Finals G6 Pacers: Physical fitness, defensive strategy& McConnell

Sports Fight

series, I wrote in the foresight that the Pacers personally valued most:

1. The Pacers should think of some solutions on the defensive end. They have always dealt with their opponents with the "physical attrition war" that puts pressure on the whole game. In this round, they have also implemented this strategy for more than half of the game time. However, starting from G4, this strategy had problems and was exposed thoroughly when Harry was injured in G5: the game of attrition was precisely responded strongly from strategy to execution. The Thunder competed with the Pacers in its half. Harten's cover and non-SGA holding balls were used to minimize the consumption of SGA:

Both sides often held a full-game offensive and defensive battle of 6 or even up to 8 players in the Thunder's half, but Dagenut consciously reduced the consumption of SGA holding balls by Nembhard, which to some extent reduced the effect of this strategy. The Thunder created many early offensive rounds through extremely high position covers. Even with some cerebral hemorrhage rounds with false attacks, Jaylen and even Chett really got the chance to quickly hit the basket.

G4 and G5, the Thunder both changed the SGA's first half appearance rotation mode (changed from 12+7 to 7+10) to make him "survive" most of the first three quarters (especially reflected in G4). This strategy is a bit extreme but effective. I spent some time digesting this strategy of minimizing movement and even offensive roles in the first three quarters. In a way, it is actually no different from his defensive strokes. The Thunder's priority is to reduce SGA consumption, and they can even ignore the ugly rounds when some defensive ends are pointed. Daigenot only wants the SGA in the fourth quarter to run at full power.

Of course, there is a premise that Jaylen Williams must be able to take on the ball role, and when SGA is away, the Thunder are more confident at the end of the game. Obviously, although some unstable dribbling rounds appeared, Jaylen could be said to have exceeded this task in G4 and G5, and even took off his hat from Shunfeng Pippen.

So, in response to the above points, how did the Pacers do it in G6?

Adjustment of defensive strategy

Pacers made adjustments in two major directions in G6: 1. Reduce a large amount of full-game pressure and move the battlefield to the half-court offensive and defensive battle. 2. Start trying Siakam against Jaylen Williams.

As for point 1, I think this is Carlisle's alternative strategy after Halliburton was injured. After Degenut effectively responded to the Pacers' defensive pressure for two consecutive games, Carlisle is likely to realize Nembhard's consumption in G5, thus turning more details to half-court offense and defense. Let's take a look at the Pacers' defense on G6: When dealing with high-level screens, the center (Turner) performs a more intense press, narrowing the gap with the leader Nem.

More resolutely work together to block the ball holder. The Pacers adopt the peel switch strategy behind them, and use the weak side (Harry) to block the roll/pop man or cutter to wait for the center to return. After the Pacers retreated from the entire game to half, they used more effort to carry out more firm strangulation and defense against the ball holder (SGA). Nembhard once became a free agent, and even if he was replaced, he firmly gave priority to defending the SGA line or directly defending.

As for the second point, Sika's match against Jaylen must be the Pacers' pre-match idea, but they did not match up like this at the beginning of G6, everything happened after this round:

Jaylen and Hartten cooperated in the bottom corner and refused to cover and deceived Nesmith's breakthrough score.

This round, SGA only made it possible to open up space at the bottom corner. This kind of round is probably something Carlisle can't stand.

So next we see Sika against Jaylen and Nesmith goes to Chet.

In this round, Hartten showed a strong sense of stadium smell. He was supporting himself behind his back and waiting for Chet to cut in and catch the misplaced position.

But in the next round, the Pacers showed a strong sense of defense switching. Chett used Hartten's cover to continue to catch the misplaced position. Nesmith and Turner completed the defense switching, Chett was unable to feed the ball to the basket. Jaylen held the ball against Sika, and there was a problem with the ball (in the end he completed a barely shot).

According to Caitlin Cooper data, Sika only had 12 rounds in the first five games against Jaylen, and 13 rounds in G6. When Jaylen faces Nesmith and Sika, the offensive efficiency is 33.9 points in a hundred round and 20 points in a hundred round respectively.

I think this set of counter-attack changes can be continued in G7, because this change is like Pandora's box, which will affect multiple contents of the game:

1. Considering that Sika's performance is not bad when defending the screen against the SGA, Jaylen and SGA's mutual cover initiative needs to be considered.

2. Sika's match against Jaylen means that the two towers are more likely to gain the advantage of natural misalignment when they are on the court, which tests whether Dagenot dares to make a fuss around Chet on the offensive end & Whether he dares to use Harten to better capture the Pacers. This pairing arrangement exposes the disadvantages exposed in other positions.

TJ-McConnell

mentioned the Pacers' point 1: defense. The second point is to control mistakes on the offensive end, and the number of mistakes between G5 and G6 is a good comparison.

And this point has to be mentioned in G5. After the Pacers caught a goal in the fourth quarter, TJM and Sika's brief break caused the team to collapse. Nem's continuous mistakes not only made Carlisle determined to adjust his defensive strategy in G6, but also determined to continue to improve McConnell's role.

From beginning to end, the Pacers must first control mistakes and reduce the Thunder's conversion attack in order to have more hope to win with their opponents..

G6, Carlisle made TJM overlap with at least one of the playing time of Sika, Nem and Halliburton, and reduced Matherine's playing time.

Simply speaking, McConnell can be at ease on multiple consecutive games on the offensive end, which is also due to the Thunder's defensive characteristics:

I tend to make good use of the Thunder's failure to "respect" his direct projection ability to make a fuss on the offensive end. TJM can make good use of the screen on the clear side to initiate it, use switch to defend or sinking and retreat to break through to its comfort zone to complete the attack:

If the opponent is close enough, TJM likes to break through from the bottom line and directly layup or find teammates who cut off:

When the Thunder is fighting against defense, TJM can make good use of misalignment, and at the same time observe the opponent's position to punish the Thunder's position

TJM will also seek changes on the offensive end, such as a cover but suddenly breaking through the middle lane to complete a one-on-one mid-range distance.

And in the next round, he pretended to use the same trick to reuse the actual situation and completed the hand-handed change of defense with Harry, and Harry made a three-pointer.

This throws another question to the Thunder: In addition to being able to control mistakes, TJM can also provide more in personal offensive and tactical changes. Does Dagenot want to arrange more defense based on TJM's characteristics?

Summary

Overall, I think the game in this round of the series is still quite exciting: the main line is the choice between physical attrition and the defensive end. The Thunder used the experience of three games to come up with an optimal solution to the Pacers' consumption of SGA; the Pacers briefly adjusted their defensive ideas and key matches at the critical moment of G4 and the collapse of the last quarter of G5. It is not ruled out that the G7 Pacers continue to use the defensive approach of putting pressure on the whole game, but Sika's match against Jaylen is likely to continue to test Dignot's another move.