Kill the Blood Deer! How many future advantages are Pacers?

For the playoff match between the Bucks and Pacers, although many media are optimistic about the Bucks, the Pacers ultimately rely on their better team combat power. Coupled with the injury of Bucks defender Lillard, the Pacers were able to win the Bucks 4-1 in the four-win series in seven games and advance to the semi-finals.

Looking at the first four games, except for the team's defensive strategy due to Lillard's return in the third game, which made the Bucks Trent Jr. play the surprise effect and scored 37 points to win, the rest of the time were in a situation where the Pacers suppressed the Bucks all the way.

In the final game of the fifth game, the Pacers were 4 points behind the Bucks in one minute in the fourth quarter, and Halliburton scored consecutively and scored consecutively, tying the score into overtime. After the Pacers took the lead in overtime, the Bucks surprise Trent Jr. jumped out again to score three consecutive three-pointers. Coupled with Antetokounmpo's scoring momentum, the Bucks once took a 7-point lead.

From this stage alone, since the league's statistics in 1977, their winning and losing record for the side that was ahead of more than 7 points in the last 40 seconds of the playoffs was 1,609 wins and 0 losses. However, after 40 seconds, the game situation changed subtly, and this record data became 1,609 wins and 2 losses.

With Nembhard's ultra-long three-pointer and Halliburton won the 1.4-second layup after catching Trent Jr.'s key mistake, he finally won 119-118 in overtime, leading the team to a 8-0 reversal offensive and successfully defeated the Bucks to advance.

Pacers offensive adjustment

Haliburton is the Pacers' first offensive core. Even though he was depressed at the beginning of the season due to his low offensive desire, as the season progressed, he gradually began to regain his offensive feel and eventually led the Pacers back to the upper half of the eastern region.

In addition to his excellent organizational skills and helping the Pacers achieve their advantage in converting offensively, one of his more prominent aspects is to use pick-and-roll partner center Turner to create opportunities for outside shooting or breakthroughs. In addition, although his ability to control fortunes has never been able to grow in breakthrough due to the center of gravity, he can still gradually develop his singles skills through the change of the game rhythm.

Compared with last season, Halliburton chose to face the Pacers most of the time when facing the Pacers, and the playoffs this season have begun to play singles against Antetokounmpo, which has also made the team's offensive tactics more diverse. After

Haliburton, the second center to watch Turner. The series averaged 16.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game, with a shooting percentage of 50.9% and a three-point shooting percentage of 37.5%. Gradually developed mature outside projections can stabilize the team and maintain a stable scoring output in the penalty area. They can even punish the opponent's small man by taking advantage of the height and body advantage in defense switching.

In addition to stable output on the offensive end, facing Antetokounmpo's violent breakthrough, the Pacers chose to build three lines of defense to deal with it. The first line is mainly single defense, the second line starts to perform double-teams, and the last line is the value of the frame protection from Turner.

Thanks to the advantages of frame protection awareness, it has become the last barrier for the Pacers. After Antetokounmpo strongly breaks through the first two lines of defense, he still needs to face the final frame protection threat. Although Antetokounmpo still played superstar performance throughout the entire series, it was not too comfortable to play. For the ability to slightly reduce his offensive destructiveness, Turner's defensive performance was definitely a great contribution.

The third point comes from Siakam. According to the book data, in this round of the series, he averaged 19.8 points, 6 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game against the Bucks, but his sluggish performance in the final game almost ruined the Pacers' victory. However, as the key defender who can keep an eye on Antetokounmpo for the most time in the game, the defensive end is indeed quite expensive.

For the opponent Cavaliers who advanced to the semi-finals, the main core of the opponent is around the backcourt core, and there are no heavy frontcourt tanks like Antetokounmpo. I hope Sika can bring more pressure to the Cavaliers' penalty area.

Pacers' defense adjustment

Facing with the Bucks without Lillard, the Pacers' first goal is to reduce Antetokounmpo's offensive destructive power. However, because the team lacks large-scale wing single defense resources, they often need to choose more double-teams to block Antetokounmpo's breakthrough, and also improve their defensive rotation speed on the periphery.

Judging from the results, the Pacers have indeed improved the assisted defense in the penalty area and rotated defense speed, thereby making up for the shortcomings in the defensive end. As the two-time blocking champion, Miles Turner played a key role in protecting the rim. But there were also some situations of losing one thing, which led to Trent Jr.'s best playoff performance in his career. His consecutive three-point bombing in the fifth overtime game was indeed an unexpected shot from the Pacers.

Head coach tactical response Coach Carlisle has always emphasized teamwork and rapid offense, and through Halliburton's organizational ability, the team's efficient output on the offensive end is maintained. He also made special adjustments to the Bucks' defensive strategy in the series, constantly using pick-and-roll and outside shooting to open up space. In addition to pulling Lopez out of the penalty area to weaken the opponent's penalty area defense, because of the Bucks' poor defense in the backcourt, the Pacers' back line can promote offense more unscrupulously, forcing the Bucks to execute more defense replacements, allowing Sika and Turner to get more misplaced singles opportunities.

When the Bucks set up a regional joint defense, whether it is a two-three joint defense or two-one, a simple double-speed cover or a pick-and-roll smoothly, and with the short pick-and-roll assistance, the Pacers developed a large number of three-pointers with open bottom corners, which made the Bucks completely unable to deal with it.

Just looking at this round of series, in the game between the coaches of both sides, we can clearly give an evaluation:

Carlisle definitely beat Rivers.

Andrew Nembhard averaged 15 points, 4.8 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game in the series, shooting percentage of 49.2% and 3-point shooting percentage of 50%.

Thanks to his stable performance, the Pacers received stable backfield support that beat the Bucks. In the last overtime battle, many fans praised Halliburton's final final kill, but it should not be forgotten that before Halliburton, it was Nembhard's ultra-long three-pointer that successfully extended the Pacers' life. The key value of this goal is no less than Halliburton's final final kill.

Aaron Nesmith

Neismith averaged 14.8 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists in the series, shooting 53.8% from the field and 51.9% from three-pointers.

Thanks to Nesmith and Sika taking turns to siege Antetokounmpo on the defensive end, they provided the team with the most critical defensive assistance, not to mention his extreme saves and saves during the game. Although the Pacers are not yet considered the top team in the division, for any level of team, they need a desperate Saburo like Nesmith.

Semi-final discussion

Can Halliburton continue to be funny?

As the first core of the Pacers' offense, the rookie point guard showed his organizational scoring ability not inferior to the super point guard in the first round, thanks to the Bucks' broken backcourt defensive environment. However, referring to the performance of facing the Cavaliers in the regular season this season, the Pacers faced the Cavaliers four times, Halliburton played two games, scoring 2 points, 1 rebound, 5 assists, 23 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists respectively. With a huge gap, whether Halliburton can continue to maintain efficient offensive performance in the first round of the series and drive teammates to participate in the offense will be the most critical point for the Pacers to pass the second round.

Turner and Sika's internal and external threats

For these two big men, their outside shots can open up the Pacers' offensive space while providing stable defensive value in the penalty area. If they can continue to exert their value in attacking Mobley and Allen, they will not only stabilize the frontcourt penalty area where the Cavaliers are slightly weak, but also free up more room for breakthroughs for their teammates.

Semi-finals X Factor: Andrew Nembhard

No surprise, Nembhard performed well in the first round series and needed to continue to provide stable backcourt support in the second round. Especially when facing the Cavaliers' backcourt pressure on defense, he shared the offensive pressure for Halliburton.

In addition, the team also needs him to take on most of the time against Mitchell on the defensive end, and his ultimate defensive effect on Mitchell also determines the final outcome of this round of series to some extent.

Overall, if Halliburton can maintain the offensive tandem level in the first round of the playoffs, if Nembhard can successfully limit Mitchell, if Sika joins hands with Turner, if McConnell on the substitute can play against Jerome, facing the Cavaliers in the East, the Pacers are not completely without a chance to fight.