Pacers "pass" by Cavs with shot-making, go up 1-0 - w/ Caitlin & Samson

My work at Basketball, She Wrote is typically paywalled. This video podcast with Samson Folk, discussing the extremes of a Game 1 semi-finals win over the Cavs, 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

Darius Garland didn't play, and the Pacers outscored the Cavs by 30 points from three, with T.J. McConnell knocking down as many shots from behind the arc as Donovan Mitchell (1), who in combination with Ty Jerome attempted 50 of Cleveland's 98 field-goal attempts. Put simply, if ever there was a such thing as a must-win Game 1, this was it. In the end, thanks to what was a shot-making extravaganza, the Pacers ultimately edged out the Cavs with shot-quality, despite losing out in shot-quantity.

That said, while defenses have far more control over shot-volume and location from three than conversion rate, there also seemed to be some "strategy" to the variance, as the Pacers outperformed their expected effective field-goal percentage (52.6 percent) by a mammoth 26.6 percent. For the game, Indiana logged 330.3 passes per 100 possessions, compared to just 227.3 for the Cavs, which was down from 276.4 during the regular season. The 30th-ranked team in that category this past season averaged 273.4 passes per 100 possessions. Meanwhile, the Pacers recorded a grand total of just 17.2 closeouts per 100 possessions -- marking the third-fewest of any team in any game this season. And yet, a higher frequency of Cleveland's three-point attempts were heavily contested (68.4 percent) than what was the case for the Pacers, at just 47.2 percent.

Again, defenses don't necessarily affect three-point percentage, but all of those numbers in combination are indicative of a Pacers team that was intent on staying at home to sap some of the lyricism from Cleveland's offense while allowing Ty Jerome and Donovan Mitchell to overextend themselves as scoring engines in the absence of Darius Garland's passing creativity. Given that the Cavs amassed 70 points in the paint while dominating the possession war, there will be much to learn in Game 2 as far as whether the Pacers can continue writing a check with their reduced help coverage that their shot-making can, apparently, take directly to the bank and cash.

As such, Samson Folk is here to discuss the extremes of Game 1, including Tyrese Haliburton's growth against Cleveland's switches since his very first game with the Pacers (which, coincidentally, also was against the Cavs), along with the star guard's defense, the ongoing development of Playoff Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith doing Aaron Nesmith things, and the two-way impact of how all roads (or at least many roads) led to indirectly attacking Ty Je(rome). Enjoy!

Here are the relevant timestamps:

0:00 - Introductions

2:02 - How sustainable is the "guard your yard" scheme?

5:23 - Revisiting the war at the nail to explain the shift in coverage

7:54 - Nobody said it would be Nembeasy!!

9:45 - Tyrese's clutch stops

18:30 - All roads leads to (indirectly) attacking Ty Je(rome)

24:34 - Playoff Nembhard + the luxury of packing possessions full of actions without Tyrese even needing to touch the ball

28:33 - Tyrese progressions against switches since his first game with the Pacers (coincidentally, also against the Cavs)

41:54 - Obvious room for improvement in leveling up in the possession war

48:50 - Wishing for Darius Garland's speedy recovery

50:49 - Samson's favorite players to watch

52:19 - Nonsensical player comparisons

58:23 - Self-censoring cursing from podcasts

1:03:58 - Samson faces up to his Hufflepuff traits & confirms Caitlin as Ravenclaw

1:09:23 - The horrors of "Sampson" and "Caitlyn"

1:17:03 - Thank you and Goodbye!