By Avi Tyagi

 

After game 5, all seemed lost. Tyrese couldn’t attack switches, and was being “ice”d repeatedly to his left hand. The Pacers’ offense was hanging on by a thread, by the mercy of T.J. McConnell Nash-ing around and Siakam’s post play and shot creation. Coach Carlisle took a major risk to substitute out both Siakam and T.J. for a few minutes, it cost them the game. Under heavy pressure, Andrew Nembhard and a hobbled Tyrese Haliburton couldn’t hold the fort. The famed OKC ball pressure ran away with the game. Jalen Williams took the breakout leap I’d been waiting for. JDub is a reminder to trust my eyes, stats, and instincts in draft philosophy (I should have had him top 3 even at the time). He picked the best moment to display the growth in his game. Going back through his game log (including college), Jalen Williams had never scored 90 points total in 3 games. He scored 93 from games 3-5. The first half of game 5 was dominated by excellent JDub cutting being consistently rewarded. The second half of game 5 was a superstar breakout performance. Nembhard and Nesmith were feasted upon. Too small, too slow, too foul-prone. JDub issued a statement. I’m here and I’m ready. Game 3 was the Mathurin game, a contest where Indy recognized they have a few gifted offensive athletes capable of punishing OKC’s full-court pressure if the details aren’t precise. Siakam, Haliburton, and Mathurin combined for 70 while T.J. McConnell ransacked OKC’s baseline for key in-bounds pass steals. Game 4 was driven by Indy attempting to match OKC’s pace and full-court pressure and falling short in clutch time due to an over-reliance on Tyrese mismatch hunting against a defense determined to take away the step-back. 

Game 5 was driven by injury and a statement from Shai and JDub. Nice try, Indy. You’ve busted brackets all playoffs. You marched through Cleveland and destroyed their predilection for switching through a power of friendship offensive style where everyone eats. You broke their hearts with game winners and clutch comebacks and sent their dominant 1-seed home before they knew what hit them. Next came the Knicks. New York fans and the team often by extension play with temerity, heart, and hustle. But, it was an overmatched team from the start, with two defensive sieves for Indy to pick at all times. Boston without a healthy Porzingis, and eventually Tatum (get well soon, we’re all rooting for you), doesn’t have enough offensive answers or mismatches and lacks the sort of crisp, organized passing and execution required to threaten Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns defensively. That’s not a problem for Tyrese Haliburton and T.J. McConnell. But this is OKC. The power of friendship can only get you so far. A 68-14 juggernaut with the deepest bench in the league, a complementary team whose third-best player missed half the season with a fractured hip and still dominated. Shai and JDub in game 5 affirmed, thanks for the challenge, but we’re just as dominant as you thought we were. You saw what we did to Denver by game 7. You’re next. Or so it seemed. In what can only be described as one of the best turnarounds in NBA history, Coach Carlisle went to the drawing board and cooked up a whole new game plan. Haliburton got healthy enough at the right time, too. The stage was set for game 6, and what a game it was.

The notable changes: Indy decided very early on to lower its pickup points against OKC. Game 4 reminded me more of gegenpressing in soccer than it did of a basketball match. In gegenpressing, the “heavy metal” of football (or soccer as we Americans call it), the forward attacking players aggressively try to snatch the ball off the opposing defenders who have the ball at their feet. They want to lead the defenders to panic and throw the ball into traps where they can generate fast breaks. OKC has superior athletes and is well-versed in those methods. They also frankly need it because so much of their own offense comes from scoring within the arc. Liverpool in 2023-24 lacked the athleticism and matchup advantages to pull off aggressive pressing. It left holes in their defense and cost them severely in the back half of the season. If you can’t slow the ball down early in that form of pressing and don’t have enough safety blankets, the opposing team basically enjoys artificial transitions. They can play the ball up the pitch very quickly and tear apart a defense that might not even fully be set due to inverted matchups. That’s what happened to Indy. Guarding Jalen Williams and Shai for 80 feet sounds like a good idea until your point-of-attack (POA) defenders get pinned off by screening actions and now Jalen Williams is running at 80% speed towards the rim but still under control. If you throw too many men into the paint to wall off Shai and JDub, perfect. Chet destroys closeouts. Aaron Wiggins eats closeouts for breakfast. Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace are true spacers. Even Caruso can cook. Indy was playing right into OKC’s hands and tiring out their own players who were less accustomed to this style and slower and smaller quite honestly. So what did Indy do? Go back to good ol’ functional half-court defense. We’ll pick you up later Shai, no worries. Let’s guard you in the half like we used to. Better yet, we know you don’t want to shoot that pull-up 3, we might even wait for you at the arc. Shai and JDub, perhaps befuddled by the lack of full court ball pressure, walked right into their trap. Coach Mark Daigneault wasn’t able to help his team adjust either. Indy started sending selective doubles at JDub and Shai any time they got deep into the paint and sat on his beautiful pivot jumpers. 

Now, normally, a great veteran offense could solve that problem in game by getting the ball to IHart or Jaylin Williams as an offensive hub and switching to a style of offense more oriented on cutting and using the off-ball brilliance of their best offensive players (Shai, JDub, Chet, Wiggins, and even Joe and Caruso) to cause chaos. That’s not what happened. Instead, Dort had injured-Tyrese on him and spent whole possessions ball-watching. Aaron Wiggins, one of the best cutters in the league, ball watching. IHart played 16 minutes in the first 3 quarters when this game was competitive and Jaylin Williams didn’t check in till Q4. When IHart did play, he was simply used as a screener and Turner was often unbothered about that threat, leaving another set of eyes to spy on the ball handler. Chet stood around much of the time, also making Turner’s life easier. Indy learned their lesson from game 5 and started throwing the bigger Siakam at JDub far more often. Siakam’s enjoying the best season of his career and has paired a defensive renaissance this season with Indy with the best overall shotmaking in his entire career. This is who the public thought Siakam was 5 years ago. He’s that Siakam now and much more. Squint and you see Cameroonian KD out there game to game. JDub was far more bothered by Siakam’s length and defensive activity at the hoop. Nesmith shut off Caruso’s water and as a quicker recovery defender was often the one stunting at Shai in the first place. Caruso couldn’t really take advantage in crowded spaces and no one looks to Caruso very often for self-created buckets either. It was a shellacking. Shai had 8 turnovers and could have easily had 10. OKC’s defensive activity collapsed as their offense fell apart. Now Indy could get to having fun. Toppin, Tyrese, T.J. keeping time with the quick middys, sprinting Nesmith 3s and of course Siakam destroying mismatches, poor switches, and the rim. Everyone ate, culminating in a beautiful second quarter run that cut the game open and sent a statement with a NASTY Siakam dunk on JDub off a steal and no-look dish by Tyrese. The Fieldhouse was jumping, the fans were too. To paraphrase the legendary words of Kenny Smith, game 6 was over ladies and gentlemen. On to game 7.

Tips for both teams.

OKC: 

Just because JDub broke out and Shai is MVP, doesn’t mean you should depend on them thoughtlessly. Jaylin Williams adds dynamism as a big man passer who can make reads on the move and a better switch defender on Siakam than IHart in all likelihood. Play him. Isaiah Joe provides necessary spacing. Play him. With an improved passing ecosystem, OKC would be harder to guard. Sprinkle in more cuts for JDub, Wiggins, and Caruso. Let’s pump up the volume on Shai and JDub screening for one another. It will reduce the effectiveness of some of the aggressive doubles Indy wants to keep throwing at each as ball-handler and both are capable of making the simple passes to open shooters in 4-on-3s. It’s a throwback to their first play-in victory against New Orleans all those years ago. With an increased volume of Shai-JDub PnRs, set up weak side actions set up for Wiggins or Joe. Tire Indy out when you’re on offense. To beat the power of friendship, it’s time to embrace the power of friendship yourselves. Run a cleaner, less static offense and the better athletes should win.

Indy: 

Coach Carlisle, just keep cooking. If they adjust, I might suggest shortening your rotation for game 7. Phase out some Ben Sheppard and Tony Bradley minutes. If Mathurin doesn’t have it, perhaps limit his minutes too. Maybe that’s the antithesis of the power of friendship and maybe your players physically need some rest to maintain that sort of extreme energy level. In that case, keep it going. I trust you Coach. Carlisle already runs phenomenal baseline ATO plays that have been churning out points for Siakam and Nesmith consistently this series. At the time, when the offense bogs down and Hali sits or Tyrese resorts to simply mismatch hunting a big, I’d like to see more off-ball screening actions where Nesmith is the primary read on a movement 3. He’s the best shooter of anyone in this series and is capable of melting the game away in a few minutes. If OKC goes 5 out, continue to Turner patrolling the short corner and maybe remind him to search for the easy read presented to him on offense when he’s stuck in traffic. In a 5-out battle, you have the better 3-point shooters. Keep cooking.

I’m looking forward to a fantastic game 7. Hopefully Tyrese’s calf holds up and Indy brings the same oomph on the road as they did at a rocking Fieldhouse on Thursday. It’s up to Coach Daigneault, Shai, JDub, and company to meet them where they’re at. This has potential to be an all-time game 7. Absolute Cinema.