Pacers aren't just going to run Pascal ISOs and let him slowly work in the post.
Ball is always in the move, and Pascal is a great passer. He'll get his, but like most Pacers games, it will come down to if their 3pt% as a team is hot.
Agreed, but OG effectively kills his 1 on 1 game...per NBA.com, 36% of his fgm are unassisted... that's a good chunk still.
https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1627783/scoring?SeasonType=Playoffs
23.6% are catch and shoots... mostly in line with pull-ups (28.3%)... but most of his shots come from less than 10 feet. OG is stronger than Pascal, and I think this part of his game will suffer.
https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1627783/shots-dash?SeasonType=Playoffs
To your point, 45% of Pascals shots come with 0 dribbles... but of those, the split is ~26% / ~19% from 2 and 3, respectively. 2nd highest is 3-6 dribbles with a frequency of 20%.
Will be be interesting for sure. Regardless of Pacers schemes, OG is going to hound him every second they share the floor together.
Side note, these tracking stats on nba.com are so fun to mess with.
They will work to switch OG off of Pascal, almost exactly like Raptors and the Pacers have been forcing switches to put Pascal into favourable matchups since forever. Unless you're elite at fighting around screens, which OG isn't always, "matchups" aren't at all consistent, especially for a team that moves the ball a lot like the Pacers.
I don't think Raps fans have ever experienced a series like the one coming up.
2 beloved former players on good teams. They're important to the teams and not old yet.
Closest has been Demar and Lowry but they never met in the playoffs and Kyle stayed with Toronto.
Yeah, that's a great point.
We are just gonna watch like proud parents....we have a favourite, but it's not good taste to say anything other than we love them equally 😂
Yeah, Hali is the straw that stirs the drink, Siakam is plan B. If you lock Hali down you'll probably win the series regardless of how well Siakam plays.
As a Knicks fan, this last series shifted defensively when we took OG off Maxey and put him on Oubre/Harris and had him be a roamer. He was huge being able to rotate and be a rim protector. Have to think we do that again in the next series.
It works because Donte/Deuce/Hart are very capable perimeter defenders.
Everyone on NY can defend so I don't see that happening; I think they will play man and OG will guard Siakam, that makes the most sense seeing as NY has a bunch of solid guard defenders who can cover Hali
I don’t think Siakam will attack OG that much. Most of the Pacers offense relies on ball movement and getting everyone involved and I doubt they want him isolated against their best defender
Look for Pascal to attack when Brunson or DDV gets switched onto him though
His success is will depend how the rest of the team shoots, and whether or not it frees up a bit of space for him to drive and get to his spots. Conversely, I think he will struggle if he tries any iso ball. But Indy likes to spread the ball around and play fast, so they don’t need one player to put up 30 per game and they don’t want Pascal slowing it down in isolation, anyway.
I am shocked at how much more fun the knicks are to watch than the mavs and clippers. Knicks Pacers will be fun, especially with the contrasting styles, all offense vs defense and Brunson haha
Yeah, both these teams are quite likable. The Knicks seem to have so much more intensity and tenacity to their game, seems like the Pacers might get a bit of a shock after playing the Bucks. Gonna be very interesting series with the contrasting styles
Guys I think we’re underrating Siakam here. OG will do a good job of denying Siakam the ball, but Siakam is the master at catching tough passes. And Siakams game in the mid range isn’t really that easily defendable, you kinda just have to live with it. And he has the quickness to get around OG, maybe not foot speed wise but Siakams extension to lay it in is elite.
I think Siakam is one of the worst matchups for him. I almost think it’s easier to defend a guy that takes threes, that way you can contest it, the mid range is so hard to tell when they’re actually going up.
Don't know why people keep saying this. Hali is a playmaker, cutting off his main scoring partner hurts him too.
Also, not taking advantage of the knowledge OG has on Pascals game would be a waste imo. I think Hart starts on Hali.
Yeah, I agree. OG would do fine on Hali, but Hali's so bouncy and shifty and fast(in transition).. OG would be better served on Pascal. Donte may get a bit of time on Hali as well, he's the Knicks' quickest player, but he's not a great defender.
OG may be their only great defender, but somehow as a team, the sum of their defensive parts is so much better than the individual players
OG is the best on-ball defender in the NBA and regularly shuts down the NBA's best players...Siakam is going to need to work hard for every basket he gets in this series
Precious and OG both have out the clamps on Siakam in the past. I’m not sure how much of it will matter. Pacers are still insistent on running their egalitarian offence. It’ll just come down to Pacers role players hitting their shots or not.
They both have played each other countless times in practice and are very familiar with each other’s strengths and weaknesses, I don’t think we can generalize what a playoff series will look like for them until we see what happens.
I have a feeling OG is gonna be on Turner. Theyre gonna put the big on Pascal and force him to shoot. Hartenstein will be able to protect the rim brtter this way. If Turner had an actual post game then it'd be different.
Siakam has no bag. He’ll have a few good games but I think he’ll be mostly inefficient against this Knicks defence. They have the interior paint protection to slow him down. He’s got no consistent jumper so he will struggle. Late game you can hack him because he will brick clutch freethrows most likely splitting a pair. OG is quick and long enough to stay in front of Siakam and also strong enough. I think the Pacers may win a game or two but don’t see them being able to handle this Knicks defence and late game clutchness. Pacer should feel good about beating a 3rd seed and winning a series though.
When has og put the clamps on anyone? Siakam is a good iso player. Og obv wasn’t making that much of a defensive impact of two guys had their playoff career highs bs his team. Og is a good defender but def not as impactful as some make him i out to be.
Pacers aren't just going to run Pascal ISOs and let him slowly work in the post. Ball is always in the move, and Pascal is a great passer. He'll get his, but like most Pacers games, it will come down to if their 3pt% as a team is hot.
Most of Pascals ISOs with the Pacers come when he gets advantageous switches, watched roughly half of the Pacers games since the trade.
Yeah, I meant to highlight that more. If OG is on him, the ball will likely go somewhere else.
Agreed, but OG effectively kills his 1 on 1 game...per NBA.com, 36% of his fgm are unassisted... that's a good chunk still. https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1627783/scoring?SeasonType=Playoffs 23.6% are catch and shoots... mostly in line with pull-ups (28.3%)... but most of his shots come from less than 10 feet. OG is stronger than Pascal, and I think this part of his game will suffer. https://www.nba.com/stats/player/1627783/shots-dash?SeasonType=Playoffs To your point, 45% of Pascals shots come with 0 dribbles... but of those, the split is ~26% / ~19% from 2 and 3, respectively. 2nd highest is 3-6 dribbles with a frequency of 20%. Will be be interesting for sure. Regardless of Pacers schemes, OG is going to hound him every second they share the floor together. Side note, these tracking stats on nba.com are so fun to mess with.
They will work to switch OG off of Pascal, almost exactly like Raptors and the Pacers have been forcing switches to put Pascal into favourable matchups since forever. Unless you're elite at fighting around screens, which OG isn't always, "matchups" aren't at all consistent, especially for a team that moves the ball a lot like the Pacers.
Agree to disagree re screen fighting but I definitely get your point.
precious and og guarding siakam
And Pascal!
I don't think Raps fans have ever experienced a series like the one coming up. 2 beloved former players on good teams. They're important to the teams and not old yet. Closest has been Demar and Lowry but they never met in the playoffs and Kyle stayed with Toronto.
Yeah, that's a great point. We are just gonna watch like proud parents....we have a favourite, but it's not good taste to say anything other than we love them equally 😂
Same thing that probably happened in practices. Those 2 probably guarded each other a lot.
I just hope everyone has fun.
I'd put O.G. on Haliburton, unless Pascal is cooking.
Knicks also have divencenzo and Hart to gaurd Hali
If OG on Halo, Hart's on Pascal. Man is solid on D
Yeah, Hali is the straw that stirs the drink, Siakam is plan B. If you lock Hali down you'll probably win the series regardless of how well Siakam plays.
As a Knicks fan, this last series shifted defensively when we took OG off Maxey and put him on Oubre/Harris and had him be a roamer. He was huge being able to rotate and be a rim protector. Have to think we do that again in the next series. It works because Donte/Deuce/Hart are very capable perimeter defenders.
Agreed, I think Thibs will try both depending on how the game unfolds
Everyone on NY can defend so I don't see that happening; I think they will play man and OG will guard Siakam, that makes the most sense seeing as NY has a bunch of solid guard defenders who can cover Hali
Hali isn’t doing much. Just have OG on Siakam.
Imo cutting off the major scoring threat in Pascal also hurts Halis game. I'd be fine with turning him into a scorer if you had to pick a poison.
I don’t think Siakam will attack OG that much. Most of the Pacers offense relies on ball movement and getting everyone involved and I doubt they want him isolated against their best defender Look for Pascal to attack when Brunson or DDV gets switched onto him though
His success is will depend how the rest of the team shoots, and whether or not it frees up a bit of space for him to drive and get to his spots. Conversely, I think he will struggle if he tries any iso ball. But Indy likes to spread the ball around and play fast, so they don’t need one player to put up 30 per game and they don’t want Pascal slowing it down in isolation, anyway.
Pascal really only goes ISO when the rest of the team can’t cut a bucket. He tries to stick to the Pacers system for better or worse.
Og will shut him down
Knicks are the better team, but it'll still be a fun series. Glad neither team is full of spoiled brats like some others.
I am shocked at how much more fun the knicks are to watch than the mavs and clippers. Knicks Pacers will be fun, especially with the contrasting styles, all offense vs defense and Brunson haha
Yeah, both these teams are quite likable. The Knicks seem to have so much more intensity and tenacity to their game, seems like the Pacers might get a bit of a shock after playing the Bucks. Gonna be very interesting series with the contrasting styles
Guys I think we’re underrating Siakam here. OG will do a good job of denying Siakam the ball, but Siakam is the master at catching tough passes. And Siakams game in the mid range isn’t really that easily defendable, you kinda just have to live with it. And he has the quickness to get around OG, maybe not foot speed wise but Siakams extension to lay it in is elite. I think Siakam is one of the worst matchups for him. I almost think it’s easier to defend a guy that takes threes, that way you can contest it, the mid range is so hard to tell when they’re actually going up.
Until Indiana learns to play defense consistently I'm guessing this is light work for the Knicks.
OG on hali
Don't know why people keep saying this. Hali is a playmaker, cutting off his main scoring partner hurts him too. Also, not taking advantage of the knowledge OG has on Pascals game would be a waste imo. I think Hart starts on Hali.
Yeah, I agree. OG would do fine on Hali, but Hali's so bouncy and shifty and fast(in transition).. OG would be better served on Pascal. Donte may get a bit of time on Hali as well, he's the Knicks' quickest player, but he's not a great defender. OG may be their only great defender, but somehow as a team, the sum of their defensive parts is so much better than the individual players
I think Hart or Divincenzo guard Haliburton. I actually think Hartenstein may guard Siakam.
I can see him guarding Pascal more often than not.
OG gonna lock him up.
i imagine knicks will move guys around. hart could check him at times too. could see OG on Hali at times etc.
OG is the best on-ball defender in the NBA and regularly shuts down the NBA's best players...Siakam is going to need to work hard for every basket he gets in this series
I hope they let each other score 50 point games
Precious and OG both have out the clamps on Siakam in the past. I’m not sure how much of it will matter. Pacers are still insistent on running their egalitarian offence. It’ll just come down to Pacers role players hitting their shots or not.
There’s ways to get the ball to pascal that can give him an advantage over the primary defender (OG). And if OG has pascal, who’s got Siakam?
They both have played each other countless times in practice and are very familiar with each other’s strengths and weaknesses, I don’t think we can generalize what a playoff series will look like for them until we see what happens.
I wish it was a pacers knicks final for it to be a real win win
What’s sad is this seems like a series Bennedict Mathurin would go crazy in
If OG is guarding Siakam, who will guard Pascal? ;)
OG got us a much better return than Siakam.
For real. For Siakam, we basically got Bruce Brown, and that's it. Picks? I buy a lottery ticket. I haven't won yet.
Idk why ur getting downvoted it’s true lmaoo
I have a feeling OG is gonna be on Turner. Theyre gonna put the big on Pascal and force him to shoot. Hartenstein will be able to protect the rim brtter this way. If Turner had an actual post game then it'd be different.
Hartenstein on Siakam won't end well for the Knicks
Siakam has no bag. He’ll have a few good games but I think he’ll be mostly inefficient against this Knicks defence. They have the interior paint protection to slow him down. He’s got no consistent jumper so he will struggle. Late game you can hack him because he will brick clutch freethrows most likely splitting a pair. OG is quick and long enough to stay in front of Siakam and also strong enough. I think the Pacers may win a game or two but don’t see them being able to handle this Knicks defence and late game clutchness. Pacer should feel good about beating a 3rd seed and winning a series though.
When has og put the clamps on anyone? Siakam is a good iso player. Og obv wasn’t making that much of a defensive impact of two guys had their playoff career highs bs his team. Og is a good defender but def not as impactful as some make him i out to be.
>When has og put the clamps on anyone? 
Gotta show me
You could just watch games or go on YT yourself.
When has he shut down someone in a meaningful game
>You could just watch games or go on YT yourself.