Execution is King

By: Samson Folk I @samfolkk 

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

The two most important Indiana-centric things to start game 2? Nembhard's pressure defense – starting with full court pressure on Brunson – was really quite good to open the game. Also, Haliburton started seeing a bit more defense at the level and took advantage to burst into seams and get middle. Even if Haliburton isn't hitting every floater that he sees, that pressure created motion in the defense. 

Interesting start in the sense that the Pacers scored the first 10 points of the game without registering an assist, and the Knicks rode a great start from Anunoby – that included good drives, which aren't common for him – to an early 18-10 lead. Divincenzo & Brunson can a couple triples back to back to go up 11 - one coming with some overzealous rotations, and the other on some pull-up prowess. A really nice stretch of Hot Girl Basketball (fast, high scoring, ball pinging everywhere) brought the Pacers back immediately. An 11-0 run in a heartbeat. 

After the first quarter it was clear Haliburton was bringing a different mentality to this one, as he led the team with 13 points to that point. Keeping the Pacers afloat as the Knicks got a ton of secondary scoring in the opening frame. 

Every game I watch Obi Toppin and I come away impressed; it gets even better when he's playing next to the big boys (Siakam & IJax) as they continue to shrink the floor on defense and rely on TJ McConnell to sort out the odd spacing on the other side - which he continues to do. 

Back to Haliburton: this is the guy I've seen on occasion. This is the star guard. 22-4-5 at the half. He looked spry, the decision making was tremendous, the shot was falling, and he had a total vice grip like hold on Indiana's offense. Making everyone's life much easier, and delivering on so much of the promise of his game. Siakam was a good Robin as well, knifing middle whenever the opportunity arose; creating extra looks on the offensive glass (7 points scored off his 3 ORBS, 9 if you count the tap to Haliburton for a putback) and getting a bucket here and there in isolation situations. Tidy work to support the Pacers and their star man, Haliburton. 

Brunson seemed to injure his foot on a soft contact play with Nembhard, which was strange (especially since he appeared to hold his groin after the interaction). In fact, a good chunk of the halftime was spent pouring over slow motion footage looking for what could have possibly injured him. Anunoby continued to guide the Knicks offense and had a 22-point half, which was ALSO strange. All in all, the Pacers led by 10 at the half: 73-63.

Brunson made it out for the 2nd half. Interesting!!

We got a tidy lil 6-point run from Nembhard to start, but in a horrible turn for the Pacers, those were the only points they scored in the first 5 minutes and 20 seconds. Even worse? The Knicks brought a tidal wave of buckets in from halftime, scoring 21 points in the same time frame. Some of it from Brunson, some from. Divincenzo, who has been absolutely sublime, and Hart continues to stir everything up in early offense. 

“I don't know if he's struggling as much as he's just not trying to do anything.” - Stan Van Gundy on Haliburton's start to the second half. 

A big Sheppard three brings the Pacers back within 6. Hart pushes early again and makes this insane euro layup, only for Toppin to get out on the corresponding possession for an And-1. Pacers force an 8-second count. The pressure is up, and they needed that counterpunch. However, the Pacers have had a few defensive breakdowns that can only be chalked up to lack of care or attention to detail, and that's no good whatsoever. 

They got doubled up, 36-18, in the third quarter. Total blunder.

The bench is everything. Remains everything. McConnell is a titanium straw, and he's been quite good on the chase of Brunson. The transitional lineups suffer very little on offense by losing a couple starters, and the defense improves. This is how we found the Pacers back within 2 with 5 minutes to go. 

Down 7, now. Execution is king, and not only do the Knicks get more looks at it because of the ORBS, but they're getting some surefire finishes at the bucket. We even got a repeat of the Brunson pull from 3 & the Divincenzo C&S make after the Pacers blitzed the former. On the other end we got a missed Siakam 3, an ORB, and a foul that sent him to the line: where he missed both. Execution is king. It just isn't good enough, and Siakam can't let this stuff slip through his fingers. His co-star though, Haliburton, canned a pull-up triple out of their 2-man action and brought the game back within 4. 

Siakam & Brunson trade faders, with the latter hitting and the former missing. Nesmith gets lost on a Hartenstein pin-in, and Divincenzo bangs in a triple. Haliburton tries to pull the Pacers back, Nesmith hits a triple off a BLOB play, but ultimately the Knicks hit more shots and got more looks, too. 

The Knicks hold it down at MSG, and they do it while looking mighty resilient and weathering some missed time from both Anunoby & Brunson.

Would've liked to see more McConnell in this one.  

Have a blessed day.