This is My Hatbox, Part 3

If you're unfamiliar with the hatbox concept, go back and read the intro to Part 1. Otherwise, let's finish getting reacquainted with each other and the Pacers.

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Pacers 113, Wizards 127 – Smallie Bigs

Oh hey, Daniel Theis missed this game due to right knee injury maintenance, so Isaiah Jackson and Jalen Smith both played actual minutes before the fourth quarter.

Because the Pacers kept to playing small, whereas the Wizards started Kristaps Porzingis and Daniel Gafford, this was effectively a match-up of cross-matches. In the prior meetings, Turner was assigned mainly to Deni Avdija and/or Rui Hachimura with Buddy Hield checking Porzingis. In this game, rather than getting stashed against a low-usage wing, Turner was matched with Gafford. Meanwhile, Hield and Nesmith divided up the Porzingis assignment, so as to keep Turner out of pick-and-pop actions. At the other end, Porzingis was guarding Andrew Nembhard, who arguably was a bit too timid with his willingness to drive.

Of course, some of that hesitancy may have been spurred on by the fact that Gafford was lurking behind every corner as an additional big body.

At the same time, once both teams started to go to their benches with hybrid lineups, here is what the defense looked like when mismatches didn’t get scrammed out against Porzingis.

To be fair, the size differential was but a mere drop in the bucket of the tidal wave of offense that overwhelmed the Pacers in the first half, as Washington scored 80 points on 73 percent shooting while generating second chances on four of their grand total of nine (yes, NINE) missed shots. The Wizards had themselves a night, but the Pacers certainly had a hand in making it extra special. After all, being small can’t be blamed for why they were gambling for steals and getting excessively spooked by ghost screens, as Bradley Beal repeatedly capitalized on mistakes in the nation’s capital. Still, anytime there is such a stark contrast in playstyles and/or size, it’s always compelling to monitor which team blinks first.

In that regard, after playing exactly three minutes together over the prior seven games in which we were separated as writer and reader, the frontcourt pairing of Myles Turner and Jalen Smith came out of retirement briefly during the first half against the Wizards. Granted, the timing was odd, given that Washington no longer had both bigs on the floor; however, in case anyone was wondering why these two aren’t playing much together anymore, this should clear things up.

As started happening during the team’s seven-game west coast road trip spanning from the end of November to the beginning of December, the Wizards are defending Smith as though he is the five. Generally speaking, that has a tendency to produce one of two effects. Either the opposing team’s center sags off from Smith, cluttering the pick-and-roll for Turner. Or, in order to involve the big in the action, Turner gets marginalized. The latter is the case here, as he spends the majority of the possession in the corner, defended by Corey Kispert. Recognizing this, Turner attempts to duck-in, but he has to contend with McConnell’s defender, who is ducking under. In the end, the overall display in wonkiness results in an off-the-dribble foray from Smith, who struggles to maintain advantage.

Defensively, when only one big was on the floor for Washington, Turner was defending the least threatening shooter, with Smith defending at the five – which was an interesting choice given that Gafford isn’t a threat to pop. Then again, maybe the Pacers wanted to simplify things in transition by eliminating the cross-match? Whatever the case, it looks like Chris Duarte gets tripped, here, but in all reality he probably doesn’t have much of a chance at impacting the pass to the roll-man anyway.

Just look at this possession from earlier in the season. Admittedly, he could be more timely running the seam on the late-switch after chasing over, but how much can reasonably be expected of him against a lob threat?

That’s why, if Turner is going to be in the role of weak-side roamer, then he actually needs to roam, coming wayyyy early with the help to avoid whiffing as the low-man. Tellingly, following that gaffe against Gafford, the Pacers called a timeout and replaced Smith with Nembhard, rolling instead with a smallie bigs lineup of Nembhard and Turner alongside McConnell, Duarte, and Mathurin, who was effectively playing at nominal four. Smith, for his part, didn’t return to the game until the final 3:48 of the fourth quarter, when the Wizards were leading, 125-106.

Between that series of events and what was laid out in the Memphis section as to the fault lines that were beginning to be exposed with the four-guard lineups on defense by means other than just mismatches, it sure seems as though the Pacers could use a medium-sized guy and, preferably, a medium-sized guy who can both shoot and defend. Those are easy to come by, right (*stares in O.G. Anunoby rumors*)? Anyway, let’s see what Jordan Nwora has to offer.

Pacers 117, Jazz 123 – What’s new is old and what’s old isn’t new

Jordan Nwora played, and Oshae Brissett did not. George Hill also played, and Chris Duarte did not. It was interesting, to be sure. But, it was also somewhat reminiscent of what happened after the trade deadline last season, when Tristan Thompson went 8-of-9 from the field against the Wizards, demonstrating existing chemistry with Tyrese Haliburton, before being bought out after only four games. By comparison, Hill isn’t going anywhere. He chose to stay put, opting to be a veteran for a young team rather than being waived. Still, the situations are similar in that Hill, despite playing in front of a recent draft pick, provided Nwora with a sense of familiarity – at times, eclipsing that of what was displayed between his new teammates.

Understandably, after changing teams, there was some clunk on offense. Nwora knocked down a three and connected with Haliburton on a cut, but he also required direction. For example, his role within this play, as can be seen by the pantomiming from both McConnell and Theis, is to come up out of the corner to screen for the ball. From there, whereas Haliburton will typically either hunt the switch pocket or reverse the ball through the big to flow into a pindown connected to a hand-off from the second side, McConnell almost always uses the screen to attack baseline. Once he circles and gets the ball back, effectively starting the whole process over again, he keeps a watchful eye on the opposite wing, waiting for Nwora to cut through the middle of the floor, as is normally triggered by his penetration. Instead, Nwora stayed spaced.

Those types of turnovers, born of taking a crash course in Pacers over a mere matter of days, should probably be expected. Conversely, that’s why this bit of synergy, revealing an invisible string stretching over from Milwaukee and tying Nwora to Hill, stood out. Notably, during pick-and-roll, the Jazz were sending a cutter underneath the ball screen from one wing to the other.

Known as a shallow cut, the purpose of this is to create a larger gap for the ball while also confusing the defense in terms of who the tagger should be when the big rolls to the rim. But, watch Nwora. When he sees that Hill is still chasing as the ball turns the corner, he makes the switch as the next nearest defender and Hill replaces him on the wing, peeling onto the cutter.

Granted, Nwora is far from being a lockdown defender and he made other mistakes in this game, particularly when attempting to trail Lauri Markkanen around off-ball screens, but it bears pointing out that his read to jump-switch against a crafty pick-and-roll action functioned to deflect the ball away from the paint – which is more than can be said for what happened during crunch-time. Before drilling up that last layer of bedrock though, how about brightening the mood by giving Haliburton his flowers? Admittedly, I have not been online much while trying to launch my own tiny corner of the internet. So, I don’t know if anyone made a video of Haliburton putting Kelly Olynyk on skates and forcing him to grab a parachute with the Cha Cha Slide or Jump Everybody Jump playing in the background, but the deepest desire of my middle-school-dance-going heart is that someone made a video of Haliburton putting Kelly Olynyk on skates and forcing him to grab a parachute with the Cha Cha Slide or Jump Everybody Jump playing in the background.

Haliburton was magnificent down the stretch on offense (a joy, truly); but alas, the same cannot be said defensively. Maybe those two things were partially related? After all, he scored or assisted on eight of Indiana’s 12 made baskets over the final seven minutes of action. It’s possible he was drained from doing so much heavy lifting, especially since he was responsible for guarding Jordan Clarkson with Mathurin joining the closing lineup in place of Nembhard. Still, the Jazz were picking on him and what happened, here, is basically the Oregon Trail equivalent of attempting to fjord the river because you don’t have the resources to ferry a safe trip (sorry, still thinking about middle school). For context, a few possessions earlier, Haliburton gave up a straight-line drive to Collin Sexton after being mismatch-hunted. As a result, Buddy Hield (yes, that Buddy Hield) made the adjustment to pre-switch on the screen approach from Clarkson so as to prevent Haliburton from being involved in the action.

That alone … uh… says a lot.

Worse still, because Hield-Sexton is basically just as vulnerable of a match-up as Haliburton-Sexton, Mathurin is doing what the Pacers have done all season, providing passive help at the nail as a deterrent, only to surrender an open three.

All of which again begs the question, if the end result is going to be an open three anyway, at what point is going with switch-to-blitz coverage (in which the switch is followed by a hard double or trap) more beneficial, at least from the perspective of maybe forcing a turnover?

Either way, the figurative and literal bullying also manifested with consecutive screens to force Haliburton to switch from Sexton onto Markkanen, revealing the fragility of attempting to front the post at the nail with Mathurin slow to pre-rotate as the back-side help.

To this point, the Pacers have won the 438 minutes with Haliburton, Hield, and Mathurin on the floor together, outscoring opponents by 6.86 points per 100 possessions, but that’s mainly being propped up by an otherworldly offensive rating (122.7). Overall, for a team that saw two newcomers be more in sync with each other on defense than what was the case for the usual cast of characters during the fourth quarter, it appears as though the Pacers could use a break as well as practice. That said, even with extra teaching time, it remains to be seen if they can scheme themselves out of the precariousness that tends to occur when opponents scheme for them.

Pacers 117, Bulls 113 – The end is the beginning

Well, how about that! It seems as though the Pacers still had some life left in their legs after all. Or, maybe, they just needed to play the Bulls again? After all, the Pacers are 3-16 over their last 19 games and two of the wins, in which they overcame deficits of 20 or more points, have come against Chicago. Coincidence? Perhaps. Then again, early in the first half, when the Pacers were defending up at the level of the screen, the Bulls found success running the pick-and-roll toward the side of the floor with two or more players.

In essence, for defenses that still differentiate the pick-and-roll as going toward the “strong” or “weak” side, rather than by how many players are standing on each side of the floor, this meant that a single player standing on the “weak” side was responsible for tagging the roll-man and recovering back out to the shooter. In that regard, it begs the question why more teams aren’t willing to tag from the side of the floor with two or more players – even if it’s the strong side – so as to avoid the simple advantages that can be gained by throwing the ball back behind the pick-and-roll to a player lifting from the corner, but that’s a discussion for another time.

The point is, Chicago generated some easy shots by doing this.

And yet, after halftime, the Bulls curiously reversed course, running the pick-and-roll toward the side of the floor with only one player, which meant the Pacers had an extra body to park in front of the roll-man while zoning up the perimeter.

With Buddy Hield breaking Reggie Miller’s franchise-record for most three-pointers made in a single season and Jalen Smith staying ready to play key minutes off the bench, Aaron Nesmith’s contributions from this game mostly flew under the radar, but he shined as the low-man, whether sliding over to take a charge or switching onto the screener with Turner peeling off to smother the read spot.

Plus, he also ended up being responsible for battling Nikola Vucevic. When functioning as intended, this is the epitome of what the Pacers are trying to accomplish on defense. With Smith cross-matched against Patrick Williams so as to stay low and avoid defending in space, Nesmith guards Vucevic at the five and switches every action. Then, to rid themselves of the mismatch, Smith scrams McConnell out of the post and McConnell takes Smith’s man in the corner. When the ball gets swung to the top of the key, Mathurin plants himself in the gap and springs out, knocking the ball away with active hands.

Good job, everyone! Meanwhile, when the Bulls skipped the screening action and just tried to post Vucevic against Nesmith, Smith again kept the match-up even, switching away from the ball with Nesmith recovering to the corner in tandem with Duarte digging down from the passer to keep the action off balance.

That’s what defending on a string is supposed to look like. Still, it bears pointing out that, similar to how the Bulls went away from requiring the need for single-side tags, Chicago also wasn’t trying some of the creative things that other teams have deployed to combat Indiana’s cross-matches. Remember when the Thunder posted Josh Giddey against Turner and ran split action with the paint devoid of rim protection? Yeah, Alex Caruso and Patrick Williams weren’t doing that. Likewise, think back to when the Pacers played the Sixers at the beginning of January and watch Montrezl Harrell. See how he waits for the kick-out switch on the roll, with McConnell recovering to Smith’s man, and then just sets another screen?

In turn, that forces Smith to defend outside the paint, while also giving James Harden the match-up he wants. Again, Chicago wasn’t doing that, either. That said, while there are some clear reasons why the Pacers seem to like them some Bulls in terms of this being one of only two opponents they’ve won against over the last 19 games, the process on defense is closing out this writing in a much better place than where we started – when the executive decision was made by me, as writer, editor, and publisher, to throw the topic back in the box.

So, there you have it. We’ve made it to the end of what we missed while we were apart; and now, in revisiting what the Pacers have been up to, are hopefully better reacquainted with each other to continue our journey together, with me being the “she” of “Basketball, She Wrote – A blog about the basketball played by the Indiana Pacers.”

We’re back.