and 43 minutes of game seven) and iron man Josh Hart suffered an abdominal injury that limited his effectiveness in games six and seven.
The Knicks define themselves by their physicality, defense, and rebounding, so it must be particularly galling for them not just to lose to a finesse-oriented team but to be outdone in both points in the paint (52-38) and rebounding (33-28) in game seven at home.
Tyrese Haliburton led the way with a team-high 26 points on 10-17 field goal shooting, but he had a lot of help as all four other Indiana starters scored in double figures: Pascal Siakam (20 points, 8-15 field goal shooting), Andrew Nembhard (20 points, 8-10 field goal shooting), Aaron Nesmith (19 points, 8-8 field goal shooting), and Myles Turner (17 points, 7-11 field goal shooting). T.J. McConnell provided a spark off of the bench with 12 points (6-8 field goal shooting) and flypaper sticky defense.
Donte DiVincenzo scored a game-high 39 points, Alec Burks scored 26 points off of the bench, Brunson had 17 points and a game-high nine assists, and Hart added 10 points, eight rebounds, and five assists before fouling out. However, Brunson candidly admitted after the game that he had not played well before breaking his hand, as he shot just 6-17 from the field.
Although it would have been interesting to see these teams battle it out
with the Knicks at full strength, the Pacers deserve full credit for
how well their offense performed in game seven; this was not just about
making shots: the Pacers pushed the ball up the court, made crisp
passes, and hunted mismatches. The Knicks looked a step slow at both
ends of the court, which is
another way of saying that the Pacers looked very fast at both ends of
the court; the undersized Knicks are at their best when they are
scrambling around so fast that opposing teams cannot find any holes to
exploit, but in game seven the Pacers adroitly identified when Siakam
was isolated in the post against a smaller defender, when Turner was
cutting to the hoop behind the defense, and when three point shooters
were open as the Knicks tried in vain to shut down the Pacers' paint
attack. New York Coach Tom Thibodeau asked his team to make multiple
efforts--"one is not enough," he said during one of the their timeout
huddles--but the Knicks just could not keep up with the Pacers.
Despite all of the attention paid to "clutch time" statistics, the reality is that the NBA is often a first quarter league. Haliburton (14 points) and Siakam (11 points) combined for 25 first quarter points as the Pacers outcored the Knicks 39-27 in the opening stanza. Anunoby scored five points on 2-2 field goal shooting in five minutes, but he also had a -6 plus/minus number as he dragged his left leg up and down the court, unable to move well enough to play defense. The Pacers shot 16-21 (.762) from the field in the first quarter, including 7-8 from three point range.
The Knicks never cut the margin to less than six points the rest of the way, they trailed 70-55 at halftime, and they trailed by at least 15 points for most of the second half. The Pacers shot 29-38 (.763) from the field in the first half, the best field goal percentage in any half in the 25 years since the NBA has kept such records.
It would have been logical to assume that the Pacers could not maintain such a lofty field goal percentage in the second half, but their 60 second half points on 24-41 field goal shooting (.585) proved to be more than sufficient. The Knicks made their last stand when Hart's layup cut the margin to 73-67 with 8:03 left in the third quarter. The Pacers answered with four straight points before Brunson assisted on a DiVincenzo three pointer that trimmed the deficit to 77-70 at the 6:43 mark of the third quarter, but the Pacers had already pulled away to a 92-74 lead by the time that Brunson left the game with his broken hand.
This is the Pacers' eighth trip to the Eastern Conference Finals (1994-95, 1998-2000, 2004, 2014) after winning three ABA championships (1970, 1972-73). It will be interesting to see these young Pacers contend with a veteran-laden Celtics squad that is making their sixth Eastern Conference Finals appearance in the past eight years.
Labels: Donte DiVincenzo, Indiana Pacers, Jalen Brunson, Myles Turner, New York Knicks, Pascal Siakam, T.J. McConnell, Tyrese Haliburton
posted by David Friedman @ 9:31 PM
Pacers Outscrap Scrappy Knicks to Win Game Three, 111-106
"The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break
of the game, every minute, every second. On this team, we fight for that
inch. On this
team, we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that
inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch, because we know when
we
add up all those inches that's gonna make the f------ difference
between winning and losing! Between livin' and dyin'!"--Coach Tony
D'Amato, "Any Given Sunday"
The New York Knicks are not the
biggest or the most talented team in the NBA, but they might be the
scrappiest. In a must win game three at home, the Indiana Pacers
outscrapped the New York Knicks by just enough to win 111-106 and
preserve the opportunity to tie the series at 2-2 with one more home
win. Tyrese Haliburton scored a game-high 35 points while shooting 14-26
from the field (including 6-16 from three point range), and he also
dished for a game-high seven assists. Pascal Siakam added 26 points and
seven rebounds, while Myles Turner contributed 21 points, a team-high 10
rebounds, and three blocked shots.
Donte DiVincenzo picked up
the slack for a hobbled Jalen Brunson--who was questionable before the
game with a right foot injury--by tying Haliburton for game-high honors
with 35 points. Brunson was less efficient than usual, shooting just
10-26 from the field and having five turnovers to go along with his six
assists. He finished with 26 points, and he scored seven points on 2-7
field goal shooting in the fourth quarter as both he and the Knicks
seemed worn down; the Knicks scored just 16 points on 4-19 fourth
quarter shooting.
The Pacers outrebounded the Knicks 42-41,
including 15-10 in the fourth quarter when the Pacers snared five
offensive rebounds. Aaron Nesmith corralled the last of those offensive
rebounds with 30.5 seconds remaining and the score tied at 106. Andrew
Nembhard struggled with his shot (five points on 2-8 field goal
shooting), but he converted that extra possession into what turned out
to be the game-winning three pointer with 17.8 seconds remaining.
Nesmith closed out the scoring with a pair of free throws.
The
injury-depleted Knicks played without Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson,
and OG Anunoby, but after falling behind by 12 points in the first
quarter they surged to a 98-89 lead with 9:46 left in the fourth quarter
before the Pacers saved their season (at least for now) by closing the
game on a 22-8 run.
Watching the Knicks and Pacers scrap, scratch,
and claw for every inch during this highly competitive game, one cannot
avoid thinking about two teams that recently fired their coaches: the
L.A. Lakers (Darvin Ham) and the Phoenix Suns (Frank Vogel). If you
conducted a draft of the players on the rosters of these four teams, it
is doubtful that a Knick or a Pacer would make the top four: Anthony
Davis, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Devin Booker would lock up those
spots, and then Brunson would go fifth--but is it the fault of Ham and
Vogel that their teams combined to win just one playoff game in 2024?
The
Lakers and Suns don't play hard consistently--and, as Coach D'Amato
declared in his famous speech, the coach can't make the players play
hard: the players have to commit to playing hard and fighting for those
inches. Coaches design game plans, but stars set the tone for how hard a
team plays. LeBron James won his four championships by hopping from
team to team and begging other stars to play with him. Kevin Durant won
his two titles by fleeing Oklahoma City to join a team that had just
beaten him and had previously won a championship without him. There is
no doubt that James and Durant are all-time great players, but they did
not achieve that status by playing the way that the Knicks play. Imagine
if the Lakers and Suns played as hard each game this season as the Knicks
do every game and as the Pacers did in this game with their season on
the line. There is no way that the Lakers and Suns would have finished
the way that they did if they had consistently played hard.
The
Knicks are a joy to watch, and even though the Pacers don't bring that
kind of energy every game it is fair to say that they do so more often
than the Lakers and Suns do. The Knicks do not complain, whine, or make
excuses. They just play ball. After the first two games of this series,
the Pacers whined to some extent about some admittedly bad calls, but
they also candidly admitted that they had to play better--and they came
through in game three. In marked contrast, the star players from the
Lakers and Suns threw their coaches under the bus without ever taking
personal responsibility for how much their teams underachieved.
Basketball
purists are thrilled to watch Knicks-Pacers, and relieved that we don't
have to see the Lakers and Suns until next fall.
Labels: Andrew Nembhard, Donte DiVincenzo, Indiana Pacers, Jalen Brunson, Myles Turner, New York Knicks, Pascal Siakam, Tyrese Haliburton
posted by David Friedman @ 11:21 PM
Halliburton's Three Point Play Silences Bucks as Pacers Win in Overtime
Patrick Beverley and Damian Lillard often have a lot to say, but Tyrese Halliburton had the last word as his Indiana Pacers defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in overtime, 121-118. The 2024 regular season assist champion showcased his versatility with 18 points, a game-high 16 assists, and 10 rebounds while posting a game-high +16 plus/minus number, but Halliburton saved his best for last: Halliburton received an inbounds pass in the backcourt, took a running start, faked Beverley out of his shorts, and then lofted a runner in the paint to give the Pacers a 120-118 lead with 1.4 seconds remaining in overtime. Beverley got back in the play just in time to foul Halliburton, and Halliburton capped off the scoring by making his free throw. Khris Middleton's three pointer at the buzzer came up short, and the Pacers took a 2-1 series lead.
Myles Turner led the Pacers with 29 points, and he collected nine rebounds. He shot 10-21 from the field, including 4-10 from three point range as he provided floor spacing from the center position. Pascal Siakam, who won an NBA title with the Toronto Raptors in 2019, was a calming influence with 17 points, nine rebounds, and four assists after exploding for 36 points and 13 rebounds in game one and then producing 37 points and 11 rebounds in game two. The other Indiana starters, Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith, scored 16 and 13 points respectively, and Obi Toppin chipped in 15 points and six rebounds in just 17 minutes off of the bench.
Khris Middleton, who has been hobbled by injuries the past two years after making the All-Star team three times in a four season span, had a flashback performance with 42 points on 16-29 field goal shooting, 10 rebounds, and five assists. He hit several clutch shots, including a 30 foot three pointer with 2.3 seconds remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime. Damian Lillard added 28 points, but he shot just 6-20 from the field, and Milwaukee's offense flowed much better when Middleton was in control late in the game after Lillard suffered an Achilles injury that turned him into a decoy. Bobby Portis had 17 points and a game-high 18 rebounds, and center Brook Lopez added 14 points but snared just four rebounds as the Pacers outrebounded the Bucks, 50-43. Beverley had a -8 plus/minus number and six fouls in 42 minutes, and the ratio of his trash talk and fouls committed to his defensive effectiveness was not positive for the Bucks. As Russell Westbrook once sagely noted to a media swarm, "Pat Bev trick y'all, man, like he playing defense. He don't guard nobody, man. He just running around, doing nothing."
Hubie Brown provided the color commentary for ESPN. Brown was an assistant coach with the Bucks from 1972-74 before leading the Kentucky Colonels to the 1975 ABA championship with a 4-1 win over the Indiana Pacers as part of the Interstate 65 rivalry between those two stalwart ABA franchises.
The Pacers led 39-22 after the first quarter, and at that point it did not seem likely that the game would be competitive, let alone have a classic overtime finish. Toppin scored 11 first quarter points on 5-5 field goal shooting, and the Pacers hit five three pointers while the Bucks shot just 6-20 (.300) from the field. The Pacers' bench outscored the Bucks' bench 19-2 in the first quarter. Brown noted that Milwaukee's perimeter defense is poor and that the Pacers are outstanding at pushing the ball and then spreading the court to create open shots. Brown declared that the Pacers are "at the top of their game, playing with tremendous confidence," and he praised their "full court passing." The Pacers finished the game with 32 assists on 45 field goals made.
During the second quarter, Brown said, "I would like to see Lopez in the painted area." Lopez scored 10 second quarter points on 5-5 field goal shooting as the Bucks outscored the Pacers 33-28 to pull within 67-55 by halftime. Lillard scored just nine first half points on 2-10 field goal shooting, and Portis had two first half points on 1-6 field goal shooting. Brown prophetically said that in order for the Bucks to get back in the game they need more production from both of those players; they combined to score 34 second half points as the Bucks rallied to nearly pull off a road win.
The Bucks slowed the Pacers down in the third quarter and held them to 1-9 three point field goal shooting while winning that stanza 28-23 to enter the fourth quarter trailing 90-83. Middleton scored 11 fourth quarter points on 5-6 field goal shooting as the Bucks completed their comeback and even took the lead before forcing overtime.
Middleton scored all seven of the Bucks' points in overtime while the Pacers spread out their scoring among four different players.
Giannis Antetokounmpo has yet to play in this series due to a calf injury, and his status is still uncertain. Now that Lillard is hobbled by an Achilles injury, the Bucks may be just a couple games away from seeing their season come to an unexpectedly early conclusion.
Labels: Damian Lillard, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Hubie Brown, Indiana Pacers, Khris Middleton, Milwaukee Bucks, Myles Turner, Pat Beverley, Tyrese Haliburton
posted by David Friedman @ 11:57 PM
Serbia Beats the Status out of Team USA
Gregg Popovich needs to spend less time working on his snappy comebacks to the media and more time trying to figure out FIBA basketball strategy. His Team USA squad can finish no higher than seventh place in the FIBA World Cup after losing 94-89 to Serbia. Serbia's coach ran his mouth about this matchup weeks ago, and Team USA made that guy look like a genius.
You know the old cliche about the game not being as close as the final score? Team USA trailed 32-7 at the end of the first quarter. Read that again: 32-7. Popovich took a team of 12 NBA players to China, and after 10 minutes of play the Serbians were beating their brakes off by 25 points. I wrote it
yesterday and I will write it again today: when Popovich gave a sarcastic answer to a legitimate question about his fourth quarter strategy versus France, he may have been trying to deflect attention from the fact that he had no strategy.
An important step toward becoming a champion is to make no excuses--and there are no excuses for Team USA's performance in the 2019 FIBA World Cup. Yes, Team USA could have assembled a better roster. Yes, Team USA would have benefited from better coaching, more practices and a greater sense of urgency, but the bottom line is that there is no way a roster that would easily qualify for the playoffs in an 82 game NBA season should finish seventh or eighth in this tournament. Team USA lost an exhibition game to Australia, should have lost to Turkey, lost to France, and was getting humiliated by Serbia before rallying to make the score respectable.
When Team USA is reduced to trying to make the score respectable, something is seriously wrong.
Serbia has a decent squad, and Team USA sent its third or fourth stringers--the superstars are at home "load managing" and counting their millions of dollars--but Red Klotz and the Washington Generals would not have trailed Serbia by 25 points after 10 minutes.
The key to success for Team USA in FIBA basketball--as
I have pointed out for well over a decade--is not three point shooting or going small or anything pertaining to offense; the key is being able to simultaneously defend the three point line and not give up layups. It is easy to shut down one or the other, but it requires a good game plan--and good execution by the players--to do both. Team USA allowed Serbia to shoot .562 from two point range and .484 from three point range. John McKay once said of his hapless Tampa Bay Buccaneers that they did not block, but they made up for that by not tackling. Team USA did not defend the paint, but they made up for it by also not defending the three point line.
Plus/minus numbers in a small sample size can be noisy, but Team USA was +8 versus Serbia with Myles Turner on the court and -13 when he was on the bench. He played 24 minutes in a five point loss, and
I predicted a week ago that Team USA risked losing against some of the top contenders if Turner did not play at least 25 effective minutes. Would Team USA have beaten Serbia if Turner had played a few more minutes and if Derrick White--who scored two points in 11 minutes with a -14 plus/minus number--had played fewer minutes? White plays for Popovich's Spurs. I have not seen the postgame press conference, but it could have been interesting if any reporters asked Popovich some direct questions about his game plan and his substitution patterns.
In case you are wondering, Carmelo Anthony would not have helped because he does not defend and he cannot guard Rudy Gobert, Nikola Jokic or any other true center. If Anthony had been on this team he would have been a distraction, and in the end he would have shouldered the brunt of the blame that--as we can see--should be directed elsewhere. It was much better for Team USA and for Anthony that he was not on the team.
Team USA bounced back from the embarrassing 2002 and 2004 performances not just by adding talent but also by focusing on defensive execution, spearheaded by Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd. If Team USA expects to win the gold medal in the 2020 Olympics merely by recruiting a few superstars but without changing the team's mentality and game plan then things will not end well.
Labels: 2019 Team USA, Gregg Popovich, Myles Turner, Serbia
posted by David Friedman @ 8:35 PM
France Defeats Team USA 89-79 in the FIBA World Cup
At least Team USA qualified for the Olympics--barely. Just one win after ensuring an invitation to the 2020 Olympics, Team USA lost to France 89-79 in the FIBA World Cup quarterfinals. Team USA will not win a medal, and the highest Team USA can finish is fifth--and that will require a victory against Serbia, whose loud mouth (but possibly prophetic) coach said before the tournament that Team USA would need divine intervention to beat his squad. As it turned out, Serbia lost 97-87 to Argentina to join Team USA in the (no) consolation round. It is not clear if Team USA is interested in and/or capable of making the loud mouth coach eat his words, particularly with no hardware at stake, but one would hope that Team USA will still strive for the best finish possible.
What should we make of Team USA?
This result is not shocking, or even surprising. As I
explained a week ago, "This is not a dominant FIBA team. This is a team that, if it plays well
and maximizes its potential, is capable of winning the gold medal, but
this is a team that also might have to struggle to win a medal at all...In order to win the gold medal, Team USA needs to develop more
chemistry/cohesion at both ends of the court, and someone needs to
emerge as the go-to option down the stretch in close games. Those two
tasks might sound divergent but they are not. Cohesion and chemistry
keep things together for most of the game, but in a close contest you
need to have a player who is so confident and so deadly that he must be
double-teamed; that in turn opens up opportunities for players who are
not good enough or not confident enough to create their own shots down
the stretch. Against the better teams that also have skilled big men,
Team USA will need at least 25 productive minutes from Turner."
While not surprising, this result is nevertheless disappointing. Granted, this was not our A team or even our B team--one could legitimately argue that this is our third string or possibly even fourth string squad--but should the United States be satisfied that a squad comprised entirely of NBA players finished no higher than fifth? It would be nice if our elite players understood the significance of representing their country and of being ambassadors for the sport, but a squad that, on paper, is easily talented enough to qualify for the NBA playoffs should not be bowing out before the medal round.
Gregg Popovich will likely be given a pass for this failure. He is popular with--or at least, respected by--the media, and already there have been articles published saying that Popovich is not to blame and that he did not do a bad job. Perhaps both of those statements are true, but it is evident that he did not do a great job, either--unless you buy the premise that a team with 12 NBA players maximized its potential by finishing no higher than fifth. Consider that France's starting lineup versus Team USA was Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier, Nic Batum, Frank Ntilikina and Amath M'Baye. Team USA started Myles Turner, Harrison Barnes, Joe Harris, Donovan Mitchell and Kemba Walker. We know that FIBA playing conditions are different, and that most of the other FIBA teams have more experience playing together--but NFL Coach Bum Phillips once said of the legendary Coach Don Shula, "He could take his'n and beat your'n and he could take your'n and beat his'n." If Popovich could not win with the starting lineup that he had, I am less than convinced that he would have won if he switched seats with France's Coach Vincent Collet; it seems more likely that Popovich could have lost with either squad, kind of the FIBA anti-Don Shula. Keep in mind that Popovich was also an assistant coach for Team USA in the 2002 FIBA World Championship (now known as the FIBA World Cup) and the 2004 Olympics--and the less said about those squads, the better, but just know that Popovich has now had three chances in FIBA tournament play as a coach and he still does not own a gold medal.
Popovich's snarky routine with the media is getting more than a little old, too. I will be the first to admit that many media members ask stupid questions, but Popovich is often rude even to questioners who make legitimate inquiries. After the loss to France, Tim Reynolds asked Popovich if France's defense took away Donovan Mitchell or if Team USA just went away from Mitchell down the stretch. That is a fair question considering that Mitchell, who scored a game-high 29 points, did not score in the fourth quarter. Popovich replied, "Just write, don't coach. Just write."
I don't pretend to be a better coach than Popovich, but it is fair to say that many media members did their jobs better during this tournament than Popovich did his job, and there is no excuse for Popovich to brush off a legitimate question--unless his sarcasm is meant to mask the reality that he did not in fact have a good answer. If I had asked that question and Popovich had provided that answer, I would have followed up with, "Based on that non-answer, is it fair to say that you and your coaching staff had no counters for the fourth quarter strategies employed by France's coaching staff?" Popovich likes to star in little press conference soundbites, and most reporters are too scared or slow-witted to fire back, but respect is a two-way street and accountability should be expected of a Team USA coach who will return home without a medal.
Popovich is an all-time great NBA coach but he may not be a great FIBA coach and--regardless of how great he is--he should treat other working professionals with the respect that they deserve.
Popovich has a propensity for going with small lineups at questionable times. This possibly cost the Spurs the championship during the 2013 NBA Finals when Tim Duncan watched from the bench in game six as the Heat grabbed an offensive rebound that led to Ray Allen's series-changing three pointer. This almost cost Team USA in FIBA World Cup play against Turkey--and this played a role in Team USA's loss to France that eliminated Team USA from medal contention. Myles Turner played just 10 minutes; as I noted a week ago, Team USA was not going to beat any of the top notch FIBA teams if Turner played less than 25 minutes. Brook Lopez played less than five minutes and Mason Plumlee barely played a minute. Turner's benching while Rudy Gobert dominated Team USA's smaller players (21 points, 16 rebounds, three blocked shots) makes no sense, nor does it make any sense that Popovich used/wasted two roster spots for Lopez and Plumlee if he did not plan to incorporate them into the rotation.
Contrary to recent popular belief, small ball is not the cure for all ills, particularly when the opposing team has a dominant big man. Contrary to another persistent myth, the key to Team USA success in FIBA play is not that Team USA make a ton of three pointers; Team USA's advantage is having the size and athletic ability to play stifling defense.
France outscored Team USA 26-13 in the fourth quarter. FIBA quarters last only 10 minutes, so over the course of a 48 minute NBA game France scored at a 125 points per game pace during the decisive final stanza. Again, maybe this is not Popovich's fault and maybe he did not do a bad job--but he clearly did not do a great job in terms of roster selection/management, and in terms of developing a defensive game plan that this roster could execute under pressure.
Of course, Team USA's fourth quarter offensive output of 13 points is nothing to write home about, either, but Team USA led 74-67 with less than eight minutes to go in regulation. If Team USA had played lock down defense the rest of the way, they could have still won even without having an offensive explosion.
If Team USA's A team or B team shows up in the 2020 Olympics, Team USA will probably win regardless of who coaches, but it would be nice if Team USA--from top to bottom--took this more seriously and had a more professional approach regarding roster construction, player rotations and in-game strategy.
Maybe this was not a bad job--but it was not a great job, and it did not represent the best product that Team USA is capable of putting on the court, even considering the absence of Team USA's superstar players.
Labels: 2019 Team USA, Donovan Mitchell, France, Gregg Popovich, Myles Turner, Rudy Gobert
posted by David Friedman @ 1:02 AM
