It’s interesting and creative that Indiana threw this strategy out there.
Considering that some of SGA’s least productive games during the playoffs have come with lower pick-up points (once he had the ball in his hands already), which led to PnR actions happening closer to the basketball and thus, a more compressed shell.
^ Like your mention of Denver.
It’ll be interesting to see the OKC counter in Game 4. Anytime you guys have this level of defense off the ball, the first counter is to become a screener.
I’ve been thinking about your article last year analyzing SGA’s strengths and highlighting his weaknesses this entire playoffs, waiting to see if any defense could stop him. He’s so good at rejecting screens and splitting double teams that his 3 point weakness’ you highlighted might not matter that much, but it’ll be interesting to see how much this strategy sticks and how what else Indy can scheme up to try and slow him down.
Great stuff as always. I wonder if we'll be hearing "Shai needs to be more aggressive" from the usual suspects after that was what we heard about Haliburton. I like him calling out Barkley in the postgame interview when he made that kind of reference about Siakam, saying it has a lot to do with how the Thunder are defending him, and now the same happens to Shai. Regardless of the defensive schemes disrupting the Thunder's offensive flow, I slightly wonder if throwing him so off rhythm makes Shai kinda retreat into his own shell a bit - not lose confidence, but kind of unintentionally drift away from the game. Like, I don't expect it to happen to someone so good (MVP, after all), but who knows, maybe there's that kind of effect going on too.
Great article! One other effect of the pressure was that SGA looked totally gassed by the end of the game and that was without moving around all that much off-ball. I think the full court pressure strategy to wear him down and his need to sub in early in the fourth were big factors down the stretch.
Nembhard’s defense was amazing the ENTIRE game and sports media isn’t talking about it enough. Mathurin/McConnell/Toppin offense doesn’t make a difference without that defensive performance.
It’s interesting and creative that Indiana threw this strategy out there.
Considering that some of SGA’s least productive games during the playoffs have come with lower pick-up points (once he had the ball in his hands already), which led to PnR actions happening closer to the basketball and thus, a more compressed shell.
^ Like your mention of Denver.
It’ll be interesting to see the OKC counter in Game 4. Anytime you guys have this level of defense off the ball, the first counter is to become a screener.
I’ve been thinking about your article last year analyzing SGA’s strengths and highlighting his weaknesses this entire playoffs, waiting to see if any defense could stop him. He’s so good at rejecting screens and splitting double teams that his 3 point weakness’ you highlighted might not matter that much, but it’ll be interesting to see how much this strategy sticks and how what else Indy can scheme up to try and slow him down.
Great stuff as always. I wonder if we'll be hearing "Shai needs to be more aggressive" from the usual suspects after that was what we heard about Haliburton. I like him calling out Barkley in the postgame interview when he made that kind of reference about Siakam, saying it has a lot to do with how the Thunder are defending him, and now the same happens to Shai. Regardless of the defensive schemes disrupting the Thunder's offensive flow, I slightly wonder if throwing him so off rhythm makes Shai kinda retreat into his own shell a bit - not lose confidence, but kind of unintentionally drift away from the game. Like, I don't expect it to happen to someone so good (MVP, after all), but who knows, maybe there's that kind of effect going on too.
Great article! One other effect of the pressure was that SGA looked totally gassed by the end of the game and that was without moving around all that much off-ball. I think the full court pressure strategy to wear him down and his need to sub in early in the fourth were big factors down the stretch.
Nembhard’s defense was amazing the ENTIRE game and sports media isn’t talking about it enough. Mathurin/McConnell/Toppin offense doesn’t make a difference without that defensive performance.
I like his analysis, but who is Owen Phillips?
TJ McConnell flying around like a bat out there
Great insight. Makes me look forward to game 4 to see what SGA and OKC do as well as whether Indiana continues their pressure on SGA.