The Pacers are still figuring it out

On the adjustments from Round 2 of Cavs-Pacers and what it might mean for a potential Round 3

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

When asked what he likes about playing two-game, home-and-home miniseries, Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson told reporters during pregame media availability on Tuesday, "It's playoff-like -- especially when you lose."

After the Pacers snapped Cleveland's 12-game win streak on Sunday, the atmosphere at Gainbridge Fieldhouse was definitely playoff-like -- at least with regard to the adjustments that were made on-court, including from the opening tip.

To pick-up on the subtle differences, think back to the prior game in Cleveland. On the night, the Cavs only completed a total of 10 passes to players attacking the basket (whether as cutters, rollers, or in transition), which tied their season low. In addition to the extended ball pressure, part of the reason why was because the Pacers were hyper-aggressive at the nail. Anytime the ball moved toward the loaded side of the court with both the corner and wing filled, the next nearest defender to the ball was ready to dig, pounce, or at the very least wall up.

To counter, the Cavs attempted to reposition the nail help defender by cutting from the corner to the dunker spot, which functioned to open up the entire side of the floor for the player at the wing to drift into.

In turn, that typically put the Pacers in a long closeout situation, allowing the offense to react accordingly. As it turns out, though, Cleveland wasn't making those shots or really many shots at all. Granted, Jarace Walker's 7-foot-2 wingspan helps to make up some of the difference on that ground coverage; but also, this happened and the Cavs still didn't find the bottom of the net.

According to Second Spectrum, the Cavs underperformed their expected effective field-goal percentage of 55.2 percent from deep on Sunday by 15 percent. As such, during our recap podcast, when Samson and I were discussing this chess match between nail help and corner-to-dunker cuts, I asked him what he thought the adjustment might be if Cleveland started making some of those relatively open shots from the wing. Earlier this season, the Grizzlies deployed the same tactic against the Pacers. Back then, in response to the fact that they had been loosing track of the cutter, they eventually dropped Myles Turner into a one-man zone in paint-- at least when a non-shooter, such as Brandon Clarke, was the screener.

With that tweak, Turner could absorb the corner-to-dunker cutter in the paint with the corner defender then rotating up to the wing, thereby shortening the length of the closeout that otherwise would've been necessary from the nail help defender.

Bearing that in mind, Samson and I wondered if the Pacers might roll out the same approach on possessions with Jarrett Allen or Evan Mobley as the screener. To be fair, Mobley has shot a much-improved 41.6 percent on 2.8 threes per game this season; however, if the options are giving him space to pop or covering up the cutter and getting out to the wing in fewer steps, the former is arguably more palatable.

Well, turns out, the Cavs had different plans entirely. On the very first possession of the game, when the ball was moving toward the loaded side of the floor, what had normally been that corner-to-dunker cut with the wing player drifting into the corner turned into a surprise back-screen.

With Dean Wade instead running on the diagonal toward Turner, Bennedict Mathurin pointed for Andrew Nembhard to stick with Donovan Mitchell drifting into the corner, which allowed Darius Garland to drive deeper into the defense.

Meanwhile, with Turner unsuspectingly playing up at the level of the hand-off, he got slammed by the back-screen, which allowed Allen to shake loose at the rim. As a result, within the first 30 seconds of the game, the Cavs had already completed an attacking pass, of which -- to repeat -- they only had 10 in the entire prior game.

Cleveland didn't always incorporate that wrinkle, and there was a possession later in the quarter when Nembhard batted the ball away and forced a turnover on the usual corner-to-dunker cut, but the fact that they didn't always incorporate that wrinkle or the usual corner-to-dunker cut was also representative of the playoff-like atmosphere of the game. After all, another way to circumvent the nail help defender is to simply run plays and alignments where there won't be a nail help defender to circumvent. Here, for example, the pick is set for Donovan Mitchell to attack toward the single-side of the floor with his strong-hand, and the Pacers very much let Donovan Mitchell attack toward the single-side of the floor with his strong-hand.

There's a few differences there from the prior game. If McConnell isn't going to weak him, which the Pacers don't often do, Thomas Bryant has to provide more friction at the level of the screen. Additionally, whereas Mitchell was somewhat passive in the last game, passing out of open shots at times as though he was somehow deterred by the projection of Siakam's shadow, he came out firing in this game, attempting 13 shots by halftime compared to the 17 he hoisted on Sunday. Of course, Walker wasn't exactly projecting a shadow in that instance, either, as he was late rotating to the rim as the low-man, resulting in a talking-to from Siakam in the aftermath. On the next possession, when Walker was swapped onto Mitchell in place of McConnell, despite the fact that Ben Sheppard was on the floor, Mitchell once again got downhill with his strong-hand toward the single-side of the floor, which put the defense in rotation and ultimately resulted in a corner three.

Following the timeout that was immediately called, Nembhard was back on the floor in place of Walker. To his credit, as was discussed on the podcast, Walker had arguably the best game of his career in Cleveland as a defensive playmaker, striking the right balance between ambition and restraint while managing to stay connected to the scheme for the most part. That didn't translate as much in this game, as he was more often pressed into containing the ball or lagging with some of his decisions as the secondary rim protector as opposed to stalking the nail and preying on passing lanes with his ridiculous hand-eye coordination and cat-like reflexes. In summary, he's starting to figure it out, but also he's still figuring it out.

To a certain extent, the same applies with regard to the Pacers against zone defense. After they gave up a 19-point lead against the Milwaukee Bucks on New Year's Eve while being stymied by zone in the second half, they appeared to find their comfort zone against zone in Miami to such a degree that they never even faced zone in the second half. Well, Cleveland played 37 possessions of zone in this game, which was up from the grand total of five they played in the prior match-up and the most the Pacers have faced in any game this season.

Again, like Walker, they've started to figure it out, but they're still figuring it out, as they scored just 0.865 points per possession against Cleveland's zone compared to 1.328 points per possession versus man.

The new, swirling zone buster that busted them out of their slump against the alternate form of coverage in Miami looked a bit different against the Cavs, for a few reasons. First of all, plays look better when shots go in. Myles Turner made this shot in Miami. He didn't against Cleveland.

With Mobley laying back in the middle of the zone, the Pacers took what shots were available to them, but they didn't make many of the shots that were available to them, as they posted a conversion rate of just 12.5 percent on their eight jumpers inside the arc.

Moreover, Thomas Bryant didn't always appear particularly sure of what to do with the ball in space, which is why he ended up being shifted to the corner in the second half, where he knocked down a couple of threes. Still, if he stepped out from the high post to screen for the ball, there was typically a quick reminder that he wasn't stepping out to screen for Tyrese Haliburton, as the Cavs were generally more apt than Miami to slide under against McConnell, who has at times looked more pressed than usual of late to turn the corner with the same burst and lift.

If that's Haliburton, LeVert wouldn't be ducking under, as Mitchell would more likely receive him dribbling off the pick, with Strus then having to split the difference between Walker and Toppin, creating a potential 2-on-1 advantage.

Moving forward, when Mobley and Allen are both on the floor in the zone, the Pacers might want to think about filling the dunker spot on the side of the floor with whichever big isn't playing in the middle more often. That way, when the ball gets entered into the high post (preferably to someone with an attacking mindset), that big will have to choose between sinking to the dunker spot or exposing the corner.

All of which is to say, in the words of Kenny Atkinson, this game was "playoff-like" -- especially from the Cavaliers entering as the losing team. When these two team play again, and if Haliburton is healthy, perhaps the same will be able to be said of the Pacers in the reverse.