Pacers find comfort zone in Game 4 win over Cavs, lead series 3-1

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By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

In what was a 129-109 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Pacers found their comfort zone -- not only by poking and prodding more efficiently against the 3-2 zone that stalled out their offense in Game 3, but also by making their opponent decidedly less comfortable.

This was evident within the first minute of action, as Pascal Siakam could be seen pouncing on a loose ball on the very first possession, leading to a dunk for Tyrese Haliburton. On the next defensive possession, there were multiple box-outs, with Aaron Nesmith crashing to the floor in pursuit (yes, actual pursuit) of the rebound. Once the Pacers finally got into what would've been their opening play, Haliburton functioned like a decoy, rejecting a stagger with the intent of shedding Max Strus as his affixed shadow. But, that was just misdirection. Instead, rather than swinging the ball to Haliburton, Pascal Siakam received a pass at the slot, looking to feed Nesmith under the basket for a duck-in against the smaller Darius Garland. With Jarrett Allen rotating to the rim from the corner, the shot never came off. So, the ball kept moving, eventually finding Myles Turner in the corner. Turner started to lose the ball, but the possession wasn't lost. Haliburton got to the 50/50 ball (yes, the 50/50 -- not 80/20 -- ball) first. Out of the melee, an open Nesmith knocked down a three, putting the Pacers ahead, 5-0.

In effect, that minute of basketball was the game in miniature, featuring everything from shot-making and entering the ball to Siakam with more intention to how Haliburton can still be "aggressive" even when he isn't taking a high-volume of shots, along with a reminder that, in finishing stops with rebounds and forcing turnovers, the basketball is the most important part of basketball.

Some numbers:

• After attempting 20 fewer shots than the Cavs in Game 3, the Pacers finished with 23 more field-goal attempts than the Cavs in Game 4, nearly drawing even in offensive rebounds while finishing with a massive edge in ball security.

• Some of that was sloppiness on the part of Cleveland (22 turnovers is the second-most committed by an Indiana opponent this season!), but the Pacers also logged 21 possessions with at least three back-court defenders, of which they forced seven turnovers while holding the Cavs to just 0.905 points per possession. For frame of reference, Indiana's volume of possessions with at least three back-court defenders in Game 4 (21) exceeds that of 12 playoff teams for the entirety of their respective postseason runs.

• By screening Evan Mobley at the top of the zone and spamming their flare slip action with Pascal Siakam (rather than Myles Turner) making plays from the middle of the floor, the Pacers scored 1.917 points per possession on 12 zone possessions, going 5-of-7 from three, compared to just 0.696 on 23 zone possessions in Game 3, when they shot a woeful and arrhythmic 0-of-9.

Per usual, Samson Folk is here to talk about all of that and more, breaking down what led to the Pacers taking a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Here are the relevant timestamps:

0:00 - Introductions

0:37 - We're frontrunners again!

4:24 - How the opening set informed and summarized the rest of the game

9:37 - Impact of playing un(press)cedented amounts of press on the possession war

11:04 - Ben Sheppard may force Samson to make good on his promise to go mustache only

16:47 - The Pacers screened Evan Mobley at the top of the zone!

23:02 - The Pacers ran the flare slip action against the zone!

25:08 - Pascal Siakam's controlled play in the middle of the floor

27:21 - Obi Toppin & Siakam "powering the Pacers forward"

33:40 - Changes for Haliburton & Nembhard piloting the pick-and-roll

40:35 - The shifting emphasis on the importance of weak links in the playoffs

41:26 - Jump Passes are Good Now.

42:10 - How basketball writing is made (i.e. grinding film, rolling our own metrics, etc.) + when basketball writing gets erased from the internet (i.e. website go kaput)

54:52 - Revisiting the intelligence vs. kindness as a leading trait discussion

57:42 - Planning Samson's (someday) visit to Indiana + coolest animals we've seen in the wild

1:09:13 - Thank you and Goodbye