The Pacers have the best offense I've ever seen

[He_Got_Game]

Indiana has the best offense I've ever seen and I'm not even joking. I honestly don't know where they are actually ranked on offense but I don't really care. I trust my eyes on this one. I'm a Celtics fan and I saw them do this to us last year in the playoffs, then again this past regular season, and again to other teams this playoffs. Their offense is practically unstoppable. They always shoot like 55+ percent from the two AND from three. They never stop running and always put up near 120 in all of their games. Andrew Nembhard turns into Michael Jordan hitting tough middies and tough threes.

I really don't think Cleveland is going to survive this series. There aren't many teams that will be able to keep up with their offense other than the Celtics.

[cpower]

Now imagine a Pacers Rockets series :O

[Mavrelous]

Rick Calisle is an offense genius and he has some amazing tools to work with in addition Hali, great backup in McConnel, stretch 5 in Turner and some great athletes who can shoot.

[ballzboyee]

I wasn't too worried for Cleveland until the camera cut the shot of Carlisle, and I realized this Pacers squad is one of thooose teams. Okaaay. I still think Cleveland pulls out a W for the series.

[Knicks365247]

Pacers play beautiful ****ing basketball. Simple as that. Complete team poetry.

I got them 80-1 to title.
It’s currently 40-1 on FD.
They’re going all the way!

[runtmc]

Indiana has the best offense I've ever seen and I'm not even joking. I honestly don't know where they are actually ranked on offense but I don't really care. I trust my eyes on this one. I'm a Celtics fan and I saw them do this to us last year in the playoffs, then again this past regular season, and again to other teams this playoffs. Their offense is practically unstoppable. They always shoot like 55+ percent from the two AND from three. They never stop running and always put up near 120 in all of their games. Andrew Nembhard turns into Michael Jordan hitting tough middies and tough threes.

I really don't think Cleveland is going to survive this series. There aren't many teams that will be able to keep up with their offense other than the Celtics.

Indiana had the 9th best offense in the league... this season. They shot 49% FG and 37% 3p this year. Also, they shot 55%+ from 3p --- no times this season. Not once. Including the playoffs. Including tonight. In fact, they only shot 50% or better from 3p 3 times in the RS, and once in the playoffs (tonight), their best game being 17/32 against MIA (53%).

Edit: as I mentioned in a follow-up post I was wrong about this, but leaving the original in since some have quoted it. IND did shoot 55%+ twice this season, and 50%+ 4 times (5 including last night). Woops. Mea Culpa. The rest of the stats are correct though I believe, and the general point still stands, although Indy's night wasnt quite as much of an outlier as I first thought.

Tonight against CLE would rank as their 2nd best 3p% shooting game of the season. Thats just some extremely lucky shooting for them tonight -- the shooting gods were smiling on them. Fact is, every offense looks good when you shoot 50%+ from 3. In fact, if they had shot their season avg from 3, they would have had 18 less points and lost the game.

Meanwhile, CLE, the best offense in the league by a good margin, and the 2nd best 3p% team, shot under 24% -- or their 6th worst shooting night from 3 on the season. If they had shot their season average, they would have made 5 more 3s, and scored 15 more points, and won the game.

If *either* team had just shot average on the night, instead of IND on fire and CLE stinking it up -- CLE wins. If *both* teams had shot their average, it would have been a 33 point swing, and CLE would have won by 24. Its honestly a really, really bad sign for IND that they only won by 9 on a night they have their 2nd best shooting night of the season from 3p and CLE has their 6th worst.

If CLE gets hot from 3, and IND shoots poorly from 3, it could be a 30-40 point blowout, and I expect that will happen at least once this series.

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

Indiana has the best offense I've ever seen and I'm not even joking. I honestly don't know where they are actually ranked on offense but I don't really care. I trust my eyes on this one. I'm a Celtics fan and I saw them do this to us last year in the playoffs, then again this past regular season, and again to other teams this playoffs. Their offense is practically unstoppable. They always shoot like 55+ percent from the two AND from three. They never stop running and always put up near 120 in all of their games. Andrew Nembhard turns into Michael Jordan hitting tough middies and tough threes.

I really don't think Cleveland is going to survive this series. There aren't many teams that will be able to keep up with their offense other than the Celtics.

Indiana had the 9th best offense in the league... this season. They shot 49% FG and 37% 3p this year. Also, they shot 55%+ from 3p --- no times this season. Not once. Including the playoffs. Including tonight. In fact, they only shot 50% or better from 3p 3 times in the RS, and once in the playoffs (tonight), their best game being 17/32 against MIA (53%).

Tonight against CLE would rank as their 2nd best 3p% shooting game of the season. Thats just some extremely lucky shooting for them tonight -- the shooting gods were smiling on them. Fact is, every offense looks good when you shoot 50%+ from 3. In fact, if they had shot their season avg from 3, they would have had 18 less points and lost the game.

Meanwhile, CLE, the best offense in the league by a good margin, and the 2nd best 3p% team, shot under 24% -- or their 6th worst shooting night from 3 on the season. If they had shot their season average, they would have made 5 more 3s, and scored 15 more points, and won the game.

If *either* team had just shot average on the night, instead of IND on fire and CLE stinking it up -- CLE wins. If *both* teams had shot their average, it would have been a 33 point swing, and CLE would have won by 24. Its honestly a really, really bad sign for IND that they only won by 9 on a night they have their 2nd best shooting night of the season from 3p and CLE has their 6th worst.

If CLE gets hot from 3, and IND shoots poorly from 3, it could be a 30-40 point blowout, and I expect that will happen at least once this series.

I’m not arguing with you as a lot of that is fair to say, but also, I doubt the Pacers turn the ball over again, like they did tonight as well. All about checks and balances and such.

[TheGOATRises007]

You are a Celtics fan

Your team literally has a better offense

[Bloodbather]

Pump the brakes on the hot take, bud. They're a good offense that looks great when they're hitting 3s at a high clip. They ranked 9th on offense in the RS.

The only team in the league that's elite at an all-time level on offense is Boston whom you supposedly support.

[runtmc]

Indiana has the best offense I've ever seen and I'm not even joking. I honestly don't know where they are actually ranked on offense but I don't really care. I trust my eyes on this one. I'm a Celtics fan and I saw them do this to us last year in the playoffs, then again this past regular season, and again to other teams this playoffs. Their offense is practically unstoppable. They always shoot like 55+ percent from the two AND from three. They never stop running and always put up near 120 in all of their games. Andrew Nembhard turns into Michael Jordan hitting tough middies and tough threes.

I really don't think Cleveland is going to survive this series. There aren't many teams that will be able to keep up with their offense other than the Celtics.

Indiana had the 9th best offense in the league... this season. They shot 49% FG and 37% 3p this year. Also, they shot 55%+ from 3p --- no times this season. Not once. Including the playoffs. Including tonight. In fact, they only shot 50% or better from 3p 3 times in the RS, and once in the playoffs (tonight), their best game being 17/32 against MIA (53%).

Tonight against CLE would rank as their 2nd best 3p% shooting game of the season. Thats just some extremely lucky shooting for them tonight -- the shooting gods were smiling on them. Fact is, every offense looks good when you shoot 50%+ from 3. In fact, if they had shot their season avg from 3, they would have had 18 less points and lost the game.

Meanwhile, CLE, the best offense in the league by a good margin, and the 2nd best 3p% team, shot under 24% -- or their 6th worst shooting night from 3 on the season. If they had shot their season average, they would have made 5 more 3s, and scored 15 more points, and won the game.

If *either* team had just shot average on the night, instead of IND on fire and CLE stinking it up -- CLE wins. If *both* teams had shot their average, it would have been a 33 point swing, and CLE would have won by 24. Its honestly a really, really bad sign for IND that they only won by 9 on a night they have their 2nd best shooting night of the season from 3p and CLE has their 6th worst.

If CLE gets hot from 3, and IND shoots poorly from 3, it could be a 30-40 point blowout, and I expect that will happen at least once this series.

I’m not arguing with you as a lot of that is fair to say, but also, I doubt the Pacers turn the ball over again, like they did tonight as well. All about checks and balances and such.

Absolutely a reasonable point -- CLE was +16 in TO + OREB differential tonight, and based on RS performance, should have been more like +1-2, so they probably got ~18 or so points more compared to average based on TO + OREB. OTOH, just shooting avg from 3 (let alone FG% or FTA) would have been a 33 point swing, so they still would have won by 6 with both teams having avg TO + OREB + 3p shooting. Bottom line, if everything holds to season averages, CLE should win handily -- they were a +9.2 RTG differential vs IND's +2.2 after all.

My point was more to OP, that it wasn't really special offense by IND so much as a hot shooting night from 3p.

[basketballwacko2]

The Pacers are deep and talented they'll run the legs off most teams. They had a great game one vs the Cavs if they can do that in game 2 they'll win this series, I have them winning in 6 but could be 5.

[UcanUwill]

Man, they really acquired Haliburton for their secondary center. They had 9th. offensive rating in the NBA this season tho, 4th. so far in the play offs, of course they didn't play complete chumps like Miami.

[Astaluego]

Rick already had a historically good offense recently with the Mavs... so he seems to be the common denominator here... quietly arguably one of the best coaches in history...

[Sign5]

Ppl saying Celtics and yes they are better on paper but they're extremely predictable on offense, it's just that the majority of teams still can't stop em. Similarly to a healthy Zion who you know is gonna drive to the rim 95% of the time but you still can't stop em from getting in the paint.

With the Pacers they kinda play like headless chickens, just constantly moving and you just don't know what shot they're gonna take as its always so quick and fluid.

They constantly keep the defense on their toes and that play style will fair well against even the most stout defensive teams as they're not gonna allow a team to fully set their defense up (consistently).

Helps that they have an elite floor general like Haliburton and we know Rick himself is a top tier offensive coach and does a great job implementing his schemes.

[durden_tyler]

They’re good but not great. Cavs’ defense was atrocious in G1 and they should recover and win this series.


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[Thanos1985]

Watched all 5 games with my Bucks and yesterday game. The think is that they are so so well coached, they almost never take stupid shots and they almost always try to find the mismatch. And what their point guard luck in athletisim or pure shooting, it balances it with orchistrating an offence where all can be involved and great passing.Coaching is the key. Rivers took him 5 games to adjust. Yesterday Cavs was better with one of Allen and Mobley in .Their coach ignored it and lost them the game. You put 2 Center like players , they will run you around and score open 3s. The shot selection , when time runs out in the offence they prefere to have a distant 3 than a very contested 2 , that maybe has same percentage to go in , but maths are on their side. Also they have right mentality and pretty good luck so far, hitting huge shots in huge moments.

[cupcakesnake]

With the Pacers, you never know where it's going to come from. You can go all out to harass Haliburton into an awful shooting night, but it's like they don't even care, they'll kick to the weakside with Siakam and run a whole other offense. They can run pick & roll with various combinations, and also have several ways to create mismatches and attack them.

The big difference though this year is the team isn't helpless on defense. They're not elite but they have plenty of defensive personnel.

Carlisle in the best playoff coach I've ever seen.

[Johnny Fontane]

Sigh. Celtics are about to be in the Finals again aren’t they

[JujitsuFlip]

They remind me a lot of the Nash Suns. Outside of Turner they play really small and really fast.

The big difference is Carlisle plays 11 guys every night, where MDA played 7 or 8.

If you can't stop their easy transition buckets and secondary transition buckets, you're going to lose.

I was not overly impressed by their half court offense. Lots of unforced turnovers and some tough contested buckets made.

They know their strengths and play to em.

[RHODEY]

Pacers have the best offense I have ever seen..... against teams missing their best players.