The Indiana Pacers face off against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round of the NBA playoffs starting tonight on TNT at 6 p.m. We finally have a schedule set for the first four games and dates for the remaining if necessary.
The Cavaliers are the number one team in the East for a reason, obviously representing a much bigger challenge than the Bucks in round one. Cleveland streamrolled over the Miami Heat in a sweep and face a stiffer challenge in the Pacers as well.
“They’re the best team in the East for a reason. They’ve got a lot of depth. They shoot the ball well, defend at a high level, rebound at a high level. They’ve got everything,” Tyrese Haliburton said of the Cavs.
While the Cavs finished with 14 more wins than the Pacers, they have nearly identical records since January 1st with Cleveland at 35-14 and the Pacers at 34-14. Some of that is that the Cavaliers had wrapped up the conference’s top seed early and rested players often at the end of the year including in two Pacers wins but the season-long records undersell how good Indiana has been for many months this year.
The two teams are similar with their elite, balanced offenses led by dynamic guards and pride themselves on their depth. The numbers are shockingly close as seen above. They’ve been built in a similar fashion.
There are many things that may decide this series: How much can Pascal Siakam punish the Cavs if they move to switching, can the Pacers keep getting him the ball if Cleveland goes zone? Will Tyrese Haliburton continue to attack the basket like he did to clinch the series over the Bucks and take advantage of the Cavs not having an ideal defender to take the matchup? Donovan Mitchell has always been an elite playoff performer his entire career, can Nembhard put him in Nembhell? Is Darius Garland ready to go after his toe sprain? Which frontcourt outperforms the other? Does Myles Turner’s shooting make life difficult for Jarrett Allen? Do Evan Mobley and Allen dominate the glass and make it difficult for the Pacers to get out in transition and push the pace? We’ll start to get these answers today. Here are two things that I’m focused on in Game 1:
How well can Tyrese Haliburton hold up defensively?
Tyrese Haliburton’s defense has improved this season, he’s been competing on that end much more than previous seasons but this second round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers will put it to the test early and often.
The Cavaliers were relentless in going after Tyler Herro as the weakest defender on the Heat in the first round and there’s no reason to think that type of thinking won’t continue in the second round.
“Pick on Tyler Herro,” Darius Garland said of the Cavaliers strategy for round one, “and take care of the ball. Don’t play in tight spaces and pick on their weak defenders.”
If Garland is able to play (currently questionable with a sprained toe), Haliburton likely matches up with movement shooter Max Strus in the Cavaliers starting lineup. Haliburton is often the player the Pacers have chasing shooters around screens as Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith take on the assignments at the point of attack.
While the Cavs won’t be isolating Strus to test Haliburton’s defense, they’ll be putting Tyrese into the action often with Strus as a screener. The Bucks feasted off of ghost screen actions with Giannis at the top of the key but the Pacers aren’t likely to defend Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland in a similar manner as they did Antetokounmpo.
Instead, we’ll probably see the Pacers try and execute show and recover coverages to avoid switching Haliburton onto the Cleveland guards. Essentially having Haliburton staying on the ball handler long enough for the primary defender to get through the screen. How well Strus shoots out of these actions or how well the Pacers can recover back to the shooter will decide how tenable that coverage can be.
Whose depth pays the most dividends?
Both teams had 7 players averaging double figures in round one and pride themselves on their depth.
The Cavaliers third-leading scorer in round one was Ty Jerome, who finished second in 6MOY voting and is line for a big payday this summer, is going to cause problems for the Pacers bench. With TJ McConnell guarding at the point of attack less and less, the Pacers will need to adjust their rotation to play Aaron Nesmith or Andrew Nembhard in minutes with the bench or give Ben Sheppard some run. The matchups get more challenging when he shares the floor with Mitchell or Garland. Other options off the bench would be Bennedict Mathurin, who did well against Kevin Porter Jr. in the first round, or Jarace Walker, who often doesn’t do as well guarding quicker players but is able to force turnovers with his hands.
The Pacers will need the McConnell they saw in Game 5 as he scored 18 points in 17 minutes. The Cavaliers will likely play a lot of zone during his minutes and the Pacers should prioritize shooting to surround him once again with Obi Toppin, Jarace Walker. Mathurin did well to get to the foul line in round one but did not play all that well after returning from injury and struggled with his outside shot throughout the series as he made just 2 of 15 attempts from 3.
The Cavaliers also have Deandre Hunter, their trade deadline acquisition, and the sharpshooting Sam Merrill for the Pacers to contend with off the bench. The second units could swing games in this series in either direction. Will the Pacers play small with lineups like TJ, Benn, Jarace, Pascal, Obi? Will they try and play Thomas Bryant to contend with minutes the Cavaliers play Jarrett Allen or Evan Mobley with the bench? We’ll find out tonight.
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[…] Game 1, one of my biggest questions of the series was whether or not Haliburton could hold up on the defensi…. The answer to open this series is that not only did Haliburton hold up, he probably had the most […]
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