***Official Pacers Playoff Thread***
- Thread starter ClonerJams
- Start date
I was living in Chicago and all in for DRose era catching even most of regular season. Tons of similarities to this NYN team.
Hopefully, when it goes back to Indiana, the officiating also favors the home team.
Some of that is this is his first playoffs and he’s learning. I mean even Hart flagrant fouling him with no call taught him something.
He’ll never be the greatest one on one defender because he doesn’t have the strength but he does have the skill set to be elite at disrupting plays, blocking/changing shots and causing turnovers. He does that in regular season but it’s different now in 2nd round.
I think of him like a longer Steve Nash. Nash still wouldn’t have been some lock down defender with a longer wingspan but anybody with TH wingspan should be able to cause problems.
Miles Turner is also awful on D and rebounding. The two of them really struggle to cover a pick and roll or iso.
McConnel needs to be more playing more minutes. He’s looked like one of the best players on the floor the last two games and he was giving Brunson fits. Hali needs to stop giving up open shots. He's passing up open threes to give worse 3 point shooters open threes.
Pacers have been in both games until 3rd Q tonight - sucked. But get back home, get Tyrese healthier, get some home cooking and this thing is far from over.
I like Brunson a lot more as "the man" for NYN than I did as a guy dominating the ball for Team USA last summer while Edwards was often just floating around. I think Edwards and Tyrese as the primary duo would have won gold.
In these playoffs with a team built for him and coach who sets things up around his strengths there's not much to criticize. Probably only Edwards and Jokic are putting up comparably impressive numbers.
The other Villanova guys are playing way above their career averages for efficiency too. If any of the three have the ball in a key situation you don't feel comfortable if you're cheering against them.
If I'm Carlisle I'm telling all my guys to react as though they've been hit by a truck anytime they are within arms length of a Knicks player. If they are going to reward flopping, you might as well fully lean into it.
