Draymond Green, Shaun Livingston, and Baron Davis break down how the Pacers can defend Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the Finals. SGA shot 14 mid-range attempts at 51% in Game 1. The panel focuses on riding him on his hip, forcing him left, and timing help defense to disrupt his passing lanes.
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SGA, to the point, he finished with 38, made 14 mid-range jumpers in game 1.
Damn.
He lead the league in mid-range jumpers. He shoot the mid-range at 51%. Obviously I watched you destroy guys with the middie, get fouled every time, every game, once a game at least you getting fouled on the middie.
Yeah, yeah.
Do you think that ultimately it could still be as effective versus the threes in today's game?
No. You need a diversity of play in today's game. And I say that because of just the way the game rules have changed as well.
Mm-hmm.
And then the way that we prioritize the analytics in today's game.
That's right.
And so with that roster construction, you know, will be built around, you know, spacing the floor, taking the best shots, being more efficient. And you know, again, we come from a different cloth a little bit from different eras of how we played inside out, right? And that train has left the station, fellas, and it's not coming back. You know, I think until, you know, I think you had Jokic, you got Embiid, you got guys that are dominant in the post. But again, these guys can shoot threes, right? And, you know, again, they, they can playmake out of the post. So you look at what SGA does. He had 38. How many threes did he take? He took 6 threes as well. Yeah.
Right.
So, you know, he can also burn you off the dribble from the 3. You gotta respect it. So now he can get you on his hip. And for a middie guy, that's where you want him.
Yeah.
On your hip, create space, get to your slot. And it was looking beautiful out there. But no, I think you definitely need more diversity in play because of how fast the game is now. And you gotta keep the defense guessing.
Yeah. I think you speak about getting the guy on your hip for the middie. I actually think if I'm guarding Shea, I'm sending him left, I'm riding his right arm, and I'm not recovering on the drive. So if he wanna go to the rim every time and try to shoot a layup, I'm gonna have my help come over late. And when I had a help come over late, because Shaq can pass the ball, but he not a passer like last second, or, "Oh, you come help last second dish." He ain't passing it like that. Like once he get his mind on scoring and going to the rim, he getting to the cup. And so I'll help late. And anytime he start driving left, I'm not cutting him off. We used to do it, the J.R. Smith dot, because he wanted to step back. Obviously, Shaq's a totally different player. Right. Player to JR, but it's certain guys, Lou Will, where you don't cut him off because they looking to stop and shoot the step back. And Shea is like that. And if you get your body in front of him, he gonna shoulder you. And if he miss with that shoulder, he gonna forearm you and he get away with that.
That's right.
And so you can't get in front of him because you take your helper out of the picture and he just shooting a wide open middie every time. I think you actually should ride the hip on him. When we played Boston in the finals, Finals a few years back. I noticed something in playing against them, and we put this rule in, in the series. I noticed that Jaylen Brown could pass, but if you help early on him, he couldn't make the pass. Like, he wasn't— Mm-hmm. At that time he wasn't strong making the pass if you helped up early. So with him, we would help up soon as he started driving, we would help up early. With JT, we know he would make the pass early. So we helped late, like right at the rim, we helped on JT. And it gets that detail done at this point. That's right. And okay, and I think Indiana, that's something that they need to figure out. Do not get in front of Shai. Get him left. Don't get in front of him. Just ride the right arm and force him all the way to the rim. You got Myles Turner at the rim. You got Thomas Bryant at the rim. You got Obi Toppin at the rim. Is he gonna hit enough layups to beat you? And another thing with those layups, when he go and take those tough layups, he fall down. Well, guess what? Indiana, that's to their advantage, 'cause they getting out running.
Right.
You get the ball off, it's one pass, boom. He getting up off the floor, you running. And so I think, you know, when I look at that and I hear you say, like, you wanna get that guy on your hip, Doc, your jump shot was like this.
So you—
You couldn't even get it. I'm sorry, y'all, my elbows might be a little—
I was scared of that man.
Hey, man. You get your shot up here and a guy get on your side, it really don't matter because your shot was way up here. Chase shot not way up there like that. And so if that guy ride his hip like that, —It could bother him a little bit, I think.
But he does. Yeah, go ahead, BD.
No, go ahead, go ahead, fill that in.
I was gonna say just real quick, he does like to get to that spot. I honestly think he likes to go left with the middie because it's right shoulder, right lane to the spot. However, when you bring the help, now you give him something to think about. And as we know, so you getting me back, I feel like I'm in the foxhole again. So I'm starting to get, starting to sweat a little bit. Uh, would you— we know it's only a couple guys that can make that type of pass, you know, on time, on target, because when you bring in the double, it's only a few guys, one, that they get double teamed often, so they have to read it. They know it's coming. They know where the outlets are. But the Draymond Green, the Luka Dončić, the guys that can really, you know, make that drive and then hit the open man, right? Because if we know that we're doubling the back line is already, we already thinking, okay, I'm in rotation. You see what I'm saying? So I'm sinking, I'm ready to shoot out, I'm, I'm ready to fill. So that's interesting cuz he does want to get to that baseline and he will pull up. But if you bring the help, now what is, what is his next move? Right? Exactly. You know, so that's interesting.
Just to play devil's advocate, If you the coach of OKC, right? To your point about the middie, it's hard to get to the middie because everybody's on the perimeter.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
That's a fact. You play your bigs and you get your bigs sitting down in the block, you gonna have space to iso.
Mm-hmm.
And so it creates a different dynamic because you got pe— now you got a couple people below the free throw line in the ghost area and now, But for SGA, he can operate in that elbow, that 15, 16 foot. 'Cause I say for you, S-Dot, with the Warriors, which y'all was so good at, y'all would push the break, kick ahead to you, and you already had 10 feet. You was already at 10 feet.
I'm good.
Right, right. With a one-on-one with action on the backside. And so for OKC, they gotta play these big dudes down the stretch because if you play 5 out, you play small, Shay can't get to his, he can't get to the midi. He gotta go all the way to the hole. You can't get to the midi 'cause everybody is hovering around the perimeter.
Absolutely.
That's a good point. That's a good point. Lastly, just to follow that up, Draymond, I don't know if you remember this. We played obviously the 2016, and I hate the, I hate talking about, you know, the 20 points in that game 1 'cause we lost, so who cares? The series, but we lost 2016 to Cleveland. We come 2017 and you know, the Cavs, they're playing kind of the same way, but they're playing, they're, they're actually a better team.
Mm-hmm.
And I remember at the time we got KD and Kyrie, the way that he plays, the way that he burnt us really in those, that, that game 5, game 7. Getting to his spots. And if you watch, you know, being able to, you know, like, I mean, he comes from Kobe school in that way. Footwork, spin, fade, right? Like getting to spots. And I feel like I remember Steve talking about, we were watching film and it's like, you guys that are at the nail, if you could get in and contest from the behind, from the backside, right? That real contest. —a rearview contest. And I remember K getting a couple of those, Draymond Green getting a couple of those, and just— so that's something to think about with Indiana, right? Just being in those kind of— in those pockets. It's, you know, it's hard because you don't want to foul and a guy's— or whatnot. But it's just something to think about. And to me, that's where OKC— I'm watching them in the first half. I'm like, ah, damn, these boys everywhere because they sinking, they— They're rotating. If you turn your back, they own you. You know, they biting down, ha ha, you know what I'm saying? And they got hands. And so I'm just, you know, that's just kind of the game within the game where you go back, you watch the film, you see how you can, you know, how you can improve on those shots.
Absolutely. Nah, I agree with that 100%. Like, in Indiana, I think they get an opportunity to watch this film too. I think they'll pick up on some of those little nuances, you know, and that, those little things like, You make Shay think about an extra shot or two like this, that can change an entire game, which one game can change an entire series. So you have to pick up on those little nuances.
