INDIANAPOLIS — It started on the opening play of the game: Andrew Nembhard met Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, out high on the pick-and-roll and was into his body. When the Thunder star made his move and drove, Nembhard was still right there, drew an offensive foul when SGA hit him in the head with his off-arm.
That play set the tone for the night. As much as the Pacers are known for their free-flowing up-tempo offense, they lead the NBA Finals 2-1 because they played an elite defensive game Wednesday night.
“We’ve put an incredible amount of work into becoming better defensively,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “We’re still not great. But we’re way better than we were. It’s taken tons of work. It’s taken tons of, you know, it’s constant relationship building. It’s a difficult system. And it just requires a lot of sacrifice.”
Nembhard was at the heart of that defensive improvement, spending 8:39 of the game guarding Gilgeous-Alexander and holding him to 2-of-7 shooting in that time. Nembhard was denying SGA the ball, pressuring him all the way up the court, being physical and bodying him at every turn. It wore Gilgeous-Alexander down. By late in the fourth quarter, he was gassed and could not spark the comeback the Thunder needed.
Nembhard wasn’t alone, Aaron Nesmith had a strong defensive game as well. One of the quiet sparks of the night was Ben Sheppard coming off the bench in the first half and playing fantastic defense on SGA, holding him to 1-of-4 shooting in the 2:39 he was on him.
Nembhard or whoever was guarding SGA were up in the body of the MVP all night, meeting him much higher on the court than Game 2.
“I didn’t think they really changed their schemes very much. I just thought they were sharper with the physicality and the pressure,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “Their physicality was stronger than our force in a lot of those possessions.”
“I think in Game 2 specifically, if you watch a lot of my coverages, I did a poor job of being at the level [of the screen],” Haliburton said. “I was back and then he could come off and he had so much space… I thought that was something we really had to clean up coming into today.”
“They were aggressive. They were high in the pick-and-rolls,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “They were, like Coach said, more aggressive, more forceful… They were higher tonight in the pick-and-rolls. They were above the screen. When you come off it, you got to go backwards.”
It wasn’t just the defense on Gilgeous-Alexander. Myles Turner had five blocked shots on the night and dominated his matchup with Chet Holmgren late.
Then there was T.J. McConnell, who fired up the crowd with three hustle-play steals of inbounds passes (and five total steals on the night).
“When T.J. is playing with that type of energy, I mean, obviously the crowd loves him,” Pascal Siakam said. “So it’s great for us because every time he does something good, they go crazy.”
This Pacers defense didn’t come out of nowhere. While they struggled on that end (and in general) in the first couple of months of the season, after Jan. 1, they became a top-10 defensive team in the league. After the All-Star break, the Pacers ranked eighth in the league defensively, boasting a 111.5 defensive rating.
In their two wins this series, the Pacers have held the Thunder to an offensive rating of 107.9 and 107.3, in the one loss it was 126.
If the Pacers can bring that same defensive effort in Game 4 and keep Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder on their heels, they have the chance to take command of this series.
It’s going to be all about their defense.
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