Lessons from how the Bulls bullied the Pacers

A tale of two plays

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Not unlike the Bally Sports experience, the Pacers had a lot of technical difficulties during Monday night's 112-105 loss to the Bulls. Over the final six minutes of the fourth quarter, the Blue and Gold tallied more fouls (6) than made field goals (4), as Tyrese Haliburton was held scoreless at one end of the floor while also being scored on at the other. Meanwhile, this was the second-straight game in which the Pacers went small during crunch-time, with Aaron Nesmith and Bruce Brown both taking shifts at the four. Meanwhile, Bennedict Mathurin was replaced by Buddy Hield. So again, the current starting lineup wasn't the closing lineup. And yet, in broad strokes, a lot of what went wrong can be summed up by a tale of two plays, with one being that which they got bullied out of and the other being a representation of how they were bowled over.

Here's what happened and what it may portend.

When the Pacers had the ball

After the Bulls made free throws with 5:38 to play, Alex Caruso applied full-court pressure and started face-guarding Tyrese Haliburton in order to slow the pace of play while also keeping the ball out of the star guard's hands. As such, Bruce Brown became the lead initiator.

Normally, when Haliburton starts plays away from the ball or is up against increased defensive attention, the Pacers will dock him in the weak-side corner and signal for a set that they call "C" -- which is triggered by a touch screen for the ball-handler. If nothing shakes loose from that screen, the ball gets reversed to the big to flow into a hand-off with a pindown in the middle for the player in the opposite corner (aka Delay-Chicago). The only difference is, when the player in the opposite corner is Haliburton, the pindown becomes a flip screen -- with the screener running up through the inside to disguise the action and create more separation before the screen, opening up a bigger window for the star guard to shed his defender and get downhill.

Or, at least that's the vision. But, here's the thing: With Jaden McDaniels hounding Haliburton at the point of attack, that was the first time that the Pacers went to that counter last season. And it was Game 17. This is Game 3, and it doesn't seem as though the lineup that was on the floor, which has played exactly two minutes together, is quite as in sync  -- especially when the action isn't being jump-started by Haliburton. In that regard, look at where the star guard is standing and notice the reaction from Aaron Nesmith. Rather than taking his spot in the corner, Haliburton is flip-flopped with where Myles Turner should be as the hand-off setter. In all likelihood, that's why Nesmith is gesturing toward the corner, appearing confused as to what action they're actually running.

Generally speaking, there's reason to play Haliburton adjacent to the ball. After all, he shot 39.8 percent on catch-and-shoot threes last season. If the defense digs down or slides over too far, he's more than capable of stepping into an open shot. Alex Caruso isn't just any help defender, though. He pounces unexpectedly with an omnipresence that allows him to still recover despite being ultra-aggressive, hence the reason why Haliburton takes an extra step in his attempt to evade the closeout while moving to his left, which isn't his preferred norm.

As such, what could've been an attempt to gain separation from Caruso with a flipped screen ends up resulting in yet another turnover to go with the 17 that were amassed for the game. Less than a minute later, the Pacers got on the same page and actually attempted to run the intended play, with Turner and Haliburton swapped as they should be, but Bennedict Mathurin set a standard pindown instead of cutting up through the middle and hooking back. Consequently, Caruso isn't as tested to recognize and communicate the new situation unfolding on the fly, as he instead simply shoots the gap and continues to pursue as Haliburton turns the corner.

Still, although Haliburton was never fully able to shake Caruso as his shadow, that was the only shot for that came within the flow of the offense for him during the final six minutes of action. His other two attempts were both zero-pass threes, with one coming in transition and the other occurring with less than 10 seconds to play. Granted, he still racked up four assists to bring his total to 13 on the night, but he largely had to accumulate them by driving and/or making an extra pass out of spot-up situations, as the pressure from Caruso either relegated him to the second side of the floor or leveraged the ball to his teammates. After missing an open three out of the pick-and-pop with two players committing to the ball, that's probably why Mathurin was replaced by Hield.

Whatever the case, the Pacers have a go-to play for how to bring Haliburton back to the ball with an advantage against tough assignments and extended full-court pressure; they just didn't exhibit the level of chemistry nor the attention to detail that was needed to execute it. Of course, the fact that the Pacers didn't get any points from their closer during this stretch was obviously compounded by how often the Bulls were searching for him at the other end.

When the Bulls had the ball

As my friend Steph Noh, a terrific writer at Sporting News, pointed out after the game, if you watched my mailbag this month, you might've noticed the Bulls spamming a very similar play during crunch-time to that which I diagrammed as a staple of any Rick Carlisle playbook. What the Pacers call "two sides," the set begins with an uneven pair of Iverson-like staggered screens for a player to cut to the opposite wing for an empty-side pick-and-roll. 

That's exactly what the Bulls did. Except, spot the difference. After setting the brush screen for Obi Toppin, notice how Myles Turner stays high around the elbow, whereas Nikola Vucevic, by comparison, relocates to the dunker's spot. 

For the Pacers, if the player cutting from wing-to-wing can't immediately reject the screen and attack baseline, the intention is for the ball to get swung back to the original side of the floor, changing sides twice, for their All-Star to attack against a tilted defense out of middle pick-and-roll. That's why Turner is hanging out around the elbow. He's waiting for the boomerang pass to flow into a ball screen. By spacing Vucevic to the read area, away from the empty-side ball screen, the Bulls are effectively communicating that the play is for DeMar Derozan to go to work against Haliburton with plenty of elbow room. In that regard, Haliburton didn't give up the switch, but his quick show to avoid giving up the switch was exactly that -- quick and not much show.

Even if Caruso slips out to the corner, Haliburton has to step out long enough for Nesmith to navigate the screen and meet DeRozan on the other side after going under the hedge. This was also an issue last season, which is why he only showed on a total of 37 picks as the screener defender. For example, the end result is a missed layup here by Jayson Tatum, but certainly not because there was any form of resistance on the show that functioned more like a yield sign.

Needless to say, the Bulls went back to this same play again …and again … and again. On the next possession, Nesmith picked up a foul for holding onto DeRozan's jersey while chasing over the uneven staggered screens, which led to free throws. From there, the Pacers switched out the defensive assignments. In most cases, Haliburton guards low-usage guards and wings, like Caruso, so he can stay away from the point of attack and play aerial ace, sticking his arms in passing lanes. With Caruso being used as the screener, however, Indiana swapped Haliburton onto Coby White, leaving Mathurin to take on the challenge as the screener defender -- or at least so they thought.

Plot twist! Rather than setting the brush screen for Caruso to go screen, the Bulls just made note of where Haliburton was and started having White screen him into the action after making the pass. This happened twice and both times DeRozan manufactured a bucket against the switch. 

The hunting ground didn't stop there, either. LaVine turned the corner against Haliburton on a possession that also saw Vucevic finish with a hook shot over the star guard for an and-one. Put simply, a lot of damage was done. Overall, this game finished a lot how the last game started. The Pacers avoided putting themselves into rotation and limited threes against a team that has a tendency to be allergic to taking them, with Chicago only hoisting 17 attempts; however, just as was the case against Caris LeVert, they struggled to hold up against individual match-ups without fouling -- especially when either member of the starting back-court has been involved.

To be fair, DeRozan and LaVine were kept in check prior to when the target practice started in the fourth quarter, and not every team is going to have a defender the caliber of Caruso to actively disrupt how the Pacers want to play, but the loss serves as a telling representation of what can occur when Haliburton faces full-court pressure and also has to defend face-to-face. It's also possible that the game never reaches that point, if not for some of the issues with ball security, as three unforced turnovers from Nembhard in the frame came at the cost of scoring chances. 

That said, when Haliburton was held scoreless against the Heat last season, he answered in the next match-up by hunting the switch pocket and draining a franchise-record of 10 made threes. In this game, despite not matching his standard as a closer, he still finished with 19 points, albeit on 1-of-8 shooting from deep, to go with 13 assists. If the Pacers don't want to have to blitz after switching, he's going to need to show improvement at show coverage as the season progresses, while also circumventing defenses that are geared around pestering his preferred play-style, whether face-guarding, shading him left, or funneling the ball to the second side and elsewhere, requiring more from both him and his teammates. This was an early test against a team that was capable of doing all of the above (largely because of Caruso), but as the turnaround against Miami goes to show, Haliburton is usually capable of processing the data and spitting out answers.

Moving forward, what was a tale of two plays, could very well be a tale of two, tactically different and executed games, by the next match-up.