OKC is a matchup nightmare | NBA Finals Game 5 analysis

In Game 5 of the NBA Finals, Jalen Williams exploded, Shea Gilgis Alexander turned into a playmaking machine, and the Thunders survived the TJ McConnell takeover, along with another great Pascal Siakam game. But the biggest story was OKC holding Tyrese Halliburton to 4 points on just 0 for 6 shooting. Halliburton strained his calf about 5 minutes into the game, so he wasn't 100%, but this Thunder lockdown has extended through multiple games and is primarily the result of a tactical advantage they have matching up with the Pacers. In the first three rounds of the playoffs, Indiana posted a 103 offensive rating when defenses switched a Halliburton pick and roll. Sometimes they were proactively switching with their good defenders, and other times opponents were reactively switching and dealing with any mismatch that created. But against the Thunder, Indiana's offensive rating is 63 against these switches. 63! That's about 30 points below the worst half-court offense in the league this year, so it's an understatement to say OKC's switching has broken Tyrese Halliburton's pick and roll. In Game 5, nearly every successful Halliburton possession came against Isaiah Hartenstein because he rarely switches. So Hartenstein's coverages will briefly put two defenders on the ball, and Halle can find open teammates from there. Here's an example where Hartenstein is dropped back off the screening action, and it's a great look for Halliburton that just rims out. And here he goes after Hartenstein by passing it and chasing it, Isaiah's way out which creates confusion about whether it's a switch, and Halle threads a beautiful pass for a layup. So a minute later, we get vintage Halliburton ball, again resetting his dribble with the screener that pulls Hartenstein out. This time Tyrese looks at the roller to move the corner defender over to help, and that opens a teammate and is just great offense. And we've also talked about the Thunder denying Halliburton away from the ball. That was a huge part of their comeback win in Game 4. And whether it's Lou Dort or Kaysen Wallace, one of the reasons he only had 8 scoring attempts in Game 5 was this off-ball denial, and then Indiana's willingness to play through other initiators in those spots. So here Dort makes it difficult just to inbound the ball to him. When he finally does come back and get it, J-Dub is on Miles Turner precisely so he can switch to neuter the pick and roll, and Williams is too good defensively for him so he needs another screen. And then it's OKC magic, with J-Dub late switching to the shooter, then Caruso coming to plug the drive, meanwhile Williams peels off to Caruso's man, and it's a semi-contestant three against the clock. When Holmgren is involved, he's too mobile to create any mismatch, so he can just switch as needed, Halliburton's stuck, and this is actually the play he hurts himself trying to lose chat, and again, J-Dub was on Turner there, which effectively removes Indiana's best screener from the action, because in this series, involving Williams in the screen has basically been a dead end for Halliburton. Now there were some moments in this one where we saw Halliburton pass up wide open shots too, and I don't think this was all injury related either, this is the first play of the game, and when it comes around to him, he's not thinking score, but wanting his teammate to get going. But that switching was just devastating, and kicked off a run of four straight steals in the fourth quarter. On the second one, Halliburton drove it into traffic against Holmgren and made the worst possible pass. And then on the third one, Caruso's just a menace in passing lanes, and then went with the full Dave Cowan's face plant going after the ball, that is a 1974 reference for those keeping track. Anyway, this isn't just about Holmgren or OKC's big men, it's about the entire team being able to switch. Guard to guard actions like this then go nowhere for Indiana, Hallie drags Hartenstein into the play, which looks promising, but J-Dub's pulled over to help, so the roll pass isn't that enticing, and then he's just stuck, and suddenly the entire shot clock has been drained on this possession. This one's out of a timeout, and it's a three man Spain screen, and most teams just switch only the guards here, but the Thunders switch all three players in unison, which is just beautiful and destroys the after timeout idea. And so this is the matchup problem Hallie and Indiana are dealing with, because all league defenders switching all these quick hitting actions just basically takes away all their power. Even the way OKC rotates can be devastating. This time they mix it up by switching Hartenstein, SGA is sealed so there's room to drive, but again J-Dub helps off that corner, and here Aaron Neesmith looks wide open, and normally in this spot when the corner defender pulls way over like that, the nearest wing defender makes that rotation to the open shooter. But the Thunder are a different animal, so the foul line defender rotates, which keeps Dort on Halliburton, and then they somehow recover as fast as the ball, the advantage is gone, and even when Hartenstein doesn't switch, that baseline help is there again, and that pass needs to hit the shooter, but instead it's a very hard shot against a ton of pressure. And here's another unique one from Game 4, where he draws Hartenstein out, Dort can either late switch and stay on Obi Toppin, or recover to Halliburton, but OKC will also have a help defender rotate to Toppin while Dort then recovers to someone else, it happens to hit his leg there for a run out, and a big flagrant foul in that game. TJ McConnell actually came in for Halliburton and took over the game for Indiana late in the third. And this is a totally different coverage, he's much quicker than Halliburton, so he can hurt OKC defenders in space, and because he's not much of a shooter, the Thunder defend him by going under all his screens, even if it means leaving him open like this. When they mixed it up with a switch, TJ was just in a flow state and kept on coming, so even as OKC adjusted their coverage defending him, he was quick enough to do some damage against someone like Holmgren in isolation, and then when help comes, he can create an easy look. The problem for the pacers is that TJ isn't used to playing huge minutes at that blistering pace, so he had to sit down after almost 8 straight minutes of play, and Rick Carlyle didn't want to pull Halliburton in the fourth, and he didn't want to pull Andrew Nembhard because he needed him defensively on Shea, so that was mostly that for the TJ flurry. Of course, Jalen Williams was the big star of this game, and we've already seen how key he was defensively, both on and off the ball. And even on a miss, this is great hustle in transition. Dort plays both the ball and the trailer, asks Wallace to come plug up Halliburton, that is mastery, then JW's hustle erases an open three, and Chet steps up to then recover and block it like he's Tim Duncan. Williams' speed continued to cause problems for the pacers full court pressure, attacking the backpedaling big men 40 feet from the hoop. Yes, the pacers continue to hound OKC in the backcourt, and having Williams bring it up with these backcourt screens is a major challenge for Indiana's traditional big men. So even on a play like this where there's no immediate ball pressure, Hartenstein sets the screen near the logo, and now Jalen has a bunch of space to attack that slower big. He was obviously very aggressive this game, upfaking and then just exploding downhill on this play, but I thought his tempo was a major factor too, changing pace under control in tight situations all night, and this was probably the best I've seen him stopping and starting with crisp ball handling to pry open the defense. They also use Shea as a screener more in this game than at any point in the playoffs, going to this Spain action a few times for Williams, again the big change of pace gets him downhill and opens the putback for Chet. And here he keeps the dribble alive under pressure, comes off the first screen and again a little hesitation move, then avoids a charge with a crazy finish, he actually needed an illegal same foot jump to navigate into that bank shot, but he blended hard nosed aggressiveness and really crisp moves with that pace and change of speed so well, slowing up off the screen here, reading how the defenders react, then flicking it for an awesome dime. He's also so smart and forceful as a cutter, Hartenstein's looking for someone so Halliburton cheats out to deny the pass, J-Dump reads that and flies backdoor for a power jam. And that was only one play after this split action where Williams goes to screen for SGA, feels Nesmith behind the action and just flies to the rim and that's a great pass. And my favorite cut of the game was on this popular out of bounds play, Nesmith expects Williams to come off the screen to the corner, bam he goes backdoor and it's a 3 point play. This was actually Indiana's second most efficient game offensively of the series, but it was also their second worst defensive game statistically. And with Shea Gildas Alexander pouring in 31 points and 10 assists, along with 4 block shots in a game where the OKC defense finished with a whopping 27 steals and blocks combined, the Thunder are now just one game away from an NBA championship. If you want to work in basketball, I have the place for you. It's Sports Business Classroom's immersive program inside Summer League in Las Vegas. Past instructors in this program have included Commissioner Adam Silver, Mike D'Antoni and tons of other industry leaders in the NBA and in media. Sign up using the code GREATDAY for $300 off. There's more information in the description box below if you are interested. For additional content and to directly support this channel, check out patreon.com slash thinking basketball. Thanks as always for all of your support and wherever you're enjoying the finals from, I hope that you are having a great day.