System Failure

By: Samson Folk I @samfolkk

A reminder: Caitlin’s deep dive comes later. This is just supposed to hold you over. 

It’s not fun to watch a vast array of failures over the course of 48 minutes. It’s pretty tough. It’s even tougher to watch it when you’re getting one of those huge performances that help swing games, but you fail to even put yourself in the swing zone - the bat path, maybe?

The Pacers came into game 2 as the best offense in the playoffs and a team that could score from a lot of different places. Different skill sets, different players, all finding buckets in a maelstrom of pace. That just wasn’t the case in game 2, though. The Celtics took so much of what the Pacers rely on and they kept it above the break. They pushed it toward the back end of the shot clock. They smothered the NBA’s best offense and did so with a lot of different looks. 

One thing worked overwhelmingly for the Pacers – the aforementioned swing performance – and it was Pascal Siakam. He worked for early post position, he got a putback, he drove early in the clock, he drove late in the clock; he swiveled, pivoted, swiveled again, and topped it all off with a bevy of touch shots. He hit 13 shots, only missed 4, and scored 28 points in his 31 minutes. When the Pacers allowed a 20-0 run, he saw very little of the basketball. His 10-0 run to end the half came in short order when the ball found his hands. When he brought them all the way back, the ball stopped finding his hands. It was a confusing process from the Pacers, to ignore what seemed like an obvious advantage. 

As a team, they brought hardly anything to the rim. When they got there, weak passes from underneath the hoop became all too common. Turning rim attempts into turnovers and runouts is one of the worst exchanges you can participate in. Andrew Nembhard – who was actually really great off the bounce – seemed like the only player who was comfortable taking the ball in from above the break. 

Even more to their lack of attention to detail: the Pacers played lazy and complacent basketball for much of the game. Allowing heaps of offensive rebounds, a lot of them against a surging corner man, and some due to a comedy of errors. In the big games you don’t always get shots to drop, but you battle tooth and nail for the other differentials. You hang in. The Pacers did nothing of the sort, and that was echoed by the final score. This is the Eastern Conference Finals. 

The Tyrese-Haliburton-of-it-all is up in the air right now. It looked like he tweaked his ankle, it was reported that he left the game with leg soreness, and it was the product of the Celtics refusing to cease their hunting of him. It was open season. Haliburton in a screening action meant an open three, or a driving lane, or an open three and a driving lane. Who knows where Haliburton’s health sits, or where it’ll be when game 3 is set to tip off, but the Pacers have to find a better solve for what ails their defense - and what fuels some very good Celtics halfcourt looks. 

It was always going to be tough to steal game 2, and especially after the hellacious end to game 1. However, the Pacers didn’t fulfill their promise in this one. We move. 

Have a blessed day.