Runaway McBride: Pacers go down 3-2 in series

And get toasted on the glass

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Never the bridesmaid, always the McBride -- it seems. With Tom Thibodeau making the adjustment to start plucky guard Deuce McBride in place of Precious Achiuwa, it wasn't exactly a night to remember for the Pacers, as they attempted 29 fewer shots than the New York Knicks while giving up 20 offensive rebounds for 27 second-chance points and committing 18 turnovers. Meanwhile, the damage that was incurred on the glass also served the duel purpose of limiting the Pacers in transition. During the regular season, the Chicago Bulls ranked last in the league in transition frequency, with only 12.7 percent of their possessions starting with a transition play. Last night, that number for the Pacers was 11.4 percent. Of course, the merging of both ends of the floor also seemed to apply to the play of Tyrese Haliburton, who only attempted nine shots while being face-guarded and denied by McBride. For the game, Haliburton recorded more picks as the screener defender (22) than as the ball-handler (15). In essence, he was hunted more often on defense than he initiated the offense, with the former seemingly impacting the latter.

For the sake of context, the Knicks forced him to defend more picks as the screener defender in Game 5 (22) than the Bucks did during the entirety of the first round (19). That's draining -- especially when he's expected to step out and show on pick-and-rolls, with the alternative being to forfeit the mismatch against Brunson, who amassed his fifth 40-point scoring performance of the playoffs. Despite some loud mistakes in the first half, with Haliburton reaching from behind and getting split, those possessions didn't necessary lead to efficient offense for New York, as they generated just 0.773 points per chance; however, the impact was certainly felt on the other end of the floor, where Haliburton could often be seen standing off from the play as decoy. To that point, if McBride's inclusion into the starting lineup was going to reorient the offense that much (it shouldn't have,) while also making it more difficult for the Pacers to shrink the floor at the other end (this is debatable), the fact that they also got bored on the boards was insurmountable.

Once again, here to break it all down is Samson Folk, who joins to discuss whether the impact of starting McBride should've been this impactful. Plus, extended thoughts on defending Brunson as a lefty, and other assorted banter to (hopefully) lighten the mood. Enjoy!

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introductions

3:14 - The standout possessions that convinced us the Pacers weren't going to win

5:00 - Losing the rebounding battle to a smaller team

5:16 - Difference in spacing with McBride in place of Achiuwa

7:11 - Letting the Knicks dictate the terms of the offense

15:07 - Guarding Tyrese by forcing him to guard

18:46 - My mispronunciations rubbing off Samson + the difference in our accents

21:22 - Reviewing Tyrese's show coverage

24:38 - Regression in Myles Turner's rim protection

29:06 - Jalen Brunson, good at basketball

32:57 - NYK having more options against Tyrese than the Pacers have against Brunson

33:30 - Not playing four-on-four enough with Siakam

33:49 - Do the Pacers realize that Brunson is a lefty?

42:28 - Getting bored on the boards

50:03 - Possible adjustments besides the obvious "play better"

53:48 - Samson quiet quits the podcast and quotes Tolkein

54:49 - Defending the honor of Indiana + banter to lighten the mood

1:00:33 - Thank you and goodbye