Official NBA General Discussion 2025-26 V1.0

[Brinbe]

if ihart is doing that, this is gonna be a sweep

[mdenny]

Hartenstien has been way better than chet so far.

[Brinbe]

they've completely wiped hali out of it. firmly in the dorture chamber

[sidsid]

You gotta love how relentless OKC's defence is.

Guys are always digging in on drives, have their hands/arms in passing lanes, contesting everything. Absolutely smothering - just a clinic of how to defend.

They force you to make the third pass, and that third pass ends up with a guy like Topping, or Nesmith, or whatever and they have to make a play and a decision. It's where a beautiful passing offense is forced to show what it's made of.

I've seen Nesmith and Toppin dribble more in this quarter than any full game the Knicks played

[sidsid]

Gotta say I'm surprised TJ has been effective here, but he is playing the Isaiah Joe minutes. Wonder if those will disappear entirely again.

[SFour]

OKC is built to win the championship, they tick alot of boxes...MVP superstar, elite defense, deep well balanced team.

Pacers don't have that elite defense that OKC has.

[PhilBlackson]

You gotta love how relentless OKC's defence is.

Guys are always digging in on drives, have their hands/arms in passing lanes, contesting everything. Absolutely smothering - just a clinic of how to defend.

They force you to make the third pass, and that third pass ends up with a guy like Topping, or Nesmith, or whatever and they have to make a play and a decision. It's where a beautiful passing offense is forced to show what it's made of.

I'm just impressed by how much relentless ball pressure they put on a team.

A guy tries to drive and there's literally 2-3 other dudes getting their hands in the lanes where it's almost impossible to get anywhere inside the 3pt line and when they're forced to pass out, the on ball defenders usually have their hands/arms in front of the ball to cause so many deflections or the pass becomes a rushed/bad one for another guy to shoot the gap and steal the ball. By the time someone thinks they might have a clean shot, OKC's guys are working/running so hard that they're still contesting it. It's truly smothering defence and I just remember waaaay back when I played highschool ball, anytime we played a tough defensive team that there was NOTHING more frustrating and that could take an entire team out of a game/turn on each other. If their top guys can remain healthy they can seriously become something of a dynasty.

[Boogie!]

Man pacers no shot. Siakam needs more touches

[sidsid]

JDub has been awful. And it hasn't mattered.

Edit: and he finally just drives to the rim instead of pulling up and gets FTs.

[dozo]

He would be similar to Hartenstein.

Really? He would be an all-star, a finalists for DPOY and 1st team all defense.

One stagnant year (@ 23yr) and people acting like he's peaked.

His stats were similar 2 JDub this year.

Jalen Williams shoots 37% from 3 and also has superior shot creation ability.

As a 2nd option playing along side the MVP of the league. Dort also guards the opposing teams best player.

Teams defensive schemes started with Scottie this season. Yes his shooting splits need improvement but that will come with repetition and practice.

[Brinbe]

pacers just getting beat at their own game

pascal does struggle against matchups like this though like when jaylen brown would always give him fits

[PushDaRock]

OKC is built to win the championship, they tick alot of boxes...MVP superstar, elite defense, deep well balanced team.

Pacers don't have that elite defense that OKC has.

nobody does

[PushDaRock]

OKC is built to win the championship, they tick alot of boxes...MVP superstar, elite defense, deep well balanced team.

Pacers don't have that elite defense that OKC has.

nobody does

[Boogie!]

Really? He would be an all-star, a finalists for DPOY and 1st team all defense.

One stagnant year (@ 23yr) and people acting like he's peaked.

His stats were similar 2 JDub this year.

Jalen Williams shoots 37% from 3 and also has superior shot creation ability.

As a 2nd option playing along side the MVP of the league. Dort also guards the opposing teams best player.

Teams defensive schemes started with Scottie this season. Yes his shooting splits need improvement but that will come with repetition and practice.

Scottie has played 4 seasons in the league and in his 4th year with freedom to do whatever the **** he wanted shot a historically bad 3 point percentage. I’m not sure how you’ve come to the conclusion that more reps and practice will make him better.

[djsunyc]

pascal is not a #1 dump it down scoring option. he will have trouble there

[mdenny]

Chet's lack of strength is really showing. He needs another 2 years of thickening up before he can be effective in intense games like this.

[Brinbe]

okc controlling things even while missing a ton of open looks

[WaltFrazier]

The score hasn't got away from Indy yet but feels like OKC can make a run out to 20 anytime

[sidsid]

okc controlling things even while missing a ton of open looks

They've been flat out bad on O, some poor decisions, and the Pacers are having a pretty good variance 3 game already at 43%. This could have been over early.

[mdenny]

Chet is the only guy that siakam and Turner have scored on in the paint.