Thunder Outlast Pacers to Win Game Seven, 103-91
The Oklahoma City Thunder outscored the Indiana Pacers 56-43 in the second half, transforming a one point halftime deficit into a 103-91 game seven win to capture the NBA championship. The Pacers outrebounded the Thunder 45-40 and shot slightly more efficiently from the field, but the Thunder attacked Pacers' ballhandlers on the perimeter and took advantage of extra possessions by scoring in the paint; the Thunder
forced 23 turnovers that they converted into 32 points while committing
just eight turnovers that the Pacers converted into 10 points, and the Thunder outscored the Pacers in the paint, 40-26.
As is often the case in game seven showdowns, two high octane
offenses struggled to score efficiently. The Thunder averaged 120.5 ppg
in the regular season while posting a 68-14 record with the best point
differential in NBA history (12.9 ppg), but in game seven they barely cracked the 100
point barrier while shooting 35-87 (.402) from the field, including
11-40 (.275) from three point range; the Pacers averaged 117.4 ppg in
the regular season while ranking third in field goal percentage (.488),
but in game seven they fell well short of 100 points while shooting 29-70 (.414) from
the field, including 11-28 (.393) from beyond the arc.
Three point shooting is supposed to be of paramount importance in today's
NBA, but the Thunder took the title despite shooting 71-206 (.345) from
three point range in the NBA Finals. Defense, rebounding, and paint
presence are often the most important factors in game seven, which is
why the 1998 Chicago Bulls beat the Indiana Pacers in game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals despite Michael Jordan shooting 9-25 from the field and why the 2010 L.A. Lakers beat the Boston Celtics in game seven of the NBA Finals despite Kobe Bryant shooting 6-24 from the field. A team that defends well and plays hard can survive a poor individual shooting performance by a star.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored a game-high 29 points, dished for a game-high/playoff career-high 12 assists, grabbed five rebounds, blocked two shots, and had just one turnover. He shot 8-27 from the field, but his scoring and playmaking accounted for more than half of the Thunder's points. By continuing to shoot even though his field goal percentage was not great, Gilgeous-Alexander put pressure on the Pacers' defense; the worst thing for a team in a big game is not when the team's star shoots 8-27, but rather when he shoots 4-14, because a passive star player is much easier to guard than an active star player: when a star player aggressively attacks the defense that forces the defense to react by sending help, which opens up scoring opportunities and offensive rebounding opportunities for the star's teammates, secondary but important effects that are not tracked well or even understood by many "stat gurus" who focus on what they define as "efficiency" without giving sufficient consideration to other factors.
During the NBA Finals, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 30.3 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 5.6 apg, 1.9 spg, and 1.6 bpg with shooting splits of .443/.242/.914, earning the Bill Russell
NBA Finals MVP and becoming the first player to win the scoring title,
regular season MVP, and NBA Finals MVP in the same season since Shaquille O'Neal (2000). He
is just the fourth player in NBA history to win the scoring title,
regular season MVP, and the championship in the same season, joining
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1971), Michael Jordan (1991-92, 1996, 1998), and Shaquille O'Neal (2000).
Jalen Williams shot poorly from the field (7-20), but he made critical contributions with 20 points, four rebounds, four assists, two steals, and just one turnover. He had a game-best +13 plus/minus number. Chet Holmgren anchored the defense in the paint, setting an NBA Finals game seven record with five blocked shots while also scoring 18 points on 6-8 field goal shooting and grabbing eight rebounds. The Thunder improved to 3-1 in this series with Isaiah Hartenstein in the starting lineup; he had seven points, a team-high nine rebounds, and four assists. Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, and Hartenstein were the only three Thunder players who had an assist. Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace each scored 10 points off of the bench.
The biggest story for the Pacers was that Tyrese Haliburton, the team's primary playmaker and clutch shot maker, fell to the court with a non-contact lower right leg injury at the 4:55 mark of the first quarter and was unable to play the rest of the way. He had already scored nine points on 3-5 field goal shooting, and even though the Thunder led 18-16 when Haliburton left the game it is fair to wonder how the game might have proceeded if Haliburton had stayed healthy. Haliburton's injury not only impacted game seven and this series but it could have implications for the balance of power in the Eastern Conference if he misses most or all of next season.
Bennedict Mathurin stepped up in Haliburton's absence, scoring a team-high 24 points and grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds in 33 minutes off of the bench. Pascal Siakam added 16 points but shot just 5-13 from the field. T.J. McConnell contributed 16 points on 8-13 field goal shooting in 28 minutes off of the bench, but he also had a game-high seven turnovers; he scored 12 points on 6-7 field goal shooting in eight minutes in the third quarter, but had just four points on 2-6 field goal shooting in his other 20 minutes of action, which highlights a point that I made in my game five recap: just because a bench player has a brief productive stretch that does not mean that if his playing time is extended he will continue to score at that same per minute rate; there are reasons that bench players are bench players and starters are starters, including conditioning, and ability to match up with various players/defensive schemes.
The Pacers took an 11-6 lead to start the game in a closely contested first quarter featuring three lead changes and four ties with neither team leading by more than five points. After Haliburton's injury, the Pacers seemed to be inspired while the Thunder seemed to be complacent and tentative. The Pacers outscored the Thunder 26-22 in the second quarter to build a slim 48-47 halftime edge as the Thunder shot 4-18 (.222) from three point range in the first half.
In the third quarter, the Thunder ramped up the defensive pressure--forcing eight turnovers that they converted into 18 points--while not committing a single turnover, and shooting a respectable 5-13 (.385) from beyond the arc. The Pacers were still behind by just four points, 70-66, at the 3:54 mark of the third quarter, but the Thunder closed that stanza with an 11-2 run to enter the fourth quarter with an 81-68 lead. McConnell scored the Pacers' final 12 third quarter points, but down the stretch in the third quarter it became evident that the Pacers could not deal with the Thunder's defensive pressure.
The Thunder led by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter before the Pacers made one final push to slash the margin to 96-86 with 2:16 remaining, but the Thunder went on a 6-1 burst to remove any doubt; the Pacers may be the comeback kings, but the Thunder are a historically dominant team, particularly at home: the Thunder
set a single season playoff record with a +259 point differential at
home, and their only two home playoff losses--game one of the NBA Finals versus Indiana, and game one in the second round versus Denver--were on buzzer beaters. With this win, the Thunder improved to 19-2 after a loss (regular season and playoffs
combined), the best such single season mark in NBA history.
The Thunder went 84-21 overall during the regular season and playoffs combined, tied with the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls (84-17) for the third most wins all-time, trailing only the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors (88-18, but lost in the NBA Finals), and the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls (87-13). It should be noted that the NBA expanded the playoff format in 1983-84 (adding a best of five first round series to the three existing best of seven series) and in 2002-03 (extending the first round from best of five to best of seven), so before those years teams did not have the same opportunities to win 84-plus games. The Thunder are the second youngest team to win an NBA title, trailing only the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers--a squad that provides a cautionary tale, as they never returned to the NBA Finals after injuries ended Bill Walton's brief tenure as the sport's best player. On paper, it looks like the Thunder are well positioned to contend for championships for the next several years, but in practice it is very difficult for a team to win multiple titles; there have been just four repeat champions since the Michael Jordan-Scottie Pippen Chicago Bulls notched a pair of three-peats in the 1990s: the 2000-02 L.A. Lakers, the 2009-10 L.A. Lakers, the 2012-13 Miami Heat, and the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors.
Labels: Bennedict Mathurin, Chet Holmgren, Indiana Pacers, Jalen Williams, Oklahoma City Thunder, Pascal Siakam, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, T.J. McConnell, Tyrese Haliburton
posted by David Friedman @ 10:07 AM
Pacers Rout Thunder 108-91 to Force a Seventh Game in Oklahoma City
The Indiana Pacers fell behind 10-2 to the Oklahoma City Thunder at home in game six before outscoring the Thunder 62-32 the rest of the first half en route to a dominant 108-91 victory to tie the series at 3-3. The game was not as close as the final score may suggest; the Pacers led by as many as 31 points in the second half, were ahead by 25-plus points for substantial portions of the second half, and their fourth quarter lead did not drop below 20 points until the final 1:18. The Pacers outrebounded the Thunder 46-41, and forced 21 turnovers that they converted into 19 points while only committing 11 turnovers that the Thunder converted into 13 points. Those extra possessions were a major factor in a game during which both teams shot worse than .420 from the field. Another significant factor was that the Pacers shot 15-42 (.357) from three point range while holding the Thunder to 8-30 (.267) three point shooting; the Pacers did not shoot great, but the Thunder's terrible long range shooting was too much to overcome when the Thunder also lost the possession game by a wide margin.
The Pacers shot 0-8 from the field to start the game, and they shot just 8-25 (.320) from the field in the first quarter, but they already led 28-25 after the first 12 minutes because they launched four more field goal attempts than the Thunder while making five first quarter three pointers and holding the Thunder to just one first quarter three pointer. As is often the case in the NBA, the first quarter set the tone for the game: the Pacers were the aggressors, the Pacers attempted more field goals, and the Pacers made timely three pointers while the Thunder misfired from beyond the arc.
In today's NBA featuring volume three point shooting and fast-paced play, a 22 point halftime lead is not insurmountable, but what killed the Thunder is that they did not score from the 1:46 mark of the second quarter until 6:57 remained in the third quarter, a nearly seven minute drought during which the Pacers expanded their advantage from 58-42 to 70-42; the Pacers were not burning up the nets by scoring 12 points in seven minutes, but failing to score at all while already trailing by double digits signaled that this was just not the Thunder's night.
The Pacers are a better and tougher team than I realized. It would have been easy to fold after losing game five in convincing fashion versus a team that is justifiably considered the favorite, but the Pacers showed resolve not seen from some teams that are more highly touted. The balanced Pacers attack featured six double figure scorers who each had between 10 and 20 points. Obi Toppin, the pride of the University of Dayton, led the Pacers with 20 points in 23 minutes off of the bench. He also had six rebounds, a game-high four treys, and two steals. Andrew Nembhard added 17 points, four assists, and three steals. Pascal Siakam had 16 points, a game-high 13 rebounds, and three assists. Tyrese Haliburton did not seem to be unduly hampered by his much-discussed calf injury, finishing with 14 points, five assists, two steals, and just one turnover; he had a game-high +25 plus/minus number, and he made those who suggested that he should be benched look quite foolish. T.J. McConnell provided an important spark off of the bench with 12 points, nine rebounds, a game-high six assists, and a game-high four steals that matched the entire Thunder team's output in a category that they are used to dominating.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 21 points on 7-15 field goal shooting. He had four rebounds, two assists, and no steals or blocked shots, a marked contrast with his 31 points, 10 assists, four blocked shots, and two steals in the Thunder's game five win. In game six, Gilgeous-Alexander logged a "Harden" with more turnovers (game-high eight) than field goals made (seven). Jalen Williams followed up his 40 point game five masterpiece with just 16 points in game six. Chet Holmgren had four points on 2-9 field goal shooting, plus six rebounds, no assists, no steals, and no blocked shots.
If the Thunder lose this series, they will rue falling behind 2-1 after
inexplicably putting Cason Wallace in the starting lineup in place of
Isaiah Hartenstein during the first three games. The Thunder went 45-8 during the regular season when
Hartenstein started, and they went 12-4 in the playoffs with
Hartenstein as a starter prior to the NBA Finals; the Thunder are now
2-1 in the NBA Finals with Hartenstein as a starter, and 1-2 when he did not
start. The lineup change did not have a discernible impact on game six, but the larger point is that if the Thunder had deployed their regular starting lineup in each of the first five games they may have won the series at home in game five instead of being pushed to a seventh game.
The Thunder's effort level and efficiency from opening tip until final buzzer indicated that their players
had the attitude that this was not a must win game because they will
have game seven at home. The Thunder are 18-2 after a loss during the
regular season and playoffs, so they have good reason to be confident,
but Tex Winter often said, "Everything turns on a trifle":
in game seven, a turned ankle, a bad call, or a
funny bounce of the ball could change the game, the series, and the way
that both teams are remembered. Game to game momentum in a series does
not exist, because the next game is played in a different arena under
different circumstances beginning with a 0-0 score, not a double digit lead
for the winner of the previous game--but momentum within a game can exist, and can decide a
series in game seven.
However, even though the underdog has a
puncher's chance once a series reaches a seventh game, the reality is
that the home team wins NBA game sevens over 74% of the time. The
Thunder are in control of this series until proven otherwise, and the
Thunder have demonstrated that blowout losses do not impact their
confidence or their level of play. In the second round, the Thunder lost to the Denver Nuggets 119-107 in game six, and then the Thunder won game seven, 125-93. After taking a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference Finals, the Thunder lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves 143-101, and then the Thunder won the next two games to close out the series.
The Pacers' dominant win will almost certainly inspire a lot of overreaction, which is a staple of NBA coverage (and sports coverage in general). Regardless of any hype to the contrary, a blowout Thunder win is the most likely game seven outcome, followed
by a close Thunder win; a blowout Thunder win may seem unimaginable now in the immediate wake of the Pacers' dominant game six performance, but game six will be a distant memory when the comfortable and confident Thunder race out to an early game seven lead. A close Pacers win is possible but unlikely, and
a blowout Pacers win at Oklahoma City is very unlikely barring unusual
circumstance (injuries, foul trouble, or early ejections).
Labels: Indiana Pacers, Jalen Williams, Oklahoma City Thunder, Pascal Siakam, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, T.J. McConnell, Tyrese Haliburton
posted by David Friedman @ 2:05 AM
Pacers Ride Big Fourth Quarter to Beat Thunder, Take 2-1 Series Lead
The Oklahoma City Thunder jumped out to a nine point first quarter lead, but the Indiana Pacers erased that deficit with a huge second quarter, and then used a big fourth quarter to outlast the Thunder, 116-107, to take a 2-1 series lead. The Thunder are renowned for forcing more turnovers than they commit and then pouncing on those extra possessions to score easy baskets, but in this game the Pacers scored 21 points off of 19 turnovers while giving up 14 points off of 14 turnovers. The Pacers also outscored the Thunder in the paint 50-48, and the Pacers had 17 fast break points compared to just 10 for the Thunder. The Pacers' bench outscored the Thunder's bench, 49-18. It is worth emphasizing that the Thunder changed their starting lineup before this series began--going small by inserting Cason Wallace in place of Isaiah Hartenstein--while the Pacers quite logically stuck with what has worked for them throughout the playoffs.
Role players tend to play better at home than on the road, and this game provided further evidence supporting that notion. Bennedict Mathurin scored a game-high and playoff career-high 27 points in 22 minutes off of the bench. His +16 plus/minus number was the second best in this game behind his teammate Obi Toppin (+18), who had eight points, six rebounds, and two blocked shots in 28 minutes off of the bench. T.J. McConnell became the first player in NBA Finals history with 10 points, five assists, and five steals off of the bench, posting a +12 plus/minus number in 15 minutes.
The Pacers' two big name starters made major contributions. Tyrese Haliburton scored 22 points, collected a game-high 11 assists, and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. Pascal Siakam authored a strong all-around game with 21 points, six rebounds, four assists, and no turnovers in 32 minutes.
Jalen Williams led the Thunder with 26 points on 9-18 field goal shooting. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a rough game by his lofty standards, finishing with 24 points on 9-20 field goal shooting along with eight rebounds, four assists, and a game-high six turnovers; he had just set the record for most points scored in a player's first two NBA Finals games (72), breaking Allen Iverson's mark by one point. Chet Holmgren added 20 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, but he shot just 6-15 from the field.
The Thunder lost in the second round of the playoffs last year because
they had a small team that could be pushed around in the paint, and that
is why they acquired Hartenstein, who started 53 of the 57
regular season games that he played this season before starting each of
the Thunder's first 16 playoff games. The Thunder went 45-8 in the 53
regular season games that Hartenstein started, and they went 12-4 in the
16 playoff games that he started. Hartenstein has now come off of the
bench in each of the first three games of the NBA Finals, and the
Thunder are 1-2 in those games. I don't know or care what the
"advanced stats" say, but the statistic that matters most--wins and losses--speaks loudly,
screaming, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Prior to this game, Hartenstein led the Thunder in playoff field goal percentage (.619) and he ranked second in playoff rebounding (7.9 rpg). Rather than matching down to the Pacers by playing small, the Thunder would be better served by using their size to their advantage.
The problem is not just that the Thunder went small, but that they went small in a demonstrably ineffective manner. Wallace had a -15 plus/minus number in the second quarter when the Pacers outscored the Thunder, 40-28. Instead of enjoying a double digit halftime lead, the Thunder trailed by four, 60-56. The Thunder won the third quarter 29-20 with Hartenstein playing five minutes and Wallace playing less than one minute. The Thunder lost the fourth quarter 32-18 with Wallace playing five minutes (-9 plus/minus number) and Hartenstein playing three minutes (-6 plus/minus number).
This is not meant to suggest that Hartenstein and Wallace are the two most important players in this series. The point is that players are creatures of habit and repetition, as are teams; changing the starting lineup for no good reason prior to the start of the series sends a message--to both teams--that the Thunder don't think that they can win the series by doing the same things in the same way that they did to reach the NBA Finals. The impact of who is playing with whom has a ripple effect throughout the roster, and sows unnecessary uncertainty, as players wonder if they will be the next ones whose roles are changed/reduced.
The Pacers deserve full credit for playing well, and for outplaying one of the most dominant regular season teams in NBA history, but there is no getting around the fact that the Thunder's starting lineup change is a major story in this series. It is not too late for the Thunder to salvage their season and win this series, but time is running short: in NBA playoff history, teams that take a 2-1 series lead go on to win the series nearly 80% of the time, but the Thunder overcame a 2-1 deficit versus the Denver Nuggets to win the series, 4-3. Hartenstein started all seven games in that series, averaging 11.0 ppg and 8.7 rpg while shooting .590 from the field. His size and productivity made a difference in that series, and they could make a difference in the NBA Finals as well.
The good news for Thunder fans is that game to game momentum is a myth; each game in a playoff series is a separate event that starts with a 0-0 score. However, matchups and matchup advantages matter, and the team that wins the series is the team that best exploits its advantages while hiding/minimizing its disadvantages; the Thunder's size advantage will not matter if Coach Mark Daigneault refuses to exploit it.
Labels: Bennedict Mathurin, Cason Wallace, Indiana Pacers, Isaiah Hartenstein, Oklahoma City Thunder, Pascal Siakam, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, T.J. McConnell, Tyrese Haliburton
posted by David Friedman @ 1:56 AM
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
