Basketball, She Wrote
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Runaway McBride: Pacers go down 3-2 in series
🕑 Added 2024-05-15 19:32:32 +0000 UTCAnd get toasted on the glass
By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper
Never the bridesmaid, always the McBride -- it seems. With Tom Thibodeau making the adjustment to start plucky guard Deuce McBride in place of Precious Achiuwa, it wasn't exactly a night to remember for the Pacers, as they attempted 29 fewer shots than the New York Knicks while giving up 20 offensive rebounds for 27 second-chance points and committing 18 turnovers. Meanwhile, the damage that was incurred on the glass also served the duel purpose of limiting the Pacers in transition. During the regular season, the Chicago Bulls ranked last in the league in transition frequency, with only 12.7 percent of their possessions starting with a transition play. Last night, that number for the Pacers was 11.4 percent. Of course, the merging of both ends of the floor also seemed to apply to the play of Tyrese Haliburton, who only attempted nine shots while being face-guarded and denied by McBride. For the game, Haliburton recorded more picks as the screener defender (22) than as the ball-handler (15). In essence, he was hunted more often on defense than he initiated the offense, with the former seemingly impacting the latter.
For the sake of context, the Knicks forced him to defend more picks as the screener defender in Game 5 (22) than the Bucks did during the entirety of the first round (19). That's draining -- especially when he's expected to step out and show on pick-and-rolls, with the alternative being to forfeit the mismatch against Brunson, who amassed his fifth 40-point scoring performance of the playoffs. Despite some loud mistakes in the first half, with Haliburton reaching from behind and getting split, those possessions didn't necessary lead to efficient offense for New York, as they generated just 0.773 points per chance; however, the impact was certainly felt on the other end of the floor, where Haliburton could often be seen standing off from the play as decoy. To that point, if McBride's inclusion into the starting lineup was going to reorient the offense that much (it shouldn't have,) while also making it more difficult for the Pacers to shrink the floor at the other end (this is debatable), the fact that they also got bored on the boards was insurmountable.
Once again, here to break it all down is Samson Folk, who joins to discuss whether the impact of starting McBride should've been this impactful. Plus, extended thoughts on defending Brunson as a lefty, and other assorted banter to (hopefully) lighten the mood. Enjoy!
Timestamps:
0:00 - Introductions
3:14 - The standout possessions that convinced us the Pacers weren't going to win
5:00 - Losing the rebounding battle to a smaller team
5:16 - Difference in spacing with McBride in place of Achiuwa
7:11 - Letting the Knicks dictate the terms of the offense
15:07 - Guarding Tyrese by forcing him to guard
18:46 - My mispronunciations rubbing off Samson + the difference in our accents
21:22 - Reviewing Tyrese's show coverage
24:38 - Regression in Myles Turner's rim protection
29:06 - Jalen Brunson, good at basketball
32:57 - NYK having more options against Tyrese than the Pacers have against Brunson
33:30 - Not playing four-on-four enough with Siakam
33:49 - Do the Pacers realize that Brunson is a lefty?
42:28 - Getting bored on the boards
50:03 - Possible adjustments besides the obvious "play better"
53:48 - Samson quiet quits the podcast and quotes Tolkein
54:49 - Defending the honor of Indiana + banter to lighten the mood
1:00:33 - Thank you and goodbye
Comments
Caitlin Cooper
The FGA stats aren’t particularly meaningful on the whole — especially since TJ doesn’t often continue guarding him. When the screen comes, he switches off.
Pinder
I think you guys are a bit hyperbolic on the TJ on Brunson stuff. TJ is not going to stop him, certainly not if the help doesn't improve, but his shooting % against TJ is the best of the guards. Makes sense to play TJ a bit more on him. But still needs to be a team effort.
RB
There has been a lot of focus in the broadcasts about Halibuton’s lack of aggression on offense. I think the bigger issue is his defense. Haliburton and Obi have to pick up their defense if there is any hope of advancing
Jeff
Probably showing my cycling bias, but I always thought MSG was a velodrome first and even has a bike race named after it. Basketball was just an afterthought for them.
Caitlin Cooper
Glad you enjoyed it :)
Caitlin Cooper
Thanks for the compliment, Carolyn. I don't think anything I'm pointing out about the clips is something that the coaching staff or the film room hasn't already noticed. If anything, there is probably something I'm missing about the thought process behind the game-plan. As to your other question, I think the context between Game 5 and Games 3 & 4 just changed. Haliburton had a different match-up and was hunted more than ever before. It's an adjustment -- just like it was for Brunson in the prior games, albeit to a lesser extent and due to injury. Haliburton acknowledged that he needs to be more involved, and I expect that he will be. After all, the greatest Pacer of all time (Reggie) also did quite a bit of trash talking, right?
L0nster
Love the banter with Samson about your “linguistic escapades”… You should do more of that too!!!
Carolyn Collins
,Carolyn Collins Two things: you do such a great job breaking down poor defenses ,analyzing areas that have gone wrong and. Then always look at each area and give ways you think the y could have been done better. So my question is: Do you know if any Pacers coaches ever treat themselves to these helpful ideas? Second. Tye loves the adulations from the crowd. He feeds off the crowd and when winning at times shows his immaturity by jokingly taunting players. Now when he does not have that crowd reinforcement he loses his confidence. Problem o Is he’s the leader and this carries over to some team members. Not all The real superstars may lose confidence at times but very rarely. I hope this is something that will come with experience. If he is not able to work through this, maybe The Pacers were too quick to call him their super star.
