How the Pacers can avoid déjà vu in Paris

 Déjà vu, loosely translated, means the dominance of Victor Wembanyama 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

After being on the wrong side of a hero's welcome for Victor Wembanyama, who finished with 30 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, and five blocks to go with innumerable "heck no's" and "what the heck's" in what was a 140-110 beatdown win for the San Antonio Spurs, the Pacers have another chance at avoiding déjà vu in Paris on Saturday. The word "another" is very intentional there, as Les Bleu & Gold already experienced plenty of déjà vu in the first meeting -- at least as it pertains to repeatedly encountering the French resistance of Wembanyama in the paint and, quite frankly, everywhere else, too.

In that regard, even when he wasn't swatting three shots in less than a minute to ignite and lead the charge for the Spurs, he was single-handedly swallowing up empty corner pick-and-rolls as the screener defender and either switching out or hanging back to deter penetration against the pick-and-pop. All of which brings to question why the Pacers were running empty corner pick-and-rolls directly at him and relying on the pick-and-pop to pull him out of the paint, when all too often he either wasn't budging in drop with a weak-side defender rotating at the point of the pop in his stead, or he was functioning like a repellant force field with his seemingly limitless limbs after switching out?

After all, things like this happened.

And so did this.

For the game, the Pacers scored a measly 0.619 points per chance when Turner was the screener with Wembanyama as the screener defender. And yet, Turner was tracked as setting 57.7 ball screens per 100 possessions, which is his third-highest total in any game this season. Some of that was a product of the random play-style the Pacers prefer, which while certainly more difficult to scout for the defense, isn't always as controllable for the offense as far as where the ball goes and when.

As such, when it comes to circumventing the stifling defensive presence of Wembanyama in his home country, here's a few suggestions for how the Pacers can (oh boy, another French reference) bid him adieu.

Short the roll 

On the one hand, if Wembanyama switches out to the ball, that means he isn't around the rim. On the other hand, however, if Wembanyama switches out to the ball, that also means that the Pacers have to pass around his towering frame in order to enter the ball inside. If Indiana wants to keep involving Turner with similar frequency as the screener, a simple way for getting around the need to get around Wembanyama is to short the roll, with a triangle pass from the ball-handler for the player at the wing to then feed the mismatch over a smaller defender.

That's what the Pacers attempted here, as Haliburton can be seen motioning for Siakam to lift up from the corner to complete the post entry pass to Turner.

Granted, Turner didn't finish the play, but at least the Pacers manufactured the shot at the rim without Wembanyama lurking nearby. More of those opportunities were and will be there. The players involved just need to more readily recognize them.

Drive the big to attack through a pitch

If San Antonio counters by denying the pass to the wing to short the roll, then another option following the switch would be for Haliburton to get off the ball in order to receive it right back from a teammate who drives at Wembanyama and then pitches it to him.

While it may seem counterintuitive based on everything that happened at the end of the third quarter when Wembanyama was blocking kamikaze drives left and right, the natural tendency of bigs is to help on drives. In the above scenario, if Nembhard dribbles north-south at Wembanyama, then Haliburton can run behind the drive into the space vacated by the penetration. At that point, assuming the on-ball defender sinks to honor the attacking angle of Nembhard's drive, Haliburton should have room to rise and fire, with Chris Paul late to switch out.

To be fair, Haliburton knocked down a step-back three over Wembanyama in the first quarter, but this would allow him to pick on someone his own size (or smaller).

Utilize the elbows

As a team, the Pacers shot 28.5 percent on 14 shots in the paint when Wembanyama was the contester. Needless to say, it would likely behoove the Pacers for him not to be the contester. One potential way to achieve that end is to space the player he is defending at the weak-side wing or slot as much as possible.

For example, consider all of the outcomes that are possible out of this alignment with Pascal Siakam acting as the trigger man at the elbow-area extended.

Notably, even with his defender sliding under the throw-and-get at the elbow, T.J. McConnell still manages to get to the rim. Why? Well, it definitely helps that there isn't a help defender -- or at least not a help defender who is 7-foot-3 with a 9-foot-7 standing reach. To that point, because Turner is positioned at the weak-side wing, instead of at the top of the key or in the corner, Wembanyama's potential rotation to the rim is much harder and longer. Meanwhile, Chris Paul is the low-man, but he's reluctant to leave Ben Sheppard in the corner, and he also isn't exactly an imposing secondary rim protector anyway. There, McConnell finished with his left, but the Pacers also managed to replicate the same outcome on the opposite side of the floor with him getting downhill with his strong hand, too.

In that case, Wembanyama actually got tempted to help from the weakside wing. If he fully commits on Saturday, then Turner can crash behind him for the potential drop-off pass, with a smaller guard or wing then responsible for slowing his momentum. Plus, if the chase-and-get hand-off isn't there, then McConnell can cut down to the dunker spot, creating a wider gap for Siakam to attack into from mid-range, with Wembanyama potentially stunting at the nail (admittedly, with his massive lateral size), rather than staying low and slapping away shots at the rim.

Cross-court hand-off

For those reasons, even if the Pacers don't run that exact play (which they didn't appear to after halftime), there's still reason to think that alignment could be favorable. Or, at least more favorable than attacking him head-on in isolation with the shot-clock winding down.

For the sake of emphasis, the shot-clock was obviously a factor there; however, if the Pacers get stuck in the mud against Wembanyama earlier in the clock without a clear play, then they might want to consider searching for cross-court dribble hand-off opportunities as a safety outlet. In that case, when McConnell gets angled off, he could stay patient in the high-paint and wait for Walker or Siakam to sprint behind the drive for a well-timed hand-off in the paint. In theory, because Wembanyama would be occupied controlling the penetration, it might be more difficult for him to also pick up the switch out of random east-west motion.

At any rate, those types of shots turned out to be incredibly fastbreak-able for San Antonio, as the improved defense for the Pacers didn't exactly make the trip, with blocked shots turning into threes and layups at the other end. On Saturday, Turner might make more threes on the possessions when Wembanyama stays in the paint, and the Spurs probably won't overperform their expected effective field-goal from three (53.8 percent) by 21.2 percent again. Still, if the Pacers want to avoid the feeling of déjà vu that came with him repeatedly turning up on and around the ball, then before they say bon voyage to Paris, they would arguably be better off with more proactivity so as not to once again say c'est la vie with regard to Wembanyama.