Announcement

Collapse

The Rules of Pacers Digest

Hello everyone,

Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.

A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.

Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.

Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.

Rule #1

Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:

"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"

"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"

"He/she is just delusional"

"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"

"I'm going to take a moment to point and / laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"

"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.

We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.

Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.

That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.

A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.

There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.

Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.

In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.

Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.

If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!

All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.

Rule #2

If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.

The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.

The right places to do so are:

A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.

B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.

If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.

Rule #3

If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.

When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.

B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.

To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!

Rule #4

Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

Rule #5

When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.

An example:

If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star

Rule #6

We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.

The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

Rule #7

Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

Rule #8

We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

Rule #9

Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.

Rule #10

We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.

Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
See more
See less

What must happen if the Pacers are to have any hope of winning a game let alone the series

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    Well one game down, let's review how things went.

    Myles Turner not only has to be a rim protector he absolutely must not be muscled and moved around by the Celtics front court. He doesn't have to grab 15 rebounds a game or anything like that but he has to be a contributor and not just blocking out for other players. He is going to have to avg at least 8 boards a game. I believe he can do it.
    Well he did get 8 rebounds so there is that. But I feel confident that 5 points in 30 min of game play does not constitute being a contributor. Going 1-4 from the free throw line was just awe inspiring as well. Nobody had a good game but Myles really didn't have a good game. Not the worst but for one of the supposed cornerstone players on the team he really wasn't that at all.

    God help us all but we honestly are going to need Tyreke Evans to score and score efficiently this series. We can not have any 2-12 shooting nights and we can not have him driving 1 on 5 at the rim. If we are going to move forward he is, as scary as this is, going to have to be a contributor.
    Well at least he didn't go 2-12, he went 3-11 instead. How sad is it to say that he shot 27% from the floor and also went 1-4 from the freethrow line and he was one of your better offensive players? To his credit he had a pretty decent second quarter but was completely shut out after that. For those of you who always have to have something positive to look forward to there is this. Only three more losses till he is no longer a pacer.

    Cory Joseph has to stop sucking. I'm sorry I love Cory but he has sucked and I mean sucked for about 2 months now. We absolutely cannot have him pound the air out of the ball for 14 seconds only to fling up some crap that he won't hit. If he isn't hitting at around 30% from three's and 40% from the field overall we are in trouble.
    The single bright spot on the floor today. Well more like a glimmering spot but when you are starving for anything resembling offense his hitting 56% from the field was like ice water to a sinner in hell, which really is a pretty good metaphor for today's game. I hope we did not just waste the one good game he gives us this series.

    Thad Young has to rebound. He is a very frustrating player at times because he can rebound when he focuses on it but if not he is atrocious. He is going to be key in helping guard M. Morris and Tatum but he can not let them have second chance shots.
    All you need to know about Young's rebounding in this game is this. He outplayed T.J. Leaf by 17 minutes and had one more rebound. But that's okay as Tyreke Evans played 9 less minutes and had one more rebound than him. I take nothing away from his defense, he is scrappy and that chase down block of Horfard was magnificent but he is an atrocious rebounder at times and when you combine him, Myles and Bojan together they have to be one of the worst rebounding front courts in the playoffs if not the entire NBA.

    Lots of pressure on Domas Sabonis because at the end of the day we need him to be a force who gets double doubles and forces them to guard him with more than one player.
    Well we didn't get the double double nor the win. He did rebound (sort of) but his shooting was God awful. Some of that was him, some of it was that Boston would swarm him whenever he had the ball within 12 feet. Going to be a quick series indeed if this is the best we can get from him.

    Bojan can not have a game like he did the last time vs the Celtics. I believe Smart not being there helps with that and honestly I think some much needed rest will have helped with that as well, I believe he was running on fumes at the end of the season. Sadly being our number one option means we are going to need at least 18 ppg game (probably a lot more) from him.
    Jaylen Brown might as well have been wearing the same jersey as Bojan because that is how close he was guarding him. In the first half they were doubling him every single time he got the ball and made any move. He had at least one three that was all the way down before it spun out. I honestly don't think this was Bojan having a bad game, I just think the Celtics know how to guard him and have game planned to take him out of the series. Since nobody else stepped up to take over they pretty much figured a way to shut our team down.

    Nate McMillan can not use his egg timer substitution pattern he did for the most part of the second half of the season. If someone has a hot hand, he has to let that person go rotation be dammed. That means we most likely will have to close with Myles and Domas on the floor together and he has tob okay with that. In the playoffs matchups are key and coaches often time will adjust, Nate has to be flexible here which IMO he was a lot more of early in the season and got much worse as the season went on.
    Thanks to foul trouble with Thad, Nate had no choice but to alter his lineups ever so slightly. But other than that you can set your watch by his substitution patterns. On the post game shows on NBA tv they were talking about what adjustments each team needed to make to the lineups for game two. A show of hands for everybody who thinks there will be lineup changes or even changes in the rotation or minutes played without there either being foul trouble or injury? Me neither.

    We can not lose the rebound battle every single game and we really can't lose it by double digits. We have got to make a commitment to rebounding as a team. We have to cover transition but not completely at the cost of getting some offensive rebounds.
    Whelp not much to say here. I loath the combination of Thad Young and Myles Turner when it comes to rebounding. But to their credit other than Sabonis, and he wasn't that great, nobody helped here.

    We have to limit turnovers to stop their fast breaks. They have killed us this year with fast break points. We do a good job of not turning the ball over but we lose so many rebounds and they are off tot he races.
    We really didn't turn the ball over that much but because we are a horrid retched rebounding team we got smoked in transition because they get boards and get going.

    This probably should be second on the list but hit your dammed free throws
    12-21 for a professional basketball team in a play off setting. I mean today it would not have mattered all that much but you are not going to beat anyone shooting like that.

    BONUS discussion point. I did not mention Doug McDermott in my post because well I just didn't really expect anything of him. My faith in him was rewarded in spades. 1-7 from the floor and 0-2 from the free throw line. But on the other hand he had as many rebounds as Thad Young did so there is that.


    Basketball isn't played with computers, spreadsheets, and simulations. ChicagoJ 4/21/13

    Comment


    • #17
      I know that the reason Turner has been so valuable this season is because his defense, but now is the time he needs to score the ball. 5 points is inexcusable from a guy who can shoot it as well as he can.

      Comment


      • #18
        Myles hit his first shot and I don’t think he got another look till damn near halftime. Hard to get into any kind of rhythm when you’re not getting touches.

        Comment


        • #19
          Originally posted by CJ Jones View Post
          Myles hit his first shot and I don’t think he got another look till damn near halftime. Hard to get into any kind of rhythm when you’re not getting touches.
          This is very true however some of that is on Myles. There was one play I think it was near the end of the 3rd where Myles had the ball about 15' from the basket and the only person between him and the rim was Terry Rozier. Myles never even looked to shoot or drive or well do anything other than to pass it off to a man who was covered. Sadly if he misses a couple of shots he loses confidence and then kind of disappears. But I also agree that our coaching staff does not do nearly enough to run plays for him to get him involved. It would be nice though if Myles would develop any and I mean ANY type of low post game. He can drive for layups or he can hit a jumper but that is all he has shown he can do so far. I would think he could be taught some type of offense beyond that.


          Basketball isn't played with computers, spreadsheets, and simulations. ChicagoJ 4/21/13

          Comment


          • #20
            Myles will never have post game. He does not have a strong enough lower body nor flexible enough hips. He struggles just to post consistently on switches when he gets a little guy on him. He can't effectively sit down low and establish and hold position.

            They do need to work to get him more mid-range and 3pt attempts. This is a strength of his game. But Myles also has to find other ways to impact the game. 8 boards are solid, but he just didn't seem to influence the game in terms of physicality and defense.

            Baynes and Horford seemed way more involved in this area than either Domas or Myles. They gave our bigs a lesson in playoff basketball physicality. Myles and Domas got worked in the paint.
            Last edited by D-BONE; 04-15-2019, 07:00 AM.
            I'd rather die standing up than live on my knees.

            -Emiliano Zapata

            Comment


            • #21
              Celtics are too good. Against a lot of teams the pacers have an advantage at center. Domas can old muscle most players in the NBA. But not in this series - I think that is a huge factor. Celtics have better wings, better guards - they are better across the board and up and down the roster.

              Having said that, there will likely be one game at Bankers Life where the Pacers play great Celtics stink . Pacers will hit about 15 threes and win 1 game

              OH, I see the first several posts were before the first game

              I dislike Evans as much as anyone,. but I must admit I was glad to see him come into the game in the second half. At least he can make something happen - a lot of it bad, but at least he can create something.

              Bottom line the Celtics can guard all of our players one-on-one, they don't need to help. Looks like men against boys. We try hard, but are unable to contend with this Celtics team.

              Really thought the Pacers defense was really good though .

              I must say though the way the Celtics stopped in its tracks our dribble hand off action with Domas was impressive. They clogged it up and that as much as anything bogged down our offense
              Last edited by Unclebuck; 04-15-2019, 09:43 AM.

              Comment


              • #22
                We need to get Myles more shots especially from three. The pick and pop should be there all day because I doubt Baynes will want to come out to the three point line and contest his shots. In the offseason Myles needs to develop a pump fake so he can put the ball on the floor and get to the basket. It's like the defender knows that Myles is going to shoot 9 time out of 10 on the pick and pop. He's long and athletic enough to get to the rim and draw way more fouls if he was able to put the ball on the floor more.

                Nate needs to get Holiday on the floor. Nate did a disservice to Holiday all year by not giving him consistent minutes. He is the only explosive backcourt player that we have that can get to the rim and get his shot off anytime he wants. Both Cojo and Collison need tons of space to get their shot off. By putting Holiday in the game we can at least make the Celtics have to defend our backcourt. DC could not hit anything last game.

                Bench Tyreke. Holiday should be getting tyrekes minutes.

                The Celtics have size and length, and because of this they can switch everything. We can only beat them with ball movement, and hitting the open shooters. Sabonis needs to do a little less one on one. and get back to just screening and rolling. He won't be able to move horford and baynes on the block. Has anything good ever came out of a Wes Mathews post up? I appreciate that he is old school and that if he gets a smaller guard on him he will take them to the block, but he never seems to be able to score on a post op opportunity. The only way we can beat the Celtics is if we play true team basketball.

                I would continue doing what we did on defense. Defend Kyrie the best we can. He will get his, but we can't allow the rest of the team to get off. We did hold them to 84 points which is great and we did a good job on Kyrie.

                Comment


                • #23
                  I do wonder how the narrative would be different if the Pacers had lost 118-108. It would be very different

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Big Roy hasn't lost faith.

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Originally posted by ksuttonjr76 View Post
                      Win the 3rd quarter...
                      I would be satisfied if the Pacers simply score like normal during the 3rd QTR instead of these HUGE scoring droughts that plagues the Team. We don't have to win the 3rd QTR....much less ALL the QTRs. We just have to not lose each QTR by SO MUCH.
                      Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        All the ugly things about this team all came into play one game. Poor rebounding, poor free throw shooting, Tyreke, slow players completely shut down.

                        A vomit worthy performance.
                        {o,o}
                        |)__)
                        -"-"-

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Turner was such a different offensive player in his rookie year. He didn't care about messing up. This might sound crazy but I even saw it in the preseason of his sophomore year. It looked like he was going to make a huge leap. The 1st regular season game in that year, he had a monster game against Dallas. And then I don't know what happened. Paul George was a huge downer that year so that might have had an effect.

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Originally posted by Peck View Post
                            In no particular order the following must happen for us to win this series.

                            Myles Turner not only has to be a rim protector he absolutely must not be muscled and moved around by the Celtics front court. He doesn't have to grab 15 rebounds a game or anything like that but he has to be a contributor and not just blocking out for other players. He is going to have to avg at least 8 boards a game. I believe he can do it.

                            God help us all but we honestly are going to need Tyreke Evans to score and score efficiently this series. We can not have any 2-12 shooting nights and we can not have him driving 1 on 5 at the rim. If we are going to move forward he is, as scary as this is, going to have to be a contributor.

                            Cory Joseph has to stop sucking. I'm sorry I love Cory but he has sucked and I mean sucked for about 2 months now. We absolutely cannot have him pound the air out of the ball for 14 seconds only to fling up some crap that he won't hit. If he isn't hitting at around 30% from three's and 40% from the field overall we are in trouble.

                            Thad Young has to rebound. He is a very frustrating player at times because he can rebound when he focuses on it but if not he is atrocious. He is going to be key in helping guard M. Morris and Tatum but he can not let them have second chance shots.

                            Lots of pressure on Domas Sabonis because at the end of the day we need him to be a force who gets double doubles and forces them to guard him with more than one player.

                            Bojan can not have a game like he did the last time vs the Celtics. I believe Smart not being there helps with that and honestly I think some much needed rest will have helped with that as well, I believe he was running on fumes at the end of the season. Sadly being our number one option means we are going to need at least 18 ppg game (probably a lot more) from him.

                            Now here are the things that can not happen or we will be toast and I am listing an order here because the first one is the most important by far.

                            Nate McMillan can not use his egg timer substitution pattern he did for the most part of the second half of the season. If someone has a hot hand, he has to let that person go rotation be dammed. That means we most likely will have to close with Myles and Domas on the floor together and he has tob okay with that. In the playoffs matchups are key and coaches often time will adjust, Nate has to be flexible here which IMO he was a lot more of early in the season and got much worse as the season went on.

                            We can not lose the rebound battle every single game and we really can't lose it by double digits. We have got to make a commitment to rebounding as a team. We have to cover transition but not completely at the cost of getting some offensive rebounds.

                            We have to limit turnovers to stop their fast breaks. They have killed us this year with fast break points. We do a good job of not turning the ball over but we lose so many rebounds and they are off tot he races.

                            This probably should be second on the list but hit your dammed free throws.

                            What we need from Boston

                            Well a stomach virus hitting Al Horford would be nice but short of that this.

                            We need them to be disorganized. We need Gordon Hayward to not have another monster game off of the bench for them and we really could use some foul trouble on Jason Tatum. But mostly we need someone in NY to let slip that Kyrie has already agreed to join the knicks in the off season.

                            What are some of your thoughts.
                            Everything you said is spot on!

                            Our bigs are getting pushed around out there. Bogie was getting mugged by Brown and the refs never called a thing until Brown shoved Bogie in the back as he beat him off a high screen. Home cooking aside, you're 100% right on the money here.

                            * Knock down the open shots
                            * Make your free throws
                            * Go after those rebounds
                            * Get out in transition (defense)
                            * Push the ball more, be aggressive!
                            * BE CONFIDENT in your shot! He who hesitates gets his shot rejected, draws iron not net or throws up and air ball.
                            * Screw the egg timer. Stay with the hot hand (if any)
                            * Don't be afraid to use your depth, coach! (Sometimes you have to throw out the plan.)

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Originally posted by D-BONE View Post
                              Here's another scary prospect, but I fully expect it to happen. We will have to overcome Boston's defensive strategy leaving Thad Young open from 3. The easiest way to do that is for Thad to make them pay. He probably will on occasion in some games, but I can't imagine it will be consistent enough throughout.
                              Maybe the trick here is for Thad Young to stop taking 3PAs and start driving to the hoop more or dish the ball off to a cutter to the basket for the easy bucket once the defense steps to him realizing he's not going to take the 3 pt shot. I'm just of the opinion that Thad Young shouldn't even be out there along the perimeter. If you're just over 30% 3PA, odds are you'll only make that shot just over 1:4 times. Those are at least 3 missed FGAs somebody else could be taking and making (...maybe...if it's not the 3Q).

                              As mentioned, Kyrie is going to get his points. I would rotate guys on him most of the game trying to keep them fresh, probably Matthews, Cojo, Holiday. Doubt Sumner gets minutes, but would be fun - and maybe painful at times - to see that for stint. Then down the stretch, I agree that Cojo should be the choice to check him.
                              Agreed. Stop treating Kyrie as if he's the next incarnation of LeBron in the East. Throw multiple defenders at him and force him to make plays. He's not nearly as effective if you guard him tight.

                              Hayward is another major defensive challenge I'm concerned about. As pointed out elsewhere, if he has a series like his last game against us, we're in trouble. Yet the Celts looked to be chomping at the bit at the horrible mismatches we ran at him. I would expect the same. He abused Tyreke in that game. Who else guarded him? McDermott? I don't recall. I've repressed all that pain. I just know that he got wherever he wanted on the floor offensively. I honestly feel like we've got less of an answer here than on Kyrie if you can believe that.
                              I don't think Haywood did that much damage. He only scored 10 pts (4-12 FG, 2-2 FT, 0-3 3PA). So, it wasn't like he Kyrie's wing-man out there. That was Marcus Morris (20 pts) matching Kyrie's scoring. If anything, the Pacers needed to find a way to slow him and Tatum down. Still, if the Pacers are going to allow 5 Celtic players to score in double-figures to our two players (Bogie-12; CoJo-14), then they can forget about having any chance at winning this series let alone competing in it.

                              Beyond these items, Bojan, DC, Myles, Domas, Thad are all going to have contribute offensively at a high level throughout. There's little margin for error.
                              Absolutely!

                              Hoping Holiday and Leaf can bring some energy and a little scoring boost to the second unit, but not sure how much opportunity they'll get.
                              There's both the mystery and the shame of it all because Holiday and Leaf have performed well this season. Unfortunately, they may not see significant playing time at all during the post season because we have a coach who prefers playing veterans over talent.

                              I am going in expecting nothing from Tyreke. That way I control my disappointment. While a good offensive series would be huge, I just don't see that happening, especially against playoff caliber defense. This ain't the Hawks unfortunately. Hopefully Doug will be on shooting the ball, but neither of them offer much deterrence defensively.
                              If I had to choose, I'd go with McDerrmot at this point. At least with him I feel more confident he'll score the ball (although truth be told he's not that much of an upgrade from Evans as scoring efficiency goes).

                              So, in all honesty, I will root like hell, but I fully expect this to be over in 5. Unless Nate comes up with some unexpected, and creative twists. My hope for that is right along the lines of my expectations for Evans. We'll see.
                              Yep...lovable losers they are.
                              Last edited by NuffSaid; 04-16-2019, 05:16 PM.

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Originally posted by xIndyFan View Post
                                JMO, but I think the list of things the Pacers have to do is much shorter. The thing they have to do is make the shots they get. If the Celtics can get away with ignoring Thad or Wes or CUJo or whoever at the 3 pt line, then the Pacers are going to spend the series playing 4 on 5 on offense. It will be like the days of Jeff Foster or Haywoode Workman all over again. If the Pacers can make the open shots they get, then Boston will have to play everyone straight up and leave room for drives to the rim and Pacers can win. Shot chances can be generated offensively, they just have to make the ones they get.
                                Now that I think of it, that is a problem if the Celtics are going to leave him unguarded for the 3PA. Thad is just going to have to make that ugly 3-ball count. I hate it though because IMO he really shouldn't be camping out on the 3pt line when he's so horrid at making 3PAs.
                                Last edited by NuffSaid; 04-16-2019, 05:24 PM.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X