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great end to your week. Well, this morning I woke up and I rewatched Game six of the finals, and I looked at it through the lens of what from this game is translatable forward to game seven? Is there anything from this that we can take in terms of giving Indiana a better chance to win on the road. I talked about after the Pacers lost Game two in
Oklahoma City. I talked about how Oklahoma City can hit a point in terms of leveraging their athleticism that makes me feel like Indiana might not be able to win in Oklahoma City if they needed to get a game there. And so at that point in the series, after Game two, I had talked about how I thought Indiana needed to win all three of their home games if they were going to win the finals. But a last that's not
what happened. They lost Game four, obviously with what happened down the stretch in that game, and so now Indiana needs to win another game in Oklahoma City. And so now they're staring down the barrel of a Game seven on the road, and so I want to look into some of the stuff that I noticed on film from last night's game and to see if any of that translates forward to a Game seven. We're going to talk about one specific adjustment that Indi animated in the game.
They didn't really change really their coverages, but they changed their pickup points. So we're going to dive into that concept a little bit, just like what it does to these coverages, what it took away, what it did change, what it didn't change. What has Oklahoma City seen this before? As Oklahoma City had success against this before. I really want to dive into that topic and then just some of the key swing factors as we head into a Game seven on Sunday. You guys, owe the Joe before
we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops and I YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore, JCNLTS. You guys, don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about our podcast for few wherever you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's doing great work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
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In the last but not least, keep dropping mail back questions in those YouTube comments so we can get to them in our mail bags. Next one will be on Sunday, after the final buzzer of Game seven. All right, let's talk some basketball. So there's a hot button NBA buzzword every playoff run, and it's usually attached to a specific
basketball dynamic that is prevalent in that playoff run. So, for instance, last year, we had lots of talk about point of attack defense, right, because there's so much of a narrative surrounding Luca and the Dallas Mavericks, and like his point of attack defense was a story from the Clippers series all the way through to the finals, right, we also had a similar dynamic with the Wolves and what they were able to do to the Suns and Nuggets on both ends of the floor, really strangling and
containing the ball on one end and then having the ability to penetrate the defense easily on the other end of the floor. In twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, we talked a ton about drop coverage, right, because that was one of the most common coverages we saw in the league at that point in time, and there were teams that were starting to have success against it.
Right.
And in twenty twenty one, we talked about Trey Young in the day he did to the Sixers in the Eastern Conference semi finals.
Right.
In twenty twenty two, Steph Curry against Boston's drop coverage and the dynamic at play. I mean Udoka talking about how he wanted to run drop coverage to try to prevent the Warriors from getting into their easy four on threes where the ball's popping around. They wanted to force Steph to take contested pull up threes, and guess what,
he took them, and he made them, right. But that was kind of the hot button issue in that couple of seasons, and this year it's the pickup point, and once again it's tied to the teams that are playing. And again, all a pickup point means and all these are just fancy words that mean basic things. Point of attack defense is literally just one on one defense, right, It's just containing the ball at the beginning of possessions.
Right.
The idea of a pickup point is just where are you guarding the ball? Are you guarding the ball like right when it's inbounded, Are you guarding the ball at half court? Are you guarding the ball at the three point line? Where are you deciding to offer resistance to
the guy holding the basketball? And the reason why it's been such a hot button issue in this postseason run is the thunder and Pacers are two really good ball pressure teams, right and the Thunder in particular, have faced two very different pickup points throughout this postseason run, like stuff like the Nugget series where teams are sagging back and trying to or where the Nuggets are sagging back
and trying to contain the ball in front. Then to the Wolves series and for much of this Pacers series, where there's a lot of full court pressure and.
It's a very very different dynamic for the ball handler. Right.
Well, we did get a slight adjustment from the Indiana Pacers last night right out the gates. They changed their pickup point for both Shay and Jadab to basically right at half court, like you could see Nem Hard for Shay or Nie Smith for Jadab, literally waiting like toes just beyond the half court, just behind the half court line, just waiting for the guy to come at them, And that kind of moved back and forth. There were portions of the game where they were still up at half court.
There are portions of the game where they were a little further back like in that like just outside the above the break line, like twenty five thirty feet from the basket, But it was a change from the earlier portions of the series where they were picking up full court and trying to deny the basketball more on inbounds and things along those lines. Now, it's important to mention this did not change the coverages that Indiana was using
against action. So in ball screens, they were still chasing over the top with ball pressure, they were still meeting the ball handler up at the level with their bigs. They were still hedging and recovering hard with Tyreese Haliburton, and they were using Tyrese Haliburton to rotate and chet when he would pop out of ball screens. Many of the same dynamics that we've seen throughout this series, right, and all of that is still the same for Oklahoma City's ball handlers in terms of making reads.
Out of that action.
We're going to talk about that a little bit later in the show today, but in terms of process for Oklahoma City, it's still more or less the same. The main thing that that did accomplish for Indiana is it neutralized one of the specific actions that Oklahoma City has torched Indiana with all series, and that's the extended ball screens when they were attacking Indiana's ball pressure. They were bringing heart and sign and shut out to screen, sometimes
past half court, sometimes just inside a half court. But all of these ball screens were really far extended, and so Carlisle had Turner and Thomas Bryan and going all the way up to the level, Tony Bradley coming all the way out to the level fifty sixty feet from the basket sometimes and Shay or Jada was able to pretty easily get around that guy, and they give up a lot of layups and fouls and things along those
lines because of that extended ball screen coverage. Now, in this coverage where you're sitting further back on the ball, there were no examples of Turner or Bradley needing to come out that far. Now they're never having to come out further than twenty five thirty feet from the basket. That's just a little bit more achievable for them. Now, again,
it's still the same dynamic. There were still plays in this game where Shaye was able to beat Turner at the level and get into the teeth of the defense and generate advantages. But Turner did log some of his best at the level reps of this series because there were some relatively normal looking ball screens. I talked about this after Game five, But if you guys remember I don't have a problem with the at the level coverage. I have a problem with running the bigs up to
the level when it's at half court. At the level at the three point line is a lot more achievable in terms of preventing Shae from getting ahead of steam when he's coming over the top of the ball screen out at half court, because he's beating ball pressure. There's just such a runway for him to get going and
it's just really difficult. But if you're not picking up Shaye until you know, thirty to twenty five feet from the basket and here comes the ball screen and he's chasing over the top, Shaye doesn't have a running start, and so it just gives Turner a little bit better chance of staying in front. And he did have some of his best at the level reps of this series. But to me, the biggest impact by far was just the change. This is not some foreign coverage that Oklahoma
City's ball handlers haven't seen before. This is more or less what Denver did, and it's something we've seen a little bit in the Minnesota series towards the end, and now a little bit at the end of the Finals. But for the most part, in this series and in the Minnesota series, they haven't seen this coverage, so it's just a little bit different, and it served as a catalyst for triggering some of the variants that they needed
to pull off this Game six win. But as we've talked about extensively on the show, the Thunder have solved these puzzles in this postseason every time they've absolutely needed to. So, for instance, I talked about how in the aggregate before last night that Denver actually logged the best defensive rating of any team versus Oklahoma City. It has a lot
to do with the coverage. We'll talk about that in a minute, But in Game five and in Game seven, the two final games that Oklahoma City absolutely needed to win with the Nuggets running a similar lower pickup point, the Thunder logged two games in Game five and in Game seven of half court offensive ratings over one oh.
Five, which is really good.
They've gone over one oh five and a half court just once in this series, even with the extended ball pressure. So even though in the aggregate, Denver did a good job guarding Oklahoma City in the two biggest games of the series Pivotal game series tied to two game five, series tied at three game seven. They were able to score against Denver scheme at a very efficient level in the half court that as I mentioned before, the actual coverages in action are still more or less the same.
It's still similar reads as a similar decision making process.
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If anything, if there was a key mistake that Shay made last night, he got baited by the lack of ball pressure into some mediocre ISOs. He logged ten ISOs in last night's game. That was his second highest total of the series. Behind you guessed it Game four when I thought he was pretty bad by his standards. And so when Shay gets baited into those ISOs and takes a bunch of those mediocre shots, it does disrupt Oklahoma City's flow.
So I'm sure that'll be.
A particular sticking point from our dagnal in the film room. We got to run action against this defensive look. You could literally see it, like the Pacers guys would be sitting back and kind of like a passive look. But then here would come the ball screen. And when the ball screen would come, Ben Shephard or Andrew Nemhart, whoever it was, would all of a sudden jump up pressure the ball and fight over the top of the screen, which is more or less the same dynamic that they've
been seeing throughout the series. And so all of a sudden, the same openings are there, right Like, if Turner is at the level, Shay can still try to beat him with his speed and get into the teeth of the defense. Chet is still wide open when he's popping out of those ball screens they're defending at three on two. By having Tyrese Haliburton rotate off of Dort to Chet popping above the break. That's a three on two, meaning you can get the defense in rotation if you make simple
reads and make good decisions out of it. The openings are still there. Even on the ISOs when Shay's driving, they're still helping hard, and that kick to the opposite wing is still open. Every single time when Shay is posting up on the block, he's still drawing a double team from the guy who's making the post entry the doubling from the top side. Shay had examples last night where he passed out of it well and they.
Got decent looks.
He had other possessions last night where he turned the ball over against that double team. So like the openings are still there, it's still a similar decision making process to what Oklahoma City has seen throughout this postseason. But that shift, that abrupt change after doing something different for most of the series served to shake Oklahoma City's foundation enough for Indiana to get a big win. Now for the record, from the Pacers perspective, I do think this
is the appropriate game plan. As I said before last night, Denver did actually have the best defensive rating against Oklahoma City of any playoff team. This is despite Denver being a piss poor defense for most of the year. Contain the ball, force Oklahoma City to process with their brains and to make the kickouts and for guys to knock down semi contested catch and shoot threes. But again, as I said last night, there is no magic adjustment at this point in the playoff series.
It's all about execution.
I have seen Indiana beat Oklahoma City twice in this series with full court ball pressure, and I've seen Oklahoma City beat Denver and Minnesota in multiple important late series games against a passive contain the ball approach. None of the game plan stuff matters if it's not executed properly, so that containment of the ball issue will be the
primary swing factor in Game seven for both teams. Focusing on Indiana, they need to keep Shae and JDub in front now again in their more aggressive looks, they did it with hard help on the back line, forcing Shay to make kickouts. In this more contained the ball approach, it's more about like kind of digging down and like stunting and recovering in the off ball guys and for the on ball guy, anticipating movement and beating the player to the spot and absorbing contact with his chest right.
It looks a little different in this coverage, but it's still the same kind of idea. If they can keep the ball in front, they can make Shane and JDub make kickouts, and they can force role players to make shots.
I do think that approach gives Indiana their best chance, But on the other side of the floor, they there's a similar containment issue in the sense that if Oklahoma City prevents Indiana from getting out in transition, keeps the ball in front, forces them to do all that weird dribble handoff interchange stuff at the top of the key where no one's actually turning the corner, they will force turnovers, they will get out in transition, and then Oklahoma City
doesn't have to solve your coverage because they're living in transition where they can do a ton of damage. I think this coverage gives Indy their best chance, but it's still about execution, and ultimately they'll need to pass that test, the final test that no team has been able to pass in this postseason run, which is when Oklahoma City's back is against the.
Wall and all of it's on the line and.
All the pressure is there, Oklahoma City tightens the screws with their defense, and Indiana is gonna have to not turn the ball over. And Indiana is gonna have to get the ball into their flow and try to generate quality shots.
That's gonna be the big swing in Game seven.
Now, a couple of other takeaways from the film session this morning before we get out of here. I thought ty Reeves was incredible all night in his help and recover situations. You know, we're gonna talk a little bit about release of speed when we get to Chet Holmgren, But Lou Dort has a similar issue where like his release is a little bit loaded up and it takes a second for him to get it off. And now he makes up for that by kind of leaning back and shooting a moon ball, so it kind of makes
up for some of that lack of release speed. But Tyree's Halliburton is so fast that he in his ability to kind of shade off of Dort and towards the ball, whether it's like double teaming in action, like he would throw double teams at shape post ups, or he'd come in the lane and put his body in front in a drive, or he'd rotate to the popping big or whatever it is. He's able to get out to Dort
relatively quickly and get a good contest. And so Tyresee has found a defensive role in this series that has been very impactful, which is his ability to get off of dirt and to get back to Dort and basically function as a disruptor off the ball. Chet Holmger needs to quicken his release. He got nearly blocked by Tony Bradley on one three and then did get blocked by Miles Turner on another three, and on both plays he
looked open. And what's happening is he's really got this slow load up and he already shoots the ball pretty much right in front of his face, and he shoots it without a ton of arc, and so it's an easy shot to contest under any circumstances. That's not a problem. Steph shoots the ball from down in front of his face. But Steph has the quickest release in the sport. And so the idea there is Chet when we get into the summertime, needs to have a little bit more of
a focus in terms of streamlining his release. He's got to get that thing off quickly because even if he is knocking down threes, it's not going to be effective if teams are able to get good closeouts on him because his release is too slow. Pascal Siakam's individual defense
on Shay. He got Shay a bunch in transition cross matches and then in switches where he was applying like kind of a soft switch approach, meaning he'd meet Shay on the other side of the screen and kind of sit further back, which I think is smart because again, like as we talked about earlier in the series, Topping and Siakam have both given up splits when they've been really aggressive in their switches when they come out too
far to the perimeter. But I thought last night Siakam was excellent on Shae, sliding his feet, keeping his hands out and not fouling, and getting great contests on SHA's over the top shot making. And then lastly, I thought the double teams of Shay's back shoulder, especially when he's
driving against an engaged defender. So again we talked about this last night, But like if a guy cleanly beats his man off the dribble and he's just screaming downhill, he's unguarded and he's surveying the floor and he's gonna be able to make decisions relatively But if you stay relatively attached, mean, Shae's driving, but you're on his hip and get your arms out. He's engaged with the defender, it's a little bit harder for him to see what's
happening around him. And Indiana had a lot of success last night doubling the ball behind him when he would get on those drives and so on the one hand, for Shay, he's got to anticipate that sort of thing and take advantage of those kickouts. Again, the kickouts to the opposite wing on his drive is open every single time. And then on the pacers front, it's something to explore in game seven is another opportunity to try to force turnovers and get out in transition. So yeah, that's my
takeaway after rewatching the game. I think the pickup point change is certainly Indiana's best chance, but it doesn't really change too much about the dynamic in game seven. It's still going to be the same concepts on both ends of the floor that are going to dictate win or loss for these two teams. The final test, the final boss in the video game for Indiana's Oklahoma City's defense under desperation, and we're gonna find out really quickly on
Sunday whether or not they're up to that challenge. All right, guys, That's all I have for today is always as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. We'll be back on Sunday after the final buzzer of Game seven. Not sure if we're gonna have Colin yet,
I'll let you guys know. I would imagine we probably will, but we'll be live with Colin after the game, and then we'll be on playback after the YouTube show finishes, taking callers and just talking hoops with our fans for a little bit.
After that. We will see you guys on Sunday. What's up guys?
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