In this conversational reaction video, Draymond Green, Baron Davis, and a third panelist (Speaker C/Sean) break down Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The discussion centers on Tyrese Haliburton’s clutch play, the Pacers’ “green‑light” philosophy that spreads offensive freedom across the roster, and the role of Pascal Siakam as the go‑to scorer in high‑pressure moments. They critique Indiana’s 19 first‑half turnovers, note the limited points off those mistakes, and compare the scoring distribution to the 2015 Warriors‑Cavaliers Game 1. The panel examines coaching adjustments, especially Rick Carlisle’s late‑game sub of Miles Turner for Obi Toppin and Mark Daigneault’s decision to run a super‑small lineup, discussing the chess‑like matchup battles between small and big lineups, three‑point shooting trends, and cross‑matchup problems. Throughout, the tone is conversational and analytical, with enthusiasm for the players’ skillsets, criticism of missed opportunities, and optimism about how both teams might adjust in the series.
Chapters
We just watched Game 1 of the NBA Finals. I know y'all watched it, I watched it.
Crazy.
I mean, I think just initially getting into it, Halle does it again, BD.
What do you expect?
He does it again.
What do you expect? I mean, it's—
I'm here watching with my boy Cheese, BD, and I say, "Cheese, he ain't about to do it, he not about to do it." He about to do it again, bro. Oh my God.
Man, it was crazy 'cause they just keep fighting, man. And when Nembhard, I think he airballed the 3, Pascal laid it up, it was like, uh-oh, they down 1. They just set theyself up. And I mean, Halliburton, that's prime time. That's prime time Halliburton. He knocking 'em down. He's Mr. Clutch. He's Mr. Clutch in the playoffs, man. What's your thought on that, Sean? Did you watch that?
Yeah, man. I mean, I wanted to kick it to y'all because you've been in those pressure situations. Like when you watching Halliburton, do you feel like he needs to do more in that fourth quarter? Are you watching him and say like, where is he at? And then he just pop up like, you know, like, man, he just— and it's something about too hitting those shots in prior series that it's like, okay, I've been here before. Like when it come to me, I'm ready. But— I'm watching the game, I hear, you know, I'm listening to the broadcast. They're like, "Your best player has to be better." You know, they ready to dig in and narrative on him. And then boom. There you go. Right. Like what do y'all see when y'all watching like the last 6 minutes of that fourth for a star player?
I think in an ideal world, you wanna see your star player take over the game. Like you wanna see him. The reality is, Halle not really that dude. Like, he that dude as far as like the player that he is, but he not, when I say he not that dude, like he not gonna go look to score every time. That's just not his mindset. He looking to get everybody involved.
Right.
That's how they team play. And so, I think when it comes to Halle, Everybody want him to be something that he not. And like, I mean, I got the utmost love and respect for his game, but he not Shea. I think the guy who that is for them is actually Siakam. Like Siakam is, when in the high pressure moments, like mid of the game, 8 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, Hallie gonna give you some games because he got the ball and he making the plays and he just get it going. But Siakam is the guy that they go to to settle things down, you know? And that's the role that he plays for them. That team. So I think, yes, in an ideal world, you always gonna wanna see the ball in your best player hands. And what I will say is, can Halle go get the ball more and get them into more things and be more demonstrative during that window about getting them into things and making the plays? Yes, he could, but that's the guard, man. The ball move.
They don't rock like, yeah, they don't really rock like that. Like the, and Draymond Green, we talked about this in the Milwaukee series. I said, Indiana not scared of nobody because everybody is green. Everybody got a green light. Nimhard got a green light. Kne Smith got a green light. Miles Turner can shoot the ball. Obi Toppins can make play. Like they all have a, they all got a freedom that's different and they style of play. So for Halliburton, he trying to unleash that freedom. So you forget about him. And I think that's a sign of a good point guard is you forget that he's controlling the game or trying to control the tempo or recreate a tempo. So then when he do have the ball, you like, "Oh, he cold, he ain't been in the moment." But he living, he almost like setting it up for the dramatic to live in that moment. And he got big, he like big lights. Yeah.
Right.
It's only, I mean, it's just certain players that's like that over the history of the league. It's like no matter how big the moment and the lights, especially when you in a situation, you down one, you got nothing to lose. Like the lights get bigger and your bravado get bigger. And I think that's especially the type of shots he shoot, right? The shot he shot against the Knicks where he went out dribbled out to the 3 and shot a 3 and made it. And now you look at this one, he's just set, he's just setting the table and they freedom allow him to kind of be a disguise. So he don't need to, he don't need to push too much. He can, he can be a little bit more aggressive and looking for his offensive game. But the way he operate that offense and the way that they play with freedom, they got other people who make plays. And to your point, Siakam, he's another dude that plays with freedom that you not really looking at and saying like, damn man, we gotta stop Siakam. 'Cause he, he, he, he gets a lot of intangibles, offensive rebound, putbacks, leak outs, right? You know, secondary trail, one-on-one, iso pull-ups. So all they stuff is in flow. It, it— Yeah. They're a tough team 'cause they not scared and they got, they got offensive firepower.
And everybody eats, B.
Yes.
And like it's, and I like what you said about him being a disguise, right? 'Cause it's like, this is who he is. I mean, that's honestly why I really liked his game coming out in the draft because he is a pass first. That's his personality. That is his mindset. I just, you know, I look I look at him and I'm like, man, okay, Siakam won the MVP for the Western Conference Finals. Is Siakam that effective without Halliburton? Meaning those hockey assists, we talk about that, right? We had— Yeah. When we played, right, Dey Dey, it was like, how many passes can we get? And it wasn't just like, just a pass it around the perimeter. It was more of just the feel, the energy to the ball. And it's like, when you kicking it ahead, you know this, BD, you the scorer, it's like, man, you kick it ahead, you get somebody going, somebody kick it ahead to you, you like, oh, all right, cool, he rocking with me, let's go. Like, and I just, I look at that team, one, they, they're never out of it. The three, the power of the three-point shooting. You know, you look at their bigs and Miles, Obi Toppin, Siakam, space the floor.
Even Thomas Bryant hit threes.
Thomas Bryant hitting corner threes. So, I think the adjustments looking at this next game, you look at OKC, they had to take their bigs out because of the 3 balls that they, the 3s that they were giving up. Do they do that the next game? You know, like they, they already went smaller, but when Indy goes small, they are big.
Yeah.
Draymond Green got 2 offensive boards in the 4th quarter that were big. One he got and then another one he scores, Shaden box him out, right? Yeah.
Yeah.
And so you just looking at some of those plays, like they're, they're winning on some of those different plays where they have, you know, a bigger lineup when they are small because Miles can stretch, Siakam can stretch. Toppin hit 5 threes, right? He started out a little shaky, but he settled in.
Yes.
And I was watching and I'm, I'm like, man, Indy, if they could settle into this game, slow down, cuz they play fast.— you know, they, they were still right in striking distance.
Yeah, the whole time. They were the whole time. Having 19 turnovers in the first half, which is insane.
Crazy.
They were still only down 10 points. And I'm looking at them, I'm like, yo, they turning the ball over like this. They got 47 points and they've created 19 turnovers. That's not good. Like, you, you, you not capitalizing on none of that. And I think they ended up with 9, like they had 9, they had 9, they had 9 points off those turnovers in the first half. And so it never really affected OKC. I mean, Indiana the way it should have. And I think when I look at what they just did, Kneese Smith, 10 points. Siakam, 19 points. Myles Turner, 15 points. Imhard, 14 points. Halliburton, 14 points. Obi Toppin, 17 points.
Everybody eating.
That game reminds me of game 1, 2015 NBA Finals. And Doc, you were our leading scorer. You had 20.. And all the rest of us, 17, 19, 17, 14, 15. Steph ain't had a crazy game. Klay ain't had a crazy game. And we won the game that way, which set a tone for us in that series. You know, and they just did that. And regardless of all the things that happened. And so, you know, when you speak on OKC taking their bigs out, my only thing with that would be, They had an 8-point lead when they took their bigs out the game. Absolutely.
Yeah.
And like, you're not gonna out-3 Indiana. That's not what OKC does. Like, and so, you know, when I watched the end of that game, like, yes, players make plays, but you know, Sean, and both me and Doc, we had the pleasure of having, when you get in that moment, Steve coming through. And Steve is a magician in those moments. Right. The better Steve gets. And you know, this Mark Dagnall first NBA Finals game. This ain't Rick Carlisle first rodeo. Rick Carlisle a champion.
That's right.
And Rick Carlisle made the subs that he need to make. He pulled Miles Turner at 3:07 and put Obi Toppin in.
That's right.
He playing chess and Mark Dagnall pulled his bigs out and thought that, and went super small. And like to your point, you said even when they small, they still pretty strong.
They bigger than you, yes.
You know, that ain't to their strength. Their strength is check, their strength is Harden style, and you gotta roll with that. You not gonna outdo them at what they do. And so.
Agreed.
And you know what messed, and this what messed the Knicks up to your point, S Dot, is, you get cross-match.
Yep.
So when you cross-match with Indiana, it creates crazy matchup problems. That's why the Knicks couldn't find no pick and rolls when they had Karl-Anthony Towns at the 5. It's like, they flying down the court now faster than you. And the point guard is 6'7". So now, okay, see, you playing small, but like you said, Indiana is a bigger team. And so when you running back and you cross match, now that's how you, they didn't call a timeout. You got Wallace, Halliburton, no Lou Dort, right?
Yep.
And so they are, and credit to Rick Carlisle because you gotta know when to make that sub to kind of throw the game off, to kind of, to throw it in your favor.
Absolutely.
And they gonna, they're going to win the small lineup. Because everybody on they team rebound. Pascal Siakam, he get garbage, dirty rebounds, putbacks. Halliburton rebounds well from a point guard position. Neesmith, he flying over, he just flying everywhere, right? And so that's the big difference is you can't match up with them in transition and set your defense. And that's how they came back. Yeah.
That's a great call out. And I, and honestly, that's how they got those threes because across match. And again, the power of the kick ahead, right? It's like either you got somebody that can get it off the glass and he can push it and they, they, that's where coming in. You remember Steve, like every time, get it outta bounds, push. Now you got a scrambling. Now we gotta get matched up.
Boom.
Open three, right? Or you got a big trying to run down to get a block. No, you're on a 3-point shooter.
You need to stay home.
Now OB Draymond Green, boom, 3. Myles Turner, 3. So, and I noticed it as well in the beginning. I don't know if you caught it, but OKC did change their lineups to match up. And sometimes, sometimes there is, you know, you, you can outsmart yourself, try to match up with the other team instead of making them play your way.
Right?
Right. Um, so it, it's gonna be interesting, this chess match, to see what they come back with, um, in the starting lineup.
You know what that— Go ahead, BD.
Nah, 'cause I was gonna ask y'all a question. My question is, to that point, are the threes hurting you enough where you sticking to your big lineup? Did the threes hurt you enough? 'Cause you still, like Draymond said, you still got an 8-point lead with 3 minutes to go. So is it really hurting you for you to make that adjustment when this is your bread and butter?
And that's it, BD. Again, those are the questions that coaches, they can't sleep at night. That's, you know, when you go back to the huddle, 'cause it's like, yo man, like we had a lead, we were right there. What were the errors that we made? Now we can end up making, we can overadjust, right? We can overadjust and start trying to do things that are outside our comfort zone when, you know, really maybe it was a, you know, it was a loose ball, it was an offensive rebound. Look, we gotta get this board. We have to win this possession. The ball is gold, right? They were winning the possession game. And then towards the end of the fourth, you know, again, Indiana was making all of the right plays. And then you, you watch Caruso foul, put Nism— put Nembhard at the line, right?
Yeah.
Up the clock. Little things like that where you have the lead, those are mental errors. And Caruso's a champion, he's a vet. Again, but it's like, those are the things that you inch closer, you inch closer. Now you give them a chance to win it at the buzzer when you probably shouldn't be in that position anyway.
Nah, that's a fact. I think when I look, when I look at this game, if you're Indiana, you didn't play well at all. I mean, You play pretty bad.
You win—
this is the best way to win a game 1 in an NBA Finals, in any playoff series, but especially in NBA Finals. And vice versa, if OKC could have actually hung on, it would've been the best way they could win game 1. And here's why. Steve would always tell us this. Steve would always say, "I'm happy we didn't blow that team out." Mm-hmm. Because if you blow that team out, now you gotta face added steam when they come out in game 2. They come and naturally, naturally you relax a little bit because you feel like, oh, we good. You know, if you blow that team out. Draymond Green.
