Hoops Tonight - Film Breakdown: Game 1 of the Thunder vs. Pacers NBA Finals

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obvious things that Oklahoma City could improve on. There's a certain identity with the Pacers that is going to be there every single game, no matter what, right, and I think that that specifically is one of the rationalizations or explanations for some of the crazy shot making that we see from the Pacers. There's this joke that we've been thrown around about devil magic and voodoo and all this crazy stuff that the Pacers have going for them as they continue to hit these crazy tough.

really tough shots on picking pops right. We have Tyrese Halliburton in the Crazy outha dribble jump shot he hits going to his right. All four of those dudes hit huge shots down the stretch, and there is something to be said about keeping the ball moving, keeping everyone involved, an offense that has a lot of flow and rhythm to it, and how that keeps people in rhythm and makes it so that it's more likely for multiple players to feel good in a big spot late in the game.

In this game on the thunder side, or two dudes who looked comfortable shooting anything away from the rim now shake Gil Just Alexander and lou Door and as you guys will see in the film, a lot of opportunities, a lot of missed kickout reads. I talked last night about how I liked Shake gild justs Alexander and his approach, specifically with respect to attacking the game to try to get his rhythm early on after going back and rewatching

a lot of his shots. I thought there were several in there that were pretty questionable pretty early in the clock and part of the reason why that rhythm didn't exist for his team. Jay dut came out just settling for really tough seventeen to nineteen foot pull up jump shots. Once he started attacking, good stuff happens. You'll see this in the film. We also saw some explanation for why Mark Dagnault went away from his bigs down the stretch,

specifically Isaiah Hartenstein leaving shooters wide open. That was a big issue all night long. Is just his natural tendency as a big is to sink into the paint, something you can't really do against this Indiana team. And then Chet Holmgren, you're gonna see a couple of mistakes on offense, a couple of mistakes, and like transition defense, he just looked like he wasn't super mentally engaged in the game, and so that led to the inevitable rebounding problems that

the Thunder had down the stretch. But again, a lot of the same stuff with Oklahoma City in terms of processing, making the appropriate kickouts, guys knocking down threes, them getting into their ball and player movement, as opposed to just their two top guys trying to force bad shots every single time down the floor, right, So we're gonna get into a bunch of examples tonight again or today again.

As I said, we have eighty five clips. I'm gonna kind of work through it with you as we go along, and you guys will see some of the stuff that I'm talking about quickly before we get started, Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter, underscore JSNLTS, you guys, don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast on Hoops Tonight, So it's a super helpful if you leave your rating and a

review on that front. And then Jackson's doing great work on our social media feeds and Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there to continue to get content throughout the remainder of the seasons. Talk some basketball. So I talked a lot last night on the live. If you guys remember about the at the level coverage

is not working for Indiana because them losing contained. So we saw a lot of this classics Shae chet two man game to start this game, and the main thing that you're gonna see right away is Turners at the level, But the entire purpose of the at the level is not to take away the pull up jump shot like turn I guarantee you Carlisle's not worried about Shae like taking a bunch of like rear view contest, pretty tough

pull up threes. What he does have Turner up there for, though, is to stop Shae from turning the corner if he If he If Turner's way back here and Chet lays a screen on Shae, Shay can really get ahead of Steam on this runway, and then this could be tougher to deal with. Right turn her up at the level, but he loses contained and Shaye gets all the way to the basket. It's a nice finish, but that's an example of that cover not working because they can't contain

the ball at the level. Similarly, another two man game at the top of the key here, this time with Shay and Chet. Again, let's fast forward a little bit. We have Turner at the level. Chat's open on the pick and pop close out. Right, here's our close out opportunity, and Turner gets beat on the closeout. So Turner came around and was great down the stretch of this game, the Pacers pivoted to more of a deep drop coverage, which you guys will see, and Turner got super hot

as a jump shooter. It hit three big ones late and so, and he also did some work beating switches as you guys will see in the game. So Turner came around but early in the game struggling in the base coverage against the Shay Chat pick and roll. Here's an example of Indiana just starting to offer more help in this Shay Chet pick and roll. Once again, same thing,

we're up at the level. Notice that Turner is a little hesitant to leave Chet now because he just got beat on a pop. Right, So how does Indiana adjust. We have Halliburton and Nie Smith basically ignoring their guys to sag into the paint. As Shaye drives, there's Nie Smith waiting. There's the bump on the shoulder and a block at the basket. Once again, look at the approach from Shay. Shae has done the job. He's brought a third defender in into a two man game.

fifty ball screens last night. Steady dose of this. The Pacers were in like the mid thirties if I remember correctly, so substantially more pick and roll from the Thunder in this game than what we saw from Indiana. Same sort of thing where we see Turner kind of hesitant to leave Chet. See that he's just hesitant to leave check because he just got burned on the pop a couple possessions ago, hard help from Siakam in the lane, and then this is poor spacing. We talk a lot about

the importance of spacing. As Shay's driving, Dort wants to go through to the dunker spot, and so instead of occupying this wing, they occupy the dunker spot in the corner.

That puts Halliburton in a position where he can get underneath Dort, and he feels comfortable closing out to case On in the case, and then Siakam is comfortable splitting the difference between Dort and Shay because Dort doesn't really bring much in the way of vertical spacing ability, and so if Dort is way up here, that creates a much easier simple two on one read. If this guy steps over and helps on Shay, it's either swing to the corner or swinging to the wing.

But overall, with exception of the turnovers which they cleaned up in the second half, I thought the Pacers did an excellent job of beating mismatches with size throughout the game. You're gonna see a ton of examples in the film session. Here we get a simple double drag right, So we throw the ball to Halliburton. Here's your double drag, meaning it's basically just a staggered ball screen. Seacam sets the

first one, he set the second one. We get a switch, right, So now j dub is on Halliburton, Dort is on Nie Smith, and Cason Wallace is on Siakam. Watch how quickly so they have the switch. Seacam's on the left wing. They're in kind of like five out spacing. Watch how quickly they get the ball to a cleared side with Siakam swing turner gets the heck out. Siakam dives to the block. Now all these do are above the break to force Oklahoma City to make some decisions. They make

the decision to stay hugged up to their man. That leaves a clean one on one down. Here a case in tries to basically three quarter front. That gives the baseline to Siakam and Siakam just quick attacks and scores. So like again, look at how quickly they get from oh cool.

little jump shot there. Talk the last night about how in the traditional coverages that the pacers were using it conceded quite a few open shots. Here's another example of that. And again, like guys like I in the big picture, the actual the percentages were actually pretty solid. Uh for Indiana. They did hold Oklahoma City, including passes below a point per pick and roll. But I think it's a little bit more complicated than that because there were these like

clear huge mistakes and openings that you'll see. But then there are also like a lot of possessions where there are openings that Shae and Ja Dove just shoot some stupid shot instead of moving the ball through. So like there's a version of it where Oklahoma City can be much more efficient against these coverages. And so I do think that over the course of the series, if Oklahoma City does start processing better in burning these coverages more frequently,

that Indiana might have to consider doing more switching. But again, watch as the hedge. So this is the hedge right Casein comes to set the screen for Shae. We have a lingering hedge from Halliburton to try to prevent Shae from turning the corner. And then right as Nemhard gets off of Casin to recover, him and Haliburton run into each other and that ends up clearing all this space for Shay to settle into a wide open pull up three and one of the best.

seconds on the shot clock. He could have tried to turn the corner and get downhill into Turner's chest. He's setting the tone here. This is the kind of shot JDub wanted to take early in this game, a contested eighteen footer off, another deep mid ranger from j Dub again, plenty of time on the shot clock. You have a power miss Matt here. Just like these are tough shots to like get going with, you know what I mean.

Like this is how he started the game and to kind of set the tone for the way he played. Right on the other end of the floor, we have our first failed attempt for the Pacers to get the ball to a mismatch. So on this like little cutthrough action, you're gonna see a lot of this sort of thing from Chet. You'll there are several examples tonight or from the last night's game that you'll see in this film session.

The Thunder will do these kinds of switches where they want to try to keep Chet in lowman positions so that he's in position to help at the rim. So he just points up and goes case and you go get Miles Turner. I'm gonna stay down here to get Obi toppin that way I can be ready to help at the rim. But as soon as Turner clears out. Now, now, Chet and Turner are really far away and we're gonna end up with a mismatch. We get the mismatch with

Turner on Cason Wallace. Casin does a great job fronting the post and they fail to get the ball in. Topping dribbles himself into some trouble and ends up throwing the ball away. We had a similar turnover to this one earlier in the game. This is actually the second time that the Thunder stripped Turner on a roll. This is an example of just the damage the Thunder can do digging down from the weak side. So we get our screen, we get our role pocket pass watch Dort.

Dort comes flying in boom strips it. That processing in the middle of the floor without turning the ball over is the key to the series for Indiana.

Here's an example of the Pacers. You know, I talked a lot of the in the video with Sam Vessini about how I think their best bet to get stops is just to really load up on ball screens and force Oklahoma City to shoot. And you're gonna see an example of it here. You get a ball screen. They're up at the level. This is a good at the level coverage from Turner. Notice he doesn't let Shay turn the corner. He's up there before he gets ahead of Steam forces him to get rid of the ball. Check

gets over the top. That forces low man help from Obi Toppin, who tags the roller. Now we have our two on one. On the weak side, Halliburton just stays attached to Dort enough to make him not throw that pass. But notice he's got all that weight on that inside foot so he can push out on the close out.

Everything can work if it's done right. Last possession turners at the level. He stops the ball.

Hartenstein twenty seconds on the shot clock. This is the shot Shay takes. I guess you'd call that a pass, some kind of lob pass something. But again in traffic. There are reeds there, there are reads there, but the reeds are being missed and stuff is getting forced in traffic. This next possession is attached to that. On the miss Shae falls down. As Shay falls down, he's on the ground. We have a five on four going the other way. Look at how fast the Pacers run I talked about

last night. The Pacers, in their commitment to running, is responsible for a good portion of their success in this postseason. Look at everybody run and as a result, they end up getting an open three for Halliburton in the five on four. Here's an example of a classic backcut pass from Hartenstein to Shay that ends up leading to an open three. So backcut, Hartenstein hits him, forces siak him to step up, passed to dort TJ McConnell rotates Caruso's

the extra pass, big time shot on this turnover. A kind of an overcooked pocket pass from Haliburton. I actually thought that was Haliburton's fault, just through it a little too hard and Shay just taking a lot of these like like look at that, like that like nineteen thirteen, you're getting double teamed. Okay, on the double team, you drive in you face more help and there's fourteen on

the shock, like zero passes on the possession. You don't have separation and you're just rising and firing into a really tough contested little fourteen footer. Like I just didn't think that was a very good shot. A lot of that kind of stuff. That's like he played himself into a rhythm and it worked out over the course of the game for him, but the team was in a rhythm.

film session. But he did kick Thomas Bryant's butt on the glass and he just threw him out of the way there and got another put back, kind of reminiscent of the Mitchell Robinson problem.

coming off. Neither of these guys are huge offensive threats, so I'd probably just switched this.

load up on the ball screens with Shay. It's more just in these like other coverages off the ball, there's a lot of like simple switches that could have taken away some of these easy opportunities that you'll see. Here's the first three that Hartenstein concedes. So we get like a little ball screen here on the right and Siakam screening for TJ or planning to the Pacers will run a lot of these, like early Siakam screens to try to get switches, but there's no reason to even run

that action because Toppin's being ignored by Hartenstein. Easy swing past to TJ McConnell and Top and knocks it down. And you'll see several examples of that with Hartenstein throughout the rest of this game. All right, watch the transition defense off of this steal, so Shay Ripsney Smith. Watch the Pacers sprint back. That effort stops Shay from getting a lay up, and you're gonna see so many examples of that. Top and Kate got off to a really

rough start in this game. He really heated up from three and got himself back on track and was huge for the Pacers in this game. This is a tough shot against basically a set defender in Hartenstein. But again Hartenstein sagging a little bit, not too bad. Probably needs to apply a little bit more pressure there. You'll see a couple more examples like that. Another kind of mediocre pull up two from JADEB comes off with this little action with Caruso, turns the corner and just immediately settles

like just ten on the shot clock. He just he's coming off the screen looking to shoot pull up jump shots instead of looking to attack. And you will see that shift as we get later into the game. Another Hartenstein open shot. He's got Ben Sheppard. Okay, Ben Shepherd can shoot the ball. You need to be paying attention. That's just bad defense. Like look, all it is is just a simple relocation that cut through from Matherin kind of occupies Isaiah's attention for a second, but Wiggins is

not beat that. There's no passing angle there, so Hartenstein is just leaving another shooter open. And again there's several examples of that, and I think if I had to guess why Dagnaut went away from his bigs late. It was ultimately that it was ultimately he didn't trust them to be in the right spots on defense. I showed you, So there's two that I've shown you already. There was a third early in the first quarter, and at the very beginning of this Hartenstein ship where he left Andrew

and Emhard wide open in the left quarter. All three of those threes went in. So that's nine points already of Indiana's twenty eight points that came off of Hartenstein leaving shooters open. And we're fifteen minutes into the game. Jadub finally attacks, gets rewarded for it. Look, just gets Ben Mathurn on his hip and attacks, draws a foul, gets rewarded for it, finally stops settling. We get a Turner mismatch against Jadub. He's trying to get them to

set up for another post up. Look how he's pointing, but once the ball gets swung then he ducks in. As soon as the ball gets swung over to his side on the floor, he ducks in, ducks in on JDub creates the passing angle, draws a foul. Turner did a really nice job in this game. We got some aj Mitchell minutes, some rookie NBA Finals minutes in the first half of this game. This is a couple of shots there and then gets beat by the classic tyrese Haliburton.

get his rhythm. Nice little step back twenty footer. I thought Chet had a few of these kind of poor forces early in this game. Here again a zero pass possession where he just tries to drive through Turner and just kind of just doesn't have an angle and just forces it up and bad. Miss lou Dort did a great job in this game of hitting like these kind of short, close out contested threes. Here's an example, like

Siakam is digging down off the strong side corner. Skam closes out Dort like kind of like pump fakes, but then he just shoots that like semi contested short corner three and knocks it down. Sga gets a steal in the post entry here, great defense, but immediately runs down after his good defense and just jacks up a bad shot again right away. Again not a terrible shot for Sga. We know he can make that, but it's just one of those things, you know, where he's just struggling to

really feel the flow of the game. Jdeb attacks, something good happens, doesn't Settle, puts his shoulder into Siakam, draws Haliburton in help, creates an open corner three. First teammate another turnover on a post entry. But watch the transition defense. So TJ looks away, swing the Nie Smith Nie Smith forced Caruso plays the passing lane, gets the steal. Watch the pacer sprint. Look at Obi toppin' man, and you'll see, like with the way the floor is set up, you

have good floor balance. Right, I've got dudes above the break basket and ball. Right, we have two guys stop in the ball. We're matched up off with TJ McConnell and Obi topping. They force at least a semi contested three in transition off of a turnover. A lot of

really good transition defense in this game. Another good example here, turnover these two guys, the two guys back, watch them both ball in basket ready, top in basket, TJ McConnell, ball, watch everyone else sprint back and get matched up, and Shae does them all favor. I'm telling you, Like I I always get a different feel for a game after I rewatch it, and I was like, oh, like Shay's working his way into rhythm. Like I see he's attacking

the finals. And I go back and watch and I'm like, like, this is just you're making the game a lot tougher than it needs to be.

the dribble and the value there. He beats Shay, that forces Dort to help off of top end, that creates a cut top and shows the ball, gets Dort to jump, that forces Shay to step up and help. TJ McConnell's wide open right there in the dunker spot, easy little shot, nice driving kick sequence started by TJ mcconne's dribble penetration. Here's a great low man possession from Tyrese Aliburton, and I think Tyre's Alliburton's defense has been very underrated in

this postseason run. He's done good in ISO's you'll see some examples. Turner at the level forces Chet to roll past Turner, Shaye makes the past, and Haliburton ties him up over the top with his length. Really nice defensive play from Halliburton. All right, Pacers are gonna beat another pick and roll switch here with Turner. So we have Dort and Chet. Good screen from Turner noted that's the beginning there. Dort does such a good job of navigating

screens on this one. He gets hit that forces the switch. Turner dives physical seal from Turner on the one that he turned over, the one that Haliburton threw that bounce pass if you watch it, if you go back and watch it, it was just not a very physical seal from Turner. Much more physical seal here. Creates a good clean passing angle, gets a bucket. Really nice work from Turner. Here's that recurring theme I was talking about with the pacer sending lots of help on drives. You're gonna see

a lot of that in the second half. Shay's gonna get downhill beats them hard. Watch boom three pacers coalesce around him. Jew Is open misses the shot. In order for the Thunder to break the Pacers of this sort of hard help at the rim, they're gonna have to hitch shots. Notice Turner is in a softer drop like a deeper drop coverage in the second half of this game. That was the big adjustment from uh Ra Carlisle. As the game progressed, Shay started to get a little bit

more free in the mid range in drop coverage. I thought this was a really bad transition defense sequence from Chet. Chet literally just gets outrun by Siakam. Here, look at Siakam, beautiful bounce pass from Halliburton, and again Chet like, if you're having a rough offensive night, that's fine, that's part of the game. You're a young player, it's the NBA Finals. But those are the mistakes you can't make if you're also having your rough offensive game. Rare example of Cason

Wallace actually beating Halliburton one on one. Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace did a lot of attacking Halliburton in action and in one on one, and Haliburton held up pretty well. But this is a rare example of Caseon actually having some success. Beats him with a little scoop shot. Here's another example of Oklahoma City really just conceding three by overhelping. Look at nies Smith like, there's no advantage here that

would dictate Jadab being this far in the lane. Like Turner's on the roll, but dorts with him.

little bit, not being so crazy with their help. Kind of another recurring theme down the stretch of this game, the Pacers doing damage against switches on the offensive glass. So we get a ball screen. There's our ball screen.

We talked about in a series preview about Halliburton's hedge and recovers not being very good against slips.

there from Haliburton. Now this is like a chaotic sequence, but I thought it was another example of an overhelp and it led to another wide open three for Obi toppin. Again like lost control of the ball, it's nearly turned over and Nemhart saves it.

But then they swing the ball around. And when they swing the ball around, now Hartenstein has to account for Thomas Bryant in his corner three point shooting that creates the over the top passing angle. Perfect feed from themhard,

nice finish Pacers, just absolutely relentless, punishing mismatches. I talked a lot in the series throughout this postseason, like what you need to score against Oklahoma City is the size to beat mismatches, the passing ability to pass through their aggression, and then the shooting ability to knock down shots when they double team. And the Pacers do have those piece it's just a question of like can they take care of the ball, which they did it in the first half,

and then they did in the second half. They went from forty five points to sixty six points or whatever they had in the second half.

Siakam in the corner, and he knocks it down. Beautiful work from the pacers. Really nice kind of patient pick and roll attack here from JDub with Isaiah Hartenstein.

was great defense. Wigans ends up drawing a foul on a back cut here, but like watch Matherin, watch him navigate the screen boom and then beats him to the spot. Really really sharp defense from mather and Shakam just ends up giving up a back cut here and drawing a foul. You know, Ben Matherin, if there's something to get really

excited about. If you're a Pacers fan too, you're already nearly you know, you're at least in the conversation for being a championship level team if you can compete in the series, right, and Ben Matherin just still has so much room to improve over the course of the coming years. Ben Matherin again, Alex Caruso just beats him off the dribble with the hesitation. Dribble once again, nothing fancy, just right here, high hesitation, just for a second, right there, hesitation.

Then he hits the Jets and beats Alex off the dribble again. So much potential there in the big picture. JDub attacking again, gets downhill against Thomas Bryant, gets into his body and finishes like. That's what I mean when I say that Oklahoma City has these obvious ways to play better. They obviously can play a lot better just by Jdab being more of an attacking force and then both guys passing through passing through the aggressive help more efficiently.

Baseline out of bounce, we talked a little bit about this last night on playback. Usually on baseline out of bounce plays, the fallback option if nothing is open is this guy who's on the strong side in line with the lane line will just seal and then the guy will throw it over the top pass. That's a super common kind of like release valve you'll see on baseline

out of bounds plays at every level. Ben Matherin messes up though, because his action is dictating that he runs to this corner specifically so that he can clear Jaydub out. But he does and he drifts out to the wing, so then when the over the top pass comes, Jadub just jumps it.

Three on two is a free safety and conceding this swing pass contested three to case and he misses it again.

thunder a little bit more. You know, it depends on the night. And like that's the thing is If if both teams get away with this or run this sort of coverage and the Pacers shoot the way that they're capable of shooting, and the thunder go hot and cold at times, the Pacers have a very good chance to win this series.

They just simply have Shay backscreen for Cason Wallace because Nemhar doesn't want to help and these guys don't want to switch, so Cason's able to just sneak right behind for the layup. Really nice play design from Dagnault. We get a hedge and recover on this sequence. Here a lot of guard screens attacking Halliburton, topping and siakam down the stretch of this game. We get the hedge and recover.

It works, they stop him from turning the corner. Haliburton gets back and doesn't concede the easy kickout, but then he sits in some nail help digs down on Shay. Cason's open just can't make them pay again, Like if this is the way they're going to guard, Shay's making the reads now. But at this point in the game,

these guys are out of rhythm. If he invested more earlier in the game and trying to get these guys some cleaner looks, as he was kind of forcing the issue in traffic, there's a better chance of these guys knocking down shots late in the game, right like Turner missed early in the game, two wide open above the break threes. That's an investment from Halliburton into his shooting that pays off later in the game. We're gonna get a random double team here on a Nies Smith drive.

Nie Smith drives, okay, and look at Dort. So Dort is on the weak side with Obi Toppin. Nie Smith is driving, not threatening, Okay, they're hounding him around the baseline. Dort brings this random double team. In the random double team, Nie Smith just powers through, pivots around really well. Now

Toppin's wide open again, kick out knockdown. So like it paid off in the first half when they forced a bunch of turnovers, but in the second half when they stopped forcing turnovers as the Pacers kind of settled down taking care of the basketball, all that overhelp, all that gambling ended up leading to open threes.

and banks it in. I don't know in retrospect, judging by the celebration from Turner, I'm gonna guess it probably was not an intentional thing. Another example hedge and recover, this time not working. Topping throws the hedge. By the time he recovers, he kind of gets in Nemhard's way a little bit, so by the time Demhard picks up the ball, he's already south of the foul line. Shay's got too much momentum and he's able to power through and draw foul. Another beautiful Miles Turner shot in the

pocket in a ball screen. Let's fast forward a little bit here screen the reset. I think the pass actually comes from nemhard ball screen. In the pocket. This is a tough shot, like a leaning, drifting pocket elbow jumper. Really nice work from Myles Turner. Another example of a good drop cover drap from Miles Turner against j Dub Chase give ground, meet him at the rim. Great contest forces a miss. He's JDub didn't settle, but I do

like that coverage for Indiana in that particular action. On the other end, Halliburton gets a little semi transition opportunity to attack Shake Gills as Alexander beats him off the dribble for the scoop shot.

dribble instead of the crossover. A low gather is a way to draw a foul. There again, as you if you do a low gather, you might catch his arm and draw foul. But another way to protect the basketball and to not necessarily grift, but to just beat someone off the dribble, but try to not turn the ball over is protect the ball by going through your legs. He does quick change his direction, gets all the way to the rim in a really nice finish in traffic.

Chet defensive switch. I thought, pretty well, here switch ball, scream with Turner, they pass it back to Halliburton looks to attack Chat. I thought this was a really nice contest. Forces the miss, and now we have Chet out of the game. So with Chat out of the game, we have six five sixty six sixty six six four six two sixty three. Really a small lineup out there for

Oklahoma City. Watch Siakam, Haliverton misses, but Siakam is just taller than all these dudes and not really anything they can do, and he just gets it over the top of him and draws a foul. We are up nine Oklahoma City with less than three minutes left, and we get to more devil magic. In this case, watched aaron NEI Smith running out to this corner three on the move, rising and firing against the contest. Insane shot from aaron Ne Smith, and again we're calling it devil magic as

a joke. It's part of the rhythm that Indiana invests throughout the game. Another packed paint on a drive the split, nice work. Three pacers meet Shae in the lane. There's our kickout Jadub missus. Little extra detail to watch Haliburton's close out. Halliburton's close out is not going at Jadub. It's going right in between him and Cason. It's a passing lane close out, and the result is it forces

j Dub to throw a pass fake. He throws a pass fake that breaks his rhythm a little bit and is part of the reason why he leaves that shot just a tiny bit short. Here's the insane Andrew Nemhard step back against Shay. Unbelievable stuff, just elite one on one work brings his game.

Shay's footwork as he elevates on Siakam. He kind of goes to a right left takeoff off two feet, but he just doesn't yet much lyft because his footwork is a little off because of the bump from Nemhard and so Siakam is able to beat him at the rim. Watch him again, I'm gonna watch it, and played him full speed. Watch Shae just get a little bit bumped off balance right before he takes off. That makes it so he doesn't get as much lyft, which is why he gets blocked at the rim. An excellent little two

man stop there from those two guys. Another Sam offensive rebound off of the miss. Because Shae misses the layup, he's last thunder up the floor. These four guys are ahead of him. Siakam's trailing, so as a result, in the transition cross match, we have Skam on Shay right or Shae on Siakam. I should say he takes him right down. They go like they're gonna go to the post. But instead of going to the post, Nemhard goes, well, I just hit this crazy step back, might as well

try another, but look at Siakam. He just dives on Shae, gets inside position and gets the put back.

he's attacking, not settling. And then guys are gonna have to hit those open catch and shoot jump shots when Indiana overhelps and on drives and then on the other end of the floor, a little bit more selective of when to swarm, because Indiana, when they take care of the basketball, is gonna get the ball out against you, and they're gonna hit those threes again. I am not worried about Indiana having a letdown in Game two. They're

gonna come out and they're gonna play Pacers basketball. But Oklahoma City is certainly capable of coming out with force and playing a lot better. I believe they will, and I believe they'll win Game two. But really really impressive work from the Indiana Pacers to steal game one on the road. All right, guys, this all I have for today is always sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us

and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with a mail bag based on the NBA Finals as well as some other topics going on around the NBA, and then back for Game two live on YouTube after the final buzzer on Sunday.