Pacers zone out in Game 3 loss to Cavs

My work at Basketball, She Wrote is typically paywalled. This video podcast with Samson Folk, discussing Game 3 as a convergence of every nagging concern from the regular season, is available as a free trial for everyone. If you're new here and want to support independent writing about actual basketball, please consider subscribing and/or sharing it around. Alright, onto the spoken and written words about the Pacers

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

In what was a 126-104 loss at home to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Pacers zoned out -- not only as it pertains to being stymied by zone, but also with respect to their lack of concentration on the glass and in the details, as they never led and trailed by as many as 26 points.

To a certain extent, Game 3 was like a compilation album of all this team's biggest recurring struggles (rather than greatest hits). There was a patented slow start, with Cleveland jumping out to an early 11-0 advantage. There were 50/50 balls that were made to look like 80/20 balls again, as the Cavs finished with 20 more field-goal attempts than the Pacers, who seemingly needed a reminder that the basketball is, in fact, the most important part of basketball. And, lastly, there was the offense stalling out against a 3-2 zone, which while different than the 2-3 zone that gave the Tyrese Haliburton-less Pacers trouble in January, wasn't exactly new to this series, as the Cavs also briefly dropped back into that same formation in Game 1.

And yet, for a team that saw the third-most zone during the regular season, the Pacers scored just 0.696 points per possession on 23 zone possessions, as the team shot 0-of-9 from three against the alternate form of coverage, with Pascal Siakam launching just a single shot and Haliburton, who finished with four points on 2-of-8 shooting, never attempting any.

Haliburton is capable of functioning like negative space in art when it comes to adding contour and dimension to the offense without constantly having to be the center of attention. After all, the attention that's being paid to him away from the ball is a big part of the reason why the No. 1 pick-and-roll duo in the NBA during the playoffs, minimum 50 ball-screens, has been Andrew Nembhard and Myles Turner. Still, he can't be a side feature to such an extent that all of the attention, particularly against zone, when he isn't optimizing the spacing in four-on-four alignments while being face-guarded, goes to the center position -- with Turner repeatedly attempting to manipulate the coverage as the central focus.

As such, before the Pacers get another shot at righting everything that converged to go wrong, Samson Folk is here to discuss what can be learned from Game 3 headed into Game 4.

Here are the relevant timestamps:

0:00 - Introductions

0:56 - We're no longer the frontrunning podcast

3:11 - Zone strikes again! (3-2 instead of 2-3)

7:57 - Not enough screening Mobley at the top of the zone, too much decision-making responsibility for Turner in the middle of the zone

16:57 - Screening Allen at the bottom of the zone

19:43 - Brief aside about Samson's life writing about the Pacers in Toronto

21:30 - Running zone busters (X, baseline, motion) with more rhythm and intention

26:11 - What's tilting the possession battle in favor of the Cavs?

31:05 - The basketball needs to be the most important thing about the basketball played in Game 4

32:11 - Ratcheting up the physicality + thoughts on the early James Johnson sighting

37:12 - Haliburton only attempting one shot against the zone + why there may need to be more screen-the-screener actions to spring him free against the face-guarding

41:42 - If not, then maybe tilt more of the ball to Pascal Siakam?

46:59 - The Pacers needed more from Haliburton defensively, too

52:12 - Expectation for change in Game 4

54:30 - Samson embraces his status as Hufflepuff

1:00:54 - Growing up in small towns

1:03:47 - Field vs. Meadow

1:08:00 - Home infestation experiences + zoo visits

1:17:19 - Recurring stress dreams

1:21:29 - Should the Pacers be stressed about Game 4?

1:25:07 - Thank you and Goodbye