Indiana Pacers efficiently secured Sport 1 within the NBA Finals beating the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder 111-110.
That’s a superb begin, however the Pacers nonetheless have one job in the event that they need to safe extra video games to change into NBA Champions: neutralizing OKC’s important star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
In Sport 1, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 38 factors on 46.7% taking pictures. That’s not a nasty quantity, particularly when he solely had two turnovers the whole sport.
Golden State Warriors ahead Draymond Inexperienced provides recommendation for the Pacers on methods to deal with this season’s MVP.
Inexperienced’s argument relies on his expertise within the 2022 NBA Finals when he and the Warriors efficiently managed to restrict two Celtics stars.
Inexperienced helped preserve Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum to simply 23.5 factors and 21.5 factors per sport respectively throughout that Finals sequence.
“After we performed Boston within the finals a number of years again, I observed one thing in taking part in towards them. I observed that Jaylen Brown may move, however should you assist early on him he couldn’t make the move,” Inexperienced defined on his podcast.
“At the moment, he wasn’t sturdy at making the move should you helped up early, so with him we are going to assist up as soon as he begins driving. With JT [Jayson Tatum], we all know he would make the move early, so we helped late, like on the rim,” he added.
Inexperienced mentioned the Pacers must pressure Gilgeous-Alexander to his weak spot and direct him to drive to the rim the place the Pacers have a bonus.
Inexperienced’s recommendation aligns with Gary Payton’s philosophy that thinks Shai is just too good an offensive participant to be outright stopped. As an alternative, groups ought to attempt to disrupt him when he has the ball and tire him out.
“And I believe Indiana, that’s one thing they want to determine. Don’t get in entrance of Shai, get him left. Simply experience the proper arm and pressure him all the way in which to the rim,” he mentioned.
“You bought Myles Turner on the rim, you bought Thomas Bryant on the rim, you bought Obi Toppin on the rim. Is he going to hit sufficient layups to beat you?” Inexperienced added.
The technique is sensible given Indiana’s inside protection anchored by Turner and their depth on the middle place.
Inexperienced’s championship expertise supplies priceless perception into neutralizing elite scorers in Finals stress, and the Pacers might use that recommendation within the subsequent video games.
