Game 25 : Indiana Pacers (12-12) @ Brooklyn Nets (14-12) - 8:00 PM

[ducler]

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[Topofthekey]

Lol, did Nets really play the imperial march when they introduced Pacers' starting lineup

I mean, that's awesome

[Topofthekey]

Commentator: "And it's rebounded by... (checks his notes) Bitadze"

It was obvious Goga was the one who got the rebound, but there was a noticeable pause before the commentator said his name. I imagine that's because Goga is still quite an obscure player for most people

[Vorda]

This is bad... we dont have offensive game any more... we are only playing solo actions with players who are to limited to play that... we will not reach PO this year

[pacers33granger]

This is bad... we dont have offensive game any more... we are only playing solo actions with players who are to limited to play that... we will not reach PO this year

Our offense is not good. But we saw early on shades of what it could be. The main problem is that we've thrust numerous guys into roles that ask them to do too much. A fully healthy team, if we ever have one, will relieve most of those issues. And it really can't be helping that the one coach who had been around the team for a few years is gone.

[Topofthekey]

This is bad... we dont have offensive game any more... we are only playing solo actions with players who are to limited to play that... we will not reach PO this year

Our offense is not good. But we saw early on shades of what it could be. The main problem is that we've thrust numerous guys into roles that ask them to do too much. A fully healthy team, if we ever have one, will relieve most of those issues. And it really can't be helping that the one coach who had been around the team for a few years is gone.

I think I've managed to distill the team's offensive woes down to one single issue: underwhelming 3pt shooting

It's obvious that much of the team's offense hinges on Domas, on his ability to score inside and his ability to find his teammates for open/quality shots

Opponents know this, and have responded by playing very aggressive defense on Domas. Either throwing a zone at the Pacers to deny Domas space to play inside, or aggressively swarming and mobbing Domas when he does try to work near the basket

As good as Domas is right now, he still isn't equipped (yet) to deal with this kind of attention. So he's not young Shaq or prime Olajuwon, basically. Which is fine, because the problem isn't that Domas isn't the second coming of Hakeem Olajuwon. The problem is, Pacers aren't a very good 3pt shooting team right now. They currently rank 13th in terms of 3pt fg% as a team, which isn't bad, but far from good either

The easiest way to punish opponents when they try to zone up or double and triple team Domas in the post, is simply to stick those 3pt daggers at them. But the team is failing in this regard

Brogdon is shooting it at 38.7%. Doug is shooting is at 36.1%. Myles is shooting it at 33.9%. Aaron is at 32.6%

Those are NOT good numbers for them

Compare that to the key players of the current best team in the league, the Jazz

Joe Ingles is 44.4%, Royce O'neal is 43%, and Bogdanovich is 40.7%. Even Donovan Mitchell and Jordan Clarkson are at 39.7% and 37.1% respectively

Over almost 30 games, I don't think it's fluke. I think Jazz has somehow found a way to help their players shoot the 3pt better

Especially for Mitchell and Clarkson, who have historically not been considered as good shooters

For the Pacers, it's almost the opposite. Players are shooting worse than they usually do. It's almost like the Pacers are in a collective shooting slump. But when it's lasted almost 30 games, is it still a slump, or is it an indication of a problem?

FWIW, Justin and Lamb are the only two Pacers who have so far shot it well, though the sample size for Lamb is still a bit small

I don't know what the problem behind this shooting slump is though

But I think this is the string that Pacers should be tugging at

Improve the 3pt shooting of the team, and everything else will fall into place, I think

[Scoot McGroot]

I don't know what the problem behind this shooting slump is though

But I think this is the string that Pacers should be tugging at

Improve the 3pt shooting of the team, and everything else will fall into place, I think

Well, I think part of it is that we dealt Oladipo, who was hitting 36% from 3 at a MASSIVE volume of almost 8 attempts a night, for Levert, who hasn't played yet for us. It's almost as if we traded Victor for nothing so far, and Vic played his last game for us on January 11.

Otherwise, for the most part, guys shot well in January, and are shooting terribly in February. Turner has actually shot almost 38% since he started the season shooting 4/22 from 3 in his 5 December games, so he's shooting better than it looks. Levert has shot 35% on over 5 attempts from 3 a night. Lamb and Justin will come back down to Earth, I'm sure (though I hope not!). Warren would help, too.

But all of that is ignoring that it appears that Victor Oladipo, or a similar dynamic ball handling wing, helped us an awful lot more than we thought offensively.

[pacers33granger]

But all of that is ignoring that it appears that Victor Oladipo, or a similar dynamic ball handling wing, helped us an awful lot more than we thought offensively.

Yeah at the end of the day it's not the sexiest answer and is one that we've heard seemingly for years, but the team isn't and hasn't been healthy. If someone told us we'd deal Vic 1/4 way through the season for nothing (as it stands now at least) and would lose another starter almost instantly, we'd be hardpressed to argue we should be .500 imo.

We're relying heavily on two wings we expected to be coming off the bench in Justin and Doug. Realistically, once fully healthy, it could be argued that those two are our 4/5th wings after TJ, LeVert, and Lamb (if you subscribe to Lamb being the 6th man). Once healthy there isn't some sort of giant upgrade from Doug/Justin to Caris/TJ but it's definitely a noticeable upgrade nonetheless and reinforces depth.

[Topofthekey]

I don't know what the problem behind this shooting slump is though

But I think this is the string that Pacers should be tugging at

Improve the 3pt shooting of the team, and everything else will fall into place, I think

Well, I think part of it is that we dealt Oladipo, who was hitting 36% from 3 at a MASSIVE volume of almost 8 attempts a night, for Levert, who hasn't played yet for us. It's almost as if we traded Victor for nothing so far, and Vic played his last game for us on January 11.

Otherwise, for the most part, guys shot well in January, and are shooting terribly in February. Turner has actually shot almost 38% since he started the season shooting 4/22 from 3 in his 5 December games, so he's shooting better than it looks. Levert has shot 35% on over 5 attempts from 3 a night. Lamb and Justin will come back down to Earth, I'm sure (though I hope not!). Warren would help, too.

But all of that is ignoring that it appears that Victor Oladipo, or a similar dynamic ball handling wing, helped us an awful lot more than we thought offensively.

I think where Vic helped was that even though he wasn't 100%, he still had enough gravity that the opponent had to dedicate enough attention to him

With someone like Vic on the floor, the opponent legitimately had to divide their attention between preventing Domas from doing work inside, and also covering Vic so that he doesn't punish them with a big scoring night. Opponents couldn't concentrate on stopping just one of them, because that would likely come at the expense of being punished by the other one

Without Vic, life became a lot easier for the opponents, who knew that they simply had to stop Domas first and foremost. Once they manage to slow down Domas, the next best offensive player on the Pacers is Brogdon, and while he's competent, he isn't the usual type of big time scorer who can explode for 30 something points and carry the team to a win if left unchecked

That is why with Domas being the primary (only?) scoring threat, it is important for his teammates to support him by stretching the defense for him, which they so far have not done very well