Pistons vs Indiana Pacers

Game Breakdown

*Special Situations*

• Nembhard not being active is a major point for this game after how he defended Cade in the last matchup. With that said, I was REALLY excited to see how Cade/Pistons attacked that matchup tonight and we won’t get a chance to evaluate that.

• Love that they responded after going down by 20 points and getting into single digits….can they keep the momentum to start the 2nd half?

  • Get a stop and Cade hits a floater getting back to single digits, again

  • Siakam attacks Cade and scores

    • He has been AWESOME scoring the basketball in a variety of ways

  • Ausar cut and bucket followed by Turner attacking Harris closeout and getting to the FT line

  • Ausar OREB putback

  • Siakam buckets and it’s back up to 13, Detroit not able to capitalize and keep it in single digits

• GOES ZONE for the first time here in the 3rd quarter after Indiana had stretched that lead back out…..do they find any success with it?

  • Haliburton draws foul on a floater late in the shot clock

  • Only go to it for one possession BUT they actually have some of their better defensive possessions immediately following

  • Maybe the one possession of zone changed pace just a little bit and Detroit cuts the lead to 4

• THESE ARE MOMENTUM CRUSHING SEQUENCES

  • Harris with an awesome low man rotation and steal…..then Cade turns it over on a great play from McConnell who does a great job playing with patience in transition and Sheppard outruns Beasley in transition for the C&S 3PM

• ANOTHER ONE to start the 4th quarter

  • Nesmith makes a ridiculous block in transition and then Siakam hits a tough mid range jumper

  • Followed by Walker 3PM and another Siakam mid range make

• Down 6 mid 4th quarter after the Fontecchio 3PM and Harris mid range jumper….you HAVE to keep it tight right here, you can’t let Pacers on even a mini run

  • Get a stop AND 3 GOOD LOOKS!!!!

    • Harris corner 3PA and 2 Duren putbacks and none of them go down

  • Cade fouls Turner + technical and 4 point possession

  • These sequences in the 4th quarter are the difference in the games, truly and Indiana has made all of the plays and Detroit simply hasn’t

Pistons

• Cade, THJ, Ausar, Harris, Duren

  • OFFENSE

    • Interesting first action of the game where THJ screens for Cade to get a middle of the lane post up and then secondary action for him coming off a pindown (Ausar was “initiator”)

    • Just not sure you can play a lineup of Holland-Ausar-Duren…….

    

    • Compared to when Siakam has the ball in isolation (this ends in a Turner C&S 3PM)

    

    • So, I think Cade just has to kick this to Ausar like he would if it was a floor spacer AND THEN play off of that….maybe Ausar can attack that space to score, maybe he can dribble into the next action, maybe Cade can kick and then immediately follow for a hand off since Ausar man wouldn’t be there to help

    • Some flat out bad TOs vs the press

  • DEFENSE

    • Looks like they are going to try Harris on Turner and Duren on Siakam

      • After watching it play out (which isn’t fair) this just wasn’t going to work because Duren can’t defend Siakam off the bounce and because Turner can space the floor they can just use Siakam as the ball screen player

    • Why Cade on Haliburton instead of Ausar???

      • Ausar isn’t defending any of their 3 best offensive players to start this game

    • So, the bigs take a lot of heat for the PnP 3PMs but there have been a couple tonight where the guards let Haliburton refuse the ball screen and breakdown the defense

• CADE post ups vs Sheppard seem to be an emphasis in the early going

  • Rough start on the defensive end as he gives up a 3PM to Haliburton not being ready off the ball and then a straight line drive and dunk on a switch to Siakam

  • Gets the scoring going midway through the 1st quarter

  • Seems to be finding a lot of success against Sheppard

    • Yea, he looks REAL comfortable any time he can attack Sheppard

• HARRIS with a couple rough misses to start the game

  • Does get it back on track with a few makes throughout the rest of the quarter

  • He is struggling to closeout to and stay in front of Turner at the 3P line

  • Effective shooter when he gets the dang ball above the rim

  • Some big buckets late in the 3rd quarter

    • Man, he is really scoring the ball well here in the 2nd half outside of the big missed momentum 3PA

    • Misses another one….make it 3 straight 3PA misses….and now 4

  • I am telling you, get the ball up….please, someone tell him to just get the follow through up, a little more arc on the shot and the % is going to be so, so much better

• AUSAR has initiated a few possessions early in the game BUT the ball still ends up back in Cade’s hands

  • I realize I get very detailed with his defense but I am always evaluating him on the projection of an ELITE defender someday

    • I just think he still overplays at times and those overplays put him out of position to be solid….here he gets just a little too high on Siakam and that opens up a downhill driving lane

  • Screen navigation still has room for growth, has ran directly into multiple in the 1st half

    • Continues immediately into the 2nd half

  • Finding some buckets to start the 2nd half with his slashing

    • Cut to the rim, OREB

• DUREN complete lack of awareness keeping track of Turner is very frustrating to watch after what happened in the last matchup

  • I know Harris is matchup with him but you can see him tell Duren to take him as he goes to help on THJ getting posted up by Siakam

  • Loses Siakam a few minutes later

  • Pacers doubling Cade in the BACKCOURT to take the ball out of his hands and Duren has made back to back really nice plays

    • And one dunk and then drive and kick to Harris for open weakside corner C&S 3PA (missed)

  • Watch how Duren flips the side of the ball screen on this one

    • He looks to see where Turner is at, makes it looks like he is going to set it to Cade’s right and then jumps and sets it on the on the left which leaves Turner COMPLETELY out of position

  • Pacers have simply flipped roles and put Siakam as the PnP guy and let Turner space the floor

    • I think this clip right here is why Duren struggles to closeout aggressively at the 3P line, he doesn’t trust his ability to closeout and stay in front…the fundamentals here just aren’t very good as he has hips open to sideline initially (making the closeout already harder) and then lunges on the shot fake

• STEW comes in and immediately gives up a PnP 3PM to Turner, as well

  • Sasser gives up the ball screen refusal to Haliburton but I still think Stew over commits to the help

  • Then gives up a shot fake and downhill drive to Bryant (Sasser digs in from off ball and forces the TO)

  • He’s tooooo valuable to continue to end up in situations where he is unavailable to play

    • Ejection, foul trouble, whatever the reason….I love the toughness and physicality BUT he has to stay available and on the court

• BEASLEY continues to knock down these movement 3PAs

  • Wow, 3 for 3 to start the game

  • Look how fluid and smooth he is able to get into his jumper with this little drop pass from the DHO

• HOLLAND confidence continues to be on a ridiculous level

  • Throws up a rough euro step attempt in transition and then comes back a couple possessions later and hits a smooth looking corner C&S 3P

    • Rims out the next one on the next possession

    • And then airballs the one after that a few possessions later

  • Love the aggressiveness but he might have to start showing some more discretion with some of these shots at the rim

Pacers

• Haliburton, Sheppard, Nesmith, Siakam, Turner

  • FC pressure shows it’s impact early in the game with an 8 second call

  • Beautiful action to get Siakam an open PnP 3PM

    • Sets the ball screen and then gets a flare screen from Nesmith knowing Duren has no chance of recovering through all of that action

  • Detroit flipped the 4-5 matchup defensively so Indiana has simply flipped who is running PnP with Haliburton

    • Siakam is probably more of a threat to attack Duren because he is shooting 40% from 3 AND is even better attacking a closeout from a big like that

• HALIBURTON seeking out his shot early which is when I think he is at his best

  • Man, he looks spry and creating advantages off the dribble

  • An aggressive Haliburton is a really good Haliburton

  • He has been awesome attacking off the bounce in the 1st half

• TURNER able to bully Harris in the post for a bucket

  • This is an aspect of bigs in the NBA that I think goes undervalued, can you make switches or undersized defenders pay???

    • And Harris is much bigger of a defender than what I am usually referencing

  • Maybe we only see his best games and I know Indiana fans have issues with his defensive rebounding but man, I feel like he is a really nice and important part of their team

• WALKER is disruptive but still has some work in terms of being solid at the point of attack

  • Very active and accurate hands on digs

  • Makes some rough decisions offensively in terms of when to attack and when to pass

    • Yea….I can see where they struggle with his minutes at times based on some of the offensive decision making off the dribble

• SIAKAM off to a HOT start from the field to start the game

  • He is so good in the mid range and scoring off of post ups and then he is hitting over 40% from 3 on the season

  • Scoring versatility has been on FULL DISPLAY in the 1st half

  • Ridiculous footwork and level of difficulty on these mid range jumpers

• MCCONNELL continues to be a walking paint touch

  • This is ridiculous, over and over and over

  • And when he doesn’t get all the way to the rim he can pull up and hit that mid range jumper

  • ENERGY, ENERGY, ENERGY

• SHEPPARD has really struggled to defend Cade but he has made some timely corner 3s

  • And then a HUGE one in transition

  • And another one in the 4th quarter that MIGHT be the icing on the cake

• NESMITH has been relatively quiet throughout the game but what a block in transition that kept the lead to 6 instead of down to 4 early in the 4th quarter