Despite the Pacers' midseason tournament journey with a lot of highlights — no looking at bullet passes, empty layups, step-back threes, laughing and shouting — the Pacers should have marked this round in particular
Hield took a half-step towards Brook Lopez, so that Haliburton would have to go to the monster Brother Alphabet, who was a rampaging front-board machine.
Haliburton didn't back down. He used his body to resist Brother Alphabet and made a clear card position, and this action was enough to destroy Brother Alphabet's rebounding rush;Brother Alphabet grabbed the rebound and went out of bounds.
The Pacers' explosive offense will allow them to win a lot of games — maybe a playoff series. The Pacers' game is a carnival.
And the NBA's carnival of fun comes to an abrupt end in the playoffs, or at least in the second round. The competition will be more important, the confrontation will be more intense, and the team will be more **. Rotations will be shorter and scouting reports will be more targeted. Teams that only walk on one leg will start to fall. In order to win at this level, even the leading scoring team needs to play dirtier, play harder, and defend more. They need star players to show attitude like this round.
Pacers coach Carlisle told ESPN that the Pacers did show the round in a video lesson before playing the Lakers in the midseason tournament finals.
It's a round that can win for the team, and it's not favored by the stats," Carlisle said, adding that the round will be counted as a team rebound.
Curry is a player that people would use as an example," Carlisle continued. "He's going to keep getting better, and he's really getting to the point where he's doing everything on himself. That's where Haliburton continues to grow. He's moving in the same direction as Curry. ”
Considering the level of play, the Pacers knocked out the Celtics and Bucks in the tournament round, two of their best defensive games of the entire season. They still make mistakes;They are so small that teammates bump into each other in the rotation after the two-man attack.
But they raised their defensive intensity. They'll be able to control the wall more easily, and they'll be able to defend the right shooter with all their might, and they'll make more rotations. They used the tournament as a springboard for growth – an opportunity to prove that they are capable of doing bigger things – and reminded us of what the young Suns accomplished in the park in 2020.
The Suns abruptly transitioned on the Orlando campus — and they were more sure of their quality and knew they could beat the big team. We'll know in the coming months if Las Vegas can have the same catalytic effect on the Pacers.