With a blowout victory against the New York Knicks in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals, the Indiana Pacers clinched a berth in the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Thunder defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games of the Western Conference finals.
Here are three things to know about the 78th edition of the NBA Finals …
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs. Tyrese Haliburton
Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the first point guard to win MVP since Russell Westbrook won the award for the Thunder in 2017. The 6-foot-6, 200-pound Gilgeous-Alexander is a surgical superstar, knifing his way to his spots, drawing contact along the way. Some people call him a free-throw merchant when he might be the most complete scoring guard since Michael Jordan — at least since Kobe Bryant.
Gilgeous-Alexander averaged a league-leading 32.7 points per game (on 52/38/90 shooting splits) in the regular season, adding 6.4 assists, 5 rebounds, 1.7 steals and a block a night. He is averaging a 30-6-7 in the playoffs, numbers matched en route to an NBA Finals only by Jordan, LeBron James and Nikola Jokić.
In the other corner is Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, a supreme playmaker who has been every bit as good in these playoffs. His style could be described as chaotic if it were not so mistake-free, and the Pacers as a team have adopted it. His 32 points, 15 assists and zero turnovers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals were a prime example of the kind of impact he is capable of having as both a scorer and facilitator.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got the best of Tyrese Haliburton during the regular season. (AP Photo/Kyle Phillips)
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Haliburton averaged 18.6 points (47/39/85), 9.2 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 2.1 combined steals and blocks a game in the regular season. He has increased his production in the playoffs, averaging a 19-6-10, numbers matched en route to an NBA Finals only by Jokić, Magic Johnson and Bob Cousy.
No two players have been more valuable to their teams in this postseason than Gilgeous-Alexander and Haliburton, and their contrasting styles will be on display opposite each other on an NBA Finals stage.
It did not go well for Haliburton during the regular season, as the Thunder swept the season series, 2-0. Gilgeous-Alexander outscored him in their first meeting, the day after Christmas, 45-4. It was one of SGA’s highest-scoring outputs of the season and one of Haliburton’s lowest. Haliburton was involved in just 8.3% of Indiana’s scoring opportunities, his lowest usage rate in any single game this season. The Thunder will force the ball from his hands, similar to how it just handled Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards.
Things did not go much better for Haliburton in the second meeting in late March. Gilgeous-Alexander outscored him in that one, 33-18. Only one other time this season has Haliburton had fewer assists than the three he had that night. His usage rate (17.1%) was again well below his season average (21.6%), and whenever his usage rate is that low the Pacers are 7-13 across both the regular season and the playoffs.
It is important to note that Haliburton rarely defended Gilgeous-Alexander and vice versa. Andrew Nembhard drew the bulk of the assignment for the Pacers against SGA, who scored 27 points on 11-for-18 shooting over 12:38 opposite Indiana’s primary defender, according to the NBA’s tracking data. The Thunder netted 124.3 points per 100 possessions over that span, equivalent to the best offense ever.
Indiana’s offense vs. Oklahoma City’s defense
Indiana is known for its fast-paced brand of basketball, which has generated 117 points per 100 possessions in the playoffs, 1.1 points better than the Oklahoma City Thunder and best of any team but the 64-win Cleveland Cavaliers, whom the Pacers eliminated, 4-1 — with a more effective offense.
Forget for a moment that Oklahoma City played at a faster pace in the regular season and focus on the Thunder’s defense for a moment. On that end they held opponents to 104.7 points per 100 possessions, best in the NBA. The difference between them and the second-best defense was equal to the difference between the second-best defense and the eighth-best outfit. Which is to say: The Thunder are a wagon.
Led by Haliburton, the Pacers play fast and efficiently, a deadly combination, which means they rarely turn the ball over. Their turnover rate during the regular season (13.1%) ranked as the league’s third-best, behind only the Thunder and the Boston Celtics, and they have been better with the ball in the playoffs.
Oklahoma City’s defense, however, has forced more turnovers than any other team in the NBA, both in the regular season and the playoffs. Their pressure is relentless. They won the turnover battle in their two games against the Pacers in the regular season, 24-13, outscoring them off of those turnovers, 27-10.
They have Lu Dort, a member of the All-Defensive first team. Cason Wallace and Alex Caruso could have cracked that roster, too, if either had been Oklahoma City’s primary point-of-attack defender. They have Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams, a pair of stars taken to defense. And they have Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren, two of the game’s best rim protectors. It is an embarrassment of defensive riches.
It is concerning, then, that the Pacers owned a 105.7 offensive rating when Haliburton was on the floor against the Thunder in the regular season. That figure would rank as the NBA’s worst offense if averaged over a full season. Haliburton’s offense was worse against only one team this season, the Charlotte Hornets, who snuck up on Indiana for a pair of victories — two of the Pacers’ worst losses of the season.
Battle of the small markets
Few NBA teams are in smaller media markets than the Pacers of Indianapolis and the Thunder of OKC. We will hear plenty about this, as if we should care about how many people are watching along with us.
The television ratings will not be a referendum on the popularity of the league. Nor will they do much to impact the league’s bottom line, as the NBA’s new TV rights package — an 11-year, $76 billion deal with ESPN, NBC and Amazon — is set to begin next season. The NBA, for all the hullabaloo, is doing just fine.
We should be concerned with whether we get to see competitive basketball at the league’s highest level, and this has a chance to be that. The Thunder and Pacers are two teams who like to get up and down. There will be a lot of offense. One team boasts a historically great defense, and that is why the Thunder are favored to win the series, according to BetMGM. But do not underestimate Indiana’s hard-hat guys — Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith and Myles Turner among them — or their ability to make this a feisty series.
We should care about how these teams built sustainable winners in their small markets, for variety among the league’s contenders should be a good thing. Indiana built from the middle, remaining competitive, stacking quality draft picks, making moves on the fringes, and they nailed their two big swings, identifying Haliburton as their franchise savior and Pascal Siakam as a complementary star.
The Thunder similarly identified Gilgeous-Alexander as the future of their franchise, acquiring him, along with five first-round draft picks, in exchange for Paul George. Two of those picks became Williams, an All-Star, and Wallace, a rotational mainstay. They tanked for two seasons, landing Holmgren in the process, stockpiling draft picks, and team president Sam Presti has made far more good decisions than bad ones.
Funny enough, the Pacers built from trading George, too. George, who led the Pacers to two Eastern Conference finals but never an NBA Finals, begot Domantas Sabonis, who begot Haliburton. All the Philadelphia 76ers have to do to reach the NBA Finals, then, is trade George. We are kidding, of course.
But there are multiple paths to the NBA’s biggest stage, even for small markets, and that is a positive.
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