Game 1 Observations from the NBA Finals: Thunder vs. Pacers
Oh my, Haliburton… how the Pacers pulled off another last-second upset
I didn’t plan to do Game Observations for non-Lakers or Mavericks games, but this is the Finals. And despite all the debates about how unappealing the matchup is or how one sided it might be, Game 1 delivered everything only basketball can. Some Finals jitters, OKC’s early defensive dominance, adjustments, a now trademark Pacers comeback, and another Tyrese Haliburton game winner.
I mean, how can you not be excited after a shot like this on the biggest stage possible?
Today’s notes:
Pacers and comebacks keep coming
Shooting still matters...the most
(Too) early adjustment?
Lu Dort’s defensive playmaking (🎞️VIDEO)
What to watch for going forward?
1-Pacers and comebacks keep coming
Haliburton and the Pacers pulled off another seemingly miraculous comeback, winning the game after trailing the entire night and falling behind by as much as 15 in the fourth quarter. In fact, Haliburton’s game winner with 0.3 seconds left was the Pacers’ first lead of the game.
And as my friend and Mavs radio color analyst Brian Dameris pointed out, the last time a team came back from a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win an NBA Finals game was in 2011 Finals Game 2. That was when Rick Carlisle and his Mavericks erased a 15-point hole with under seven minutes left to beat the Heat.
As crazy as this comeback and some of the others the Pacers have pulled off might look in isolation, watching every one of their playoff games you can almost feel it coming. Throughout this game, much like how I felt in their series against the Knicks, I had a sense that if they could stay close enough and if the Thunder didn’t pull away by 20 or more, the Pacers would find a way to steal it at the end.
One thing I mentioned to my friend and Slovenian National Team assistant coach Luka Bassin, one of the rare people I’ve seen boldly predict the Pacers winning the Finals, before this series was that if OKC has a flaw, it’s their shooting, especially when things get tight. We saw it hurt them in last year’s playoffs against Dallas and almost become their downfall in this year’s seven-game epic battle with Denver.
Haliburton, on the other end, is on one of the most incredible playoff shot-making runs in NBA history, and has now hit a game-winning or game-tying shot in each series.
Add in Aaron Nesmith’s wild Game 1 fourth-quarter explosion against the Knicks, becoming the first player in NBA history to hit six threes in the fourth quarter of a playoff game, and the way he helped lead an even crazier end-of-game turnaround than the one we saw last night, and it really starts to feel like there’s just something about this Pacers team. Like they’re somehow destined to keep winning against all odds.
2–Shooting still matters...the most
A lot has been said about the stylistic clash between these two teams, and even more about the swarming, historically great Thunder defense.
Early on, it looked like OKC—who went with even more aggressive lineups (more on that in a moment)—and their “15 puppets on one string” scrambling defense would suffocate even the fastest and most unpredictable offense of the playoffs. Nineteen of Indiana’s 24 turnovers came in the first half, and for a while it felt like this might be the first series where the ultra-fast Pacers, who’ve overwhelmed everyone with their pace, would actually need to slow down.
However, the Pacers settled in during the second half, and in a battle between the best possession team and the best shooting team in the playoffs, it was the shooters who came out on top. The Thunder, like they’ve been all season, are the best team at forcing turnovers in the playoffs by a wide margin. But the Pacers, who lead all playoff teams in both overall effective field goal percentage and three-point shooting, proved that shot-making is still the most important element of modern NBA basketball.
The Pacers finished 18-of-39 from three, good for 46 percent, made seven more threes than the Thunder, and went 6-of-10 from deep in the fourth quarter alone. Myles Turner and Obi Toppin made four of those six, proving that their ability to stretch the floor and knock down shots will be key in this series against the Thunder’s aggressive, shrink-and-collapse defense.
3-(Too) early adjustment?
Mark Daigneault made his first big adjustment before the Finals even started, opting to start another aggressive guard, Cason Wallace, in place of big man Isaiah Hartenstein. The ESPN broadcast crew pointed out that adapting so early to your opponent might signal a lack of confidence in your own team and in the lineup that had worked so well through the first 16 games of the playoffs.
I’m not so sure about that. Early on, it seemed like adding another fast and aggressive guard completely disrupted the Pacers and threw their transition and early offense off track. Indiana finished with just 10 fast break points—their second-lowest output of these playoffs and their lowest in the last 15 games. Until the fourth-quarter three-point shooting surge, the Pacers offense looked nothing like the high-octane, fast-paced attack that had left their opponents helpless in the previous rounds.
Where the smaller lineups were most costly for the Thunder was on the glass. Daigneault played only one of his two bigs, Holmgren or Hartenstein, and even mixed in some no-big small-ball looks. Indiana grabbed offensive boards at a high 35 percent rate, which helped partially offset their massive turnover disadvantage. The playoffs are all about adjustments, so it will be interesting to see if Daigneault blinks again and makes another one for Game 2.
4–Lu Dort’s defensive playmaking (🎞️VIDEO)
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