The Indiana Pacers start their conference finals series against the Boston Celtics tonight at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
Facing off against perhaps the best team in the league presents a multitude of challenges for the Pacers and many questions could be asked ahead of the initial game. For me, I have four questions that I’m thinking about ahead of game one and some quick thoughts included at the end.
How will Tyrese Haliburton perform in the opening game of this series?
Tyrese Haliburton has had two of his worst games of the playoffs in both of the opening contests against the Bucks and the Knicks. In his first career playoff game, he scored just 9 points to go with 8 assists and 7 rebounds in a loss to the Bucks. Most concerningly, he only attempted 7 shots as he let the Bucks doubles and traps completely take him out of the game. In the first game against the Knicks, it was incredibly similar: 6 points (2 for 6) and 8 assists as the Pacers lost Game 1 by four points.
His lack of aggression as he tries to figure out how teams are guarding him can’t continue at the start every playoff series of his career. Haliburton and the coaching staff have to do a better job of adjustments during the game instead of figuring things out after the game with promises of “I’ll be better” in the next game. To his credit, he has been better in the following games of both series but he can’t treat the first playoff game in a series like he sometimes treats the first halves of regular season games where he is content to facilitate before looking more aggressive for his own shot in the second half. You also don’t want to see him have to relearn these same lack of aggression lessons too many times. While it’s impressive how well he responded to Game 5, in the future you’d like to see him not need to bounce back from a bad game due to lack of aggression.
“I was always push back on that,” Carlisle said after Game 7 of the talk with Haliburton’s aggressiveness and shot attempts. “If he has one big challenge, it’s the balance of having the ability to score and running the team. When you have a guy that not only is a great passer but gives his teammates great confidence when he passes the ball, it’s a difficult balance to be struck. (In Game 7), he knew we needed some special shotmaking.”
Haliburton continuing the level of aggression he had in the final two games against the Knicks will be critical to start the series against perhaps the best team in the NBA in the Celtics. The Pacers can’t afford their star to essentially throw away a game trying to feel things out for too long in this series.
How do these two teams match up with each other?
This will be by far the most difficult challenge for the Pacers on the defensive end in the playoffs. The Celtics, even without Porzingis for the first two games, have no where for poor defenders to hide. Tyrese Haliburton has to guard one of the following players: Jrue Holiday or Derrick White. The answer may need to be whichever play isn’t bringing the ball up the floor on that play. Have Nembhard start on the player that initiates the offense if it is one of those two players and otherwise keep Haliburton on Holiday when possible to avoid chasing around as many screens off ball which proved difficult for Haliburton against the Knicks. Holiday might be the 5th option for times for Boston but he’s still more than capable of going off for big nights at any time. It will be an incredibly difficult challenge for Tyrese who will be tested repeatedly in the action no matter who he’s defending by bringing that player up to screen. And White and Holiday are both 2nd-team all defense and will be hounding Haliburton on the other end as well.
Outside of that, it’s safe to assume that Myles Turner guards Al Horford but will Horford guard Turner or will he guard Siakam? The Celtics will at times put Holiday, one of the most versatile defenders in the league, on opposing centers and you could see that being the case here or even Tatum on Turner. White or Holiday could both be getting reps against Haliburton while Jayson Tatum could be on either Aaron Nesmith or Pascal Siakam. Jaylen Brown could guard either Andrew Nembhard or Aaron Nesmith. The Celtics have an enormous amount of flexibility with their matchups on defense with all five players plus Porzingis being valuable defenders without a ton of weaknesses. The possibilities for the Celtics staff are endless and they aren’t afraid to change things up to try and confuse teams at any moment. Whatever we see in Game 1 won’t be the only look(s) we see.
Pascal Siakam probably guards Jayson Tatum to start but you know Aaron Nesmith probably desires that matchup the most. Both these two will be on either Brown or Tatum. Siakam feels less likely to get blown by guarding Tatum and has a little more length to challenge his stepback than Nesmith. For the bench, this will be a tough series for Obi Toppin to find someone to guard especially while the Celtics starters are out there. Could see him guarding Horford often if the Pacers decide to go small instead of playing a backup center like they did in the first round against the Bucks. Sheppard should be a valuable wing defender that gives the Pacers more options off the bench and while McConnell is small, he’s such a pest that don’t worry too much about his stature being a problem in his matchups typically.
Will Aaron Nesmith get his revenge against the Celtics just like Obi Toppin did against the Knicks?
You have to be happy for Aaron Nesmith who rotted on the bench while with the Boston Celtics, never getting much of a chance at consistent playing time, gets dealt to the Pacers for Malcolm Brogdon and national outlets call him a paper clip. Now he’s the starting small forward for a team in the conference finals and just earned a contract extension before the season. You can tell how excited he is to face off against his former team in the playoffs with his smile despite him staying professional in his answer when asked after Game 7 here.
With Nesmith already being at times over-exuberant with his energetic defense that can lead to foul trouble, he’ll need to avoid getting too amped up in his crucial matchups against the Celtics star wings. While he found his 2-point shot against the Knicks making 19 of his 26 attempts inside the arc, he has continued his struggle from behind the arc throughout the playoffs at 19 for 63 (30%) and after the All-Star break (33.7%). Nesmith rediscovering his shooting form that saw him shoot 45.2% from deep before the All-Star break would be a huge boost to the Pacers chances in the series.
Will the Pacers only wear the Gold uniforms once again?
I’m still desperate for a City edition home game with the City edition court and a black-out T-shirt game. It would be aesthetically pleasing but I also can’t blame the Pacers for sticking with what has worked so well as they’ve gone 6-0 in the first two rounds at home. Locker Vision says it will be all gold yet again. With it being the Celtics, I’ll even accept the in-season tournament court returning but with the Larry O’Brien trophy replacing the IST cup or something. Never thought I would ever miss these city jerseys before the season started.
Bonus questions:
- Can the Pacers continue to press full court against a team with many more ball handlers capable of bringing it up compared to the first two rounds?
- Can offensive rebounding be an advantage for the Pacers in this series?
- The Pacers foul a lot. The Celtics don’t get to the line a lot. Can the Pacers get enough bad luck shooting variance to make Celtics pay for their preference on 3-pointers?
- Who will be THE white boy off the bench of the series? TJ McConnell has a lot of possible competition between Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser, and Luke Kornet.
- Will Isaiah Jackson remain as the backup center? Will the Pacers even play with Jackson or Jalen or go back to playing small with the bench?
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