In Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, with their backs against the wall, the New York Knicks came out with a desperate effort and turned up the physicality and ball pressure on Tyrese Haliburton, effectively taking the Pacers’ All-NBA point guard out of the game. After filling up the stat sheet with a superstar stat line in Game 4, Haliburton managed only eight points and six assists in Game 5 and the Pacers shot 40.5 percent from the field, their worst shooting percentage of any playoff game this season.
While that Game 5 performance was an outlier thus far for the Pacers in the postseason, the defense the Pacers saw from the Knicks is the standard the Thunder have brought to the table on a nightly basis this entire season. The Thunder’s calling card is physical defense and that means the Pacers’ free-flowing, fast-paced offense, captained by Haliburton, will need to be prepared to play through contact to move from one action to the next and not get bogged down by handsy defenders or attempting to passively attack switches.
The Thunder have enough defensive talent that the Pacers will not be able to find easy targets as they often did against the New York Knicks and then focus their offensive action on confusing and exposing those porous defenders. Oklahoma City’s switches will give Indiana opportunities with advantageous mismatches, but the Pacers cannot get stuck trying to exploit those matchups and playing outside of their normal game.
They’ll need to maintain their discipline and keep the ball moving, as they have done so well in most games this postseason, and play through the Thunder’s physicality.
