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Hill’s Absence And Copeland’s Emergence Keep Knicks Alive

May 17, 2013  ·  1:44AM

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NEW YORK – Here’s the thing about the Indiana Pacers: Their bench stinks.

They have the league’s best defense, a terrific starting lineup, and a pretty smart coach. But their lack of depth (or just one guy off the bench they can rely on for consistent production) is a major problem. There’s a reason why only one lineup played more minutes than Indiana’s starting group in the regular season.

With one starter out and another in foul trouble, the Pacers’ Achilles heel was on full display in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Thursday, an 85-75 victory for the New York Knicks that sends the series back to Indianapolis for Game 6 on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

The Pacers now look a lot more vulnerable than they did just hours before Game 5, not just because their 3-1 series lead is now 3-2, but because starting point guard George Hill is out with a concussion he suffered in Game 4 on Tuesday. Hill’s status for Game 6 is unknown, but he must pass the NBA’s concussion testing before he can play again. (And if you read that link, you’ll probably guess that he won’t play again in this series, no matter who wins Saturday.)

D.J. Augustin, who started in Hill’s place on Thursday, is a decent back-up point guard and came up with a huge performance (16 points, 4-for-5 from 3-point range) in Game 1 of this series. But at 40 minutes per game, he’s a big step down from Hill. He scored 12 points on nine shots on Thursday, but didn’t record a single assist in 39 minutes.

Hill’s 26 points helped the Pacers win an ugly Game 4. And more important than his scoring is his ability to get his team into its offense. With one less point guard to call on, Paul George was needed to bring the ball up the floor at times, and the Pacers struggled to get much going offensively. They shot 36 percent and committed 19 turnovers (12 of them live balls), making things even worse by shooting 19-for-33 from the free throw line.

Hill’s absence was felt more on defense, where his size and tenacity has been a key to the Pacers’ ability to defend the Knicks’ pick-and-roll attack. Raymond Felton had a little more space on those pick-and-rolls in Game 5, with Augustin as his primary defender. And Indiana’s league-best defense was further compromised when Roy Hibbert picked up his second foul midway through the first quarter and his fourth foul early in the third.

That, in part, allowed the Knicks to awake from their offensive slumber, which is a scary thing for Indiana going forward. Mike Woodson‘s use of his own bench was another key.

Jason Kidd and Amar’e Stoudemire each played less than seven minutes, and neither saw the floor in the second half. Chris Copeland, who provided a (too-little, too-late) spark in Game 4, played a postseason-high 19:25, giving the Knicks some much-needed 3-point shooting and scoring 13 points.

“Copeland just has a knack for scoring,” Tyson Chandler said. “Anytime you get him in the game, he’s going to make something happen offensively. He’s been doing it all year. He came up huge for us tonight.”

After reaching for answers and coming up empty in Game 4, Woodson found something that worked on Thursday. The Knicks barely scored a point per possession, but that was plenty enough against what the Pacers were doing on the other end of the floor. J.R. Smith (4-for-11) didn’t shoot quite as poorly as he had been over the previous six games, and the New York bench outscored the Indiana bench 35-10.

Having a good bench isn’t necessarily about the points it scores, but rather the drop-off suffered when one or more starters are resting. And while the Pacers weren’t making any excuses after Game 5 – “I don’t think it has anything to do with it,” Frank Vogel said of Hill’s absence – the numbers speak for themselves.

In the regular season, Indiana’s regular starting lineup (with Hill at PG) scored 108.6 points per 100 possessions, while all other lineups scored just 98.5. That’s like the difference between the league’s third best offense and the league’s third worst offense. In this series, their regular starting lineup is a plus-21 in 92 minutes, while all other lineups are now a minus-28 in 148 minutes.

That’s a big drop-off. And with Hill likely out at least another game, Indiana must find a way to nudge that minus-28 closer to zero on Saturday. Otherwise, this series is coming back to New York for Game 7.

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Posted in 2013 Conference Semis: Knicks-Pacers, 2013 NBA Playoffs / Comments (36) /

Pacers Up 3-1, But Knicks Still Dangerous

May 16, 2013  ·  11:08AM

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NEW YORK – The Miami Heat are waiting.

The Indiana Pacers know they have what it takes to challenge the defending champs. In Paul George, they have a guy to guard LeBron James. In Roy Hibbert, they have a guy to protect the rim. They have the size to take advantage of the Heat on the glass. They won the season series, 2-1.

But the Pacers have to take care of business against the New York Knicks first. Only eight teams in NBA history have come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series, but the Knicks might not be an easy opponent to keep down.

As bad as things have looked for New York over the last two games — and they’ve looked really bad — this is a dangerous team. The Knicks ranked third in offensive efficiency in the regular season and we saw a glimpse of their potency in Game 2.

At the same time, we saw how bad the Pacers can look offensively. Turnovers, bad spacing, missed shots. It was all there. Over the course of the four games thus far, the Knicks (who were a below-average defensive team) have held them under a point per possession.

The Pacers’ defense has been terrific in this series, particularly in Game 4, when the Knicks tried to throw the kitchen sink at them. But it’s been terrific because there’s been no let-up. It takes both effort and focus to defend on that level, and it would be easy to think a Game 6 at home allows Indy to not bring their best in Game 5 on Thursday (8 p.m. ET, TNT).

Written on the board in the Knicks’ locker room after Game 4 was, “Win one, change everything.” And that might be right. New York is desperately searching for answers right now, but if they can find them on Thursday, it could get the ball rolling.

All you have to do is look back to mid-March, when the Knicks had lost four straight and 10 of their last 16 games. Their offense was in a funk, having scored less than 90 points per 100 possessions during the four-game losing streak. Carmelo Anthony was out and J.R. Smith was struggling.

Then, in Utah, Mike Woodson made a lineup change. The Knicks broke out of their slump, won 13 straight games and pulled ahead of the Pacers in the standings.

Woodson is likely to go back to the lineup that sparked that run — with Pablo Prigioni in the backcourt — after going away from it in Game 4. Nothing will come easy against the Pacers’ defense, nothing looks good when the shots don’t go in and the Knicks must find a way to keep Indiana off the glass. But small-ball is how the Knicks won 54 games this season and how they got past the Boston Celtics in the first round.

If they’re going to send this series back to Indiana, the Knicks must remember how they got here.

If they’re going to finish it in five, the Pacers need to do the same.

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Posted in 2013 Conference Semis: Knicks-Pacers, 2013 NBA Playoffs, HT News / Comments (23) /

Woodson Searches For Answers, Comes Up Empty

May 15, 2013  ·  12:08AM

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INDIANAPOLIS – One of the most interesting things about playoff basketball is a team changing gears and abandoning something — a lineup or a style of play — that worked all season because it’s outmatched in a series.

The New York Knicks went there in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Tuesday. And it didn’t work.

With his team down 2-1 to the Indiana Pacers and shooting blanks offensively against the league’s best defense, Knicks coach Mike Woodson abandoned the starting lineup that had sparked the Knicks to 13 straight wins late in the season. It hadn’t performed poorly (plus-1 in 22 minutes) in the first two games of the series, but did struggle (minus-7 in 13 minutes) in Game 3. The new starting lineup, meanwhile, had never played together.

Woodson abandoned more than a lineup. He abandoned his team’s whole small-ball, two-point-guard, Melo-and-shooters mantra that was so critical to the Knicks’ success. Out was point guard Pablo Prigioni and in was big man Kenyon Martin, sliding Carmelo Anthony to small forward, where he had played just six minutes through the first three games.

It was a sign of desperation, and the hope was that an extra big on the floor would keep the Knicks from getting crushed on the boards like they did in Games 1 and 3. It would also allow them to run secondary pick-and-rolls (instead of isolations) on the weak side of the floor after the Pacers stopped the primary one.

The Knicks did run more pick-and-rolls, they ran more of them with Anthony as the ball handler, and they got the ball up the floor and into their offense more quickly. But the result — a 93-82 Indiana victory — was basically the same as Game 3 three nights earlier. New York got off to a slow start, trailed by 14 at halftime, shot 36 percent, scored less than a point per possession and got crushed on the glass again.

“I thought our offensive flow wasn’t bad tonight,” Woodson said. “I thought the ball movement was a little bit better, but we couldn’t make shots.”

Credit the Indiana defense. It was phenomenal for the second straight game. While the Knicks looked somewhat crisper offensively, they still couldn’t get to the basket. When they looked to attack off the dribble, Roy Hibbert and the Pacers simply shut off the paint, where New York shot a miserable 13-for-34.

“Our effort was just off the charts,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said afterward. “I couldn’t be more proud of our defensive effort, our rebounding effort, and our willingness to share the ball offensively.”

The Knicks got some decent looks at the basket and shot decently (10-for-25) from mid-range, but you can’t win with mid-range shots. They got more 3-point attempts off then they did in Game 3, but many of them were rushed or contested.

Truly, the Knicks are in a funk, having lost five of their last seven games. Anthony and J.R. Smith have combined to shoot 33 percent in that stretch. Jason Kidd has missed his last 17 shots, his last basket coming three weeks ago. And Tyson Chandler looks nothing like the inside force that won Defensive Player of the Year last season.

It’s a bad time to be playing so poorly. And you can’t blame Woodson for trying something different. But he didn’t quite reach all the way down into his bag of tricks.

Kidd still played 16 minutes off the bench, even though his two misses looked awful and took place in the first 7:20 he was on the floor. Meanwhile, two guys who could have provided an offensive spark, Chris Copeland and Steve Novak, rode the pine until late in the third quarter and the final minute, respectively. The Knicks outscored the Pacers by 12 points in Copeland’s 12 minutes, and he and Novak combined to shoot 3-for-4 from 3-point range.

There was also the curious case of Prigioni’s playing time. The numbers have shown that the Knicks are better both offensively and defensively with the 35-year-old rookie on the floor, a phenomenon that Woodson has acknowledged often and as recently as Game 2 of this series. But Prigioni played less than 3 1/2 minutes on Tuesday, and Woodson didn’t have much of an explanation.

“Right now,” Woodson said, “I’m reaching, trying to find combinations that will work.”

Nothing has. And the bottom line is that the Pacers are the better team. The best player in the series hasn’t been Anthony, but rather Paul George. And while Woodson can’t find anyone who can make a shot, the Pacers have someone new step up every night. On Tuesday, it was George Hill, who led all scorers with 26 points on 9-for-14 shooting.

The Pacers can now close the series out in New York on Thursday (8 p.m. ET, TNT). Woodson will still be searching for answers.

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Posted in 2013 Conference Semis: Knicks-Pacers, 2013 NBA Playoffs / Comments (71) /

Knicks Await Word On Shumpert’s Knee

May 14, 2013  ·  1:07PM

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INDIANAPOLIS – The New York Knicks got good and bad news out of shootaround on Tuesday morning.

The good news was that J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin were both back in the gym after missing practice with illnesses the last two days. Smith had been sick since before Game 3, in which he shot 4-for-12 and played just 25 minutes, the fewest of any playoff game in which he wasn’t ejected.

Expect both Martin and Smith, two of the Knicks’ three top subs, to play in Game 4 on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET, TNT). But one of them might need to start, because it sounds doubtful that Iman Shumpert will be able to play.

Shumpert injured his left knee — the same knee he had ACL surgery on last year — in Game 3 and was held out of practice on Monday, but both he and Knicks coach sounded optimistic that he would be able to play in Game 4.

That optimism wasn’t there Tuesday morning though. In fact, Shumpert wasn’t there Tuesday morning. He was back at the team hotel, awaiting the arrival of the Knicks’ orthopedist, who was flying in from New York.

“They’ll evaluate him and give us an assessment this evening,” Woodson said. “He’s had some swelling the last two days, so they’re going to take a closer look at it and make sure everything’s OK.”

If Shumpert can’t play, it will be the ultimate test of Woodson’s Smith-is-not-allowed-to-start policy. New York has had a multitude of injuries this season and no Knick has played more games than Smith, but he hasn’t started a single one.

Ronnie Brewer, who was eventually traded for a second-round pick, started 34 games. James White, whose offensive skills leave a lot to be desired, started 16 games. And Chris Copeland, who Woodson doesn’t fully trust defensively, started 13. Smith? Zero.

But now, the Knicks’ season is on the line. Would Woodson start Copeland, who has played just 19 minutes in the series thus far? Would he dare start Smith? Or would he maybe go big, with Martin up front and Carmelo Anthony sliding to small forward?

“I haven’t even given that a thought,” Woodson said about who would replace Shumpert if he can’t play, “because I thought he would be here this morning.”

A lineup of Smith and the Knicks other four starters — Raymond Felton, Pablo Prigioni, Anthony and Tyson Chandler — has played just 16 minutes together (seven of those in the playoffs) this season. Martin and Chandler, meanwhile, have played just 12 minutes together in this series, and Anthony has been on the floor (at the three) for just six of those 12 minutes.

Woodson has a very interesting decision to make, but more important than who starts is what the Knicks would be losing without Shumpert. He’s their best perimeter defender and he’s the one role player that hasn’t been afraid to shoot in this series. Anthony leads the Knicks with 18 field goals from outside the paint over the three games, but Shumpert is second on the list with eight.

Whether or not Shumpert plays, we may see Steve Novak, who has played just seven minutes over the first three games, make an appearance on Tuesday. Jason Kidd has missed his last 15 shots and Prigioni doesn’t shoot quickly off the catch, so if Woodson wants to use Anthony as the pick-and-roll ball handler more, he’ll need another shooter out there. Pacers coach Frank Vogel said Tuesday morning that Novak makes you “play four-on-four ,” because he’s so dangerous of a shooter.

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Posted in 2013 Conference Semis: Knicks-Pacers, 2013 NBA Playoffs, HT News / Comments (13) /

Film Study: To Help Or Not To Help Is The Question For Knicks And Pacers

May 13, 2013  ·  12:24PM

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INDIANAPOLIS – Knicks-Pacers isn’t just a series between a great offensive team (New York) and a great defensive team (Indiana). It’s also a contrast in two different defensive styles, and that contrast is a big reason the Pacers have a 2-1 series lead heading into Game 4 on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET, TNT).

The Knicks, who set an NBA record with 2,371 3-point attempts (28.9 per game) this season, took just 11 threes in Game 3, their worst offensive game of the playoffs. Both coach Mike Woodson and center Tyson Chandler talked a lot on Sunday about the need to move the ball more, but the Pacers’ defense had a lot to do with the lack of ball movement and open shots.

The Pacers led the league in 3-point percentage defense and only one team (Chicago) allowed their opponents to take a lower percentage of their shots from beyond the arc. The Knicks have made five or fewer threes seven times this season. They’re 0-7 in those games and three of them were against Indiana.

The key to the Pacers’ 3-point defense is their ability to stay at home on shooters. The Knicks get 3-point attempts by drawing an extra defender to the guy with the ball, whether he’s in the post or running a pick-and-roll, and then moving the ball to the open shooter. The Pacers make that difficult by not sending the extra defender, either as a double-team in the post or as a helper on the pick-and-roll.

The two most important players in this scheme are Paul George and Roy Hibbert, the one-on-one defender and the rim-protector.

In this series, George has the Carmelo Anthony assignment, and he needs no help. Anthony will get his points, but George is a good enough defender to make it difficult (Anthony has shot 39.7 percent in six games against the Pacers this season) and, more important, he allows his teammates to stay with their man. That’s a huge part of the Pacers’ success and an argument for George as their most important player in this series, even though his box score numbers (17.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game, 36 percent shooting) haven’t been that impressive.

Here’s a post-up for Anthony from the first quarter of Game 3. George handles the assignment by himself and his teammates stay at home, giving Anthony little choice but to force a tough turnaround jumper …


Hibbert, of course, is the guy keeping the Knicks away from the basket. On pick-and-rolls, he has the length and smarts to both stay within reach of the roll man and challenge the ball handler if he gets too close to the rim. This is why 16 of Raymond Felton‘s 29 shots in the series have been low-efficiency attempts, coming from outside the restricted area and from inside the 3-point line.

So while the Knicks can talk about better ball movement, it’s easier said than done against the No. 1 defense. Here’s an example of a play where the ball moves quite a bit (four passes in about six seconds), it gets swung to the weak side, and the Knicks still aren’t able to get an open look. The Pacers all stay at home on their man, Hibbert hangs in the paint on the Jason Kidd/Kenyon Martin pick-and-roll, George denies Anthony in the post, and the ball eventually sticks in the hands of Iman Shumpert, who forces a tough shot over Hibbert in the lane…


The Knicks had their best offensive performance of the postseason in Game 2, and Woodson believes that they just need to get back to the way they played in their 105-79 victory.

“In a playoff series, when teams start locking in, you can’t play on one side of the floor,” the coach said Sunday. “That’s what, last night, we went back to that again. So I got to keep screaming and pushing and guys got to recognize that we got to get the ball moving from side to side. That’s the only way we can play and perhaps get out of this series. We can’t just play on one side of the floor with it.”

But the Pacers believe that those 105 points in Game 2 were more about the way they were defending than about what the Knicks were doing offensively. (more…)

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Posted in 2013 Conference Semis: Knicks-Pacers, 2013 NBA Playoffs, Film Study, HT News / Comments (15) /

Knicks’ Smith Questionable For Game 3

May 11, 2013  ·  1:32PM

INDIANAPOLIS – J.R. Smith hasn’t played well since he elbowed Jason Terry in Game 3 of the first round. In Game 3 of the conference semifinals, Smith might not play at all.

Under the weather with a 102-degree fever, the Sixth Man of the Year missed the Knicks’ shootaround Saturday morning and is questionable for Game 3 Saturday night (8 p.m. ET, ABC).

“I don’t know if he’s going to play tonight,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. “If he don’t, somebody else has got to step up and help us win.”

The Knicks will have Amar’e Stoudemire for the first time in two months, which gives them the ability to play big for more than the five minutes they have in each of the first two games. But they also have the backcourt depth to deal with Smith’s potential absence and stay small. Raymond Felton, Pablo Prigioni and Iman Shumpert have all been playing well, and Jason Kidd, though he’s missed his last 14 shots, is still a critical part of this team’s success.

“I feel really good now about how Iman’s moving, jumping, and all that,” Woodson said. “So he could pick up some extra minutes, along with Pablo. Raymond’s already playing big minutes and I’m not going to forget about Kidd, because you’ve got three days of rest.”

If Smith doesn’t play, or if he plays and is ineffective, it will be important that Carmelo Anthony doesn’t try too much. When Smith was suspended for Game 4 of the first round, Anthony may have thought he had to beat the Boston Celtics by himself. He shot 10-for-35 in what was the Knicks’ worst offensive game of the postseason.

“I don’t want to put that pressure on myself to say that I have to do more out there,” Anthony said of Smith’s possible absence. “We gotta figure it out. We’ll see how the game goes, see the course of the game, see where it takes us.”

Of course, Anthony seemed confident that Smith would play in Game 3, even though he didn’t know the details of Smith’s condition.

“J.R. gonna play tonight,” Anthony said. “We can get him right. That’s what we have team doctors for, as far as medicine and things like that. He’ll be all right … hopefully.”

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Posted in 2013 Conference Semis: Knicks-Pacers, 2013 NBA Playoffs, HT News / Comments (16) /

Lot On Pacers’ Plate In Game 3

May 11, 2013  ·  10:34AM

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Pacers got the split they needed in New York. They took home-court advantage in the conference semifinals by winning Game 1 on Sunday. But things went much differently in Game 2, when the New York Knicks used a 36-4 run to turn a Pacers lead into a lopsided victory.

It will be difficult for New York to carry any momentum across a change in venue and a three-day layoff, but the Pacers obviously have some adjustments to make on both ends of the floor if they want to get back into the win column in Game 3 Saturday (8 p.m. ET, ABC).

During that 36-4 run, the Knicks finally got their offense running as efficiently as it was at the end of the regular season and the Pacers looked nothing like the league’s No 1 defense. But the seeds for that explosion had really been planted in the first half, when the Knicks came out with a lot more variety and movement in their offense and scored 47 points on their first 37 possessions to build a 13-point lead. Some of the different things they did…

  • They moved Carmelo Anthony around. He caught the ball off curls and flares, and he was used as both the screener and ball-handler in pick-and-rolls. The Knicks actually had some success with Anthony as the ball-handler in pick-and-rolls in the fourth quarter of Game 1, but it was too little, too late. In the final few minutes of the first quarter of Game 2, they ran five Anthony/Tyson Chandler pick-and-rolls on four possessions, producing a couple of open 3s for Jason Kidd (who missed) and J.R. Smith (who didn’t miss), as well as a couple of open foul-line jumpers for Anthony himself. Wisely, he didn’t try to challenge Roy Hibbert at the rim nearly as much as he did in Game 1.
  • They ran the flex offense (popularized by the Utah Jazz) on a couple of possessions, resulting in two post-ups for Smith. He traveled on one and passed to Kenyon Martin for an open jumper on another (this was actually the first possession of the second quarter). Neither of those were great results (Martin’s jumper went in, but a Kenyon Martin jumper isn’t a great shot), but you have to like the variety.
  • They attacked the defense from the baseline. On a couple of side pick-and-rolls, Raymond Felton and Iman Shumpert went away from the screen, toward the baseline and under the basket. Felton got Anthony an open elbow jumper, while Shumpert found Chandler under the basket for a dunk. If you get the ball on the baseline like that, you have defenders turning their heads and losing their man.
  • They moved without the ball and didn’t just stand around. Both Smith and Shumpert got layups in the second quarter by just cutting to the basket, something we really didn’t see from the Knicks over the previous four games.
  • From New York’s perspective, the best thing they did was keep running their offense after the Pacers cut off the first option or two. Rather than letting the ball stick in Anthony’s or Smith’s hands, they kept moving, kept setting screens, and made the Pacers defend them for the full possession.

That’s a lot of things for Indiana to worry about. They have the No. 1 defense in the league and they’ll surely be better in Game 3, but the more variety the Knicks throw at them, the more difficult it will be to get stops consistently. Nothing’s easier to defend than one guy with the ball and four teammates standing around.

“I thought we over-helped a little bit, overreacted to some of their penetration, and allowed them to get some easy, catch-and-shoot threes,” David West said at shootaround on Saturday. “We can’t overreact. We’re a help-defense team, but obviously guys guard their guy and we got to let the two guys in the pick-and-roll take care of their business in the pick-and-roll.”

Iso-ball isn’t a problem with the Pacers’ offense, but turnovers are. They ranked 29th in the regular season in turnover rate, committing 16.2 miscues per 100 possessions, they’ve committed more than that (17.4) in the playoffs, and they’ve committed more than that (20.5) in this series.

That 36-4 run got started with three Indiana turnovers in a four-possession stretch. And the Knicks clearly know now that pressure defense will force their opponent into mistakes. Indiana was lucky that only eight of their first 28 turnovers in this series were live balls, and that luck ran out in the second half of Game 2, when seven of their nine turnovers were of the live-ball variety.

There’s no real adjustment to make when you’re turning the ball over a lot. The Pacers will just have to make better decisions and be ready to move the ball quickly when the Knicks look to trap them in Game 3.

“We practiced against post double-teams and pick-and-roll traps as much as possible,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. “Other than that, a lot of has just got to be your ball-toughness. Ball-toughness and spacing is really the two best areas where we can eliminate turnovers.”

This may be the most important game of the series, not only because it’s tied at 1-1, but because the Knicks found things that work in Game 2, and the Pacers must find a way to stop them.

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Posted in 2013 Conference Semis: Knicks-Pacers, 2013 NBA Playoffs / Comments (2) /

Going Small Key For OKC & Golden State?

May 9, 2013  ·  11:42AM

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – With each of the four conference semifinals tied at 1-1 (for the first time since this round went to seven games in 1968), it’s a great time to mine the lineup data provided by NBA.com/Stats for trends, anomalies, and whatever information might be useful … or at least interesting.

The eight teams remaining have only played between six and nine games, so we’re not looking at very big sample sizes here. But small sample sizes are all you have to go on in the playoffs. Decisions have to be made on how players or player combinations have played in that series and against that opponent. Even if you include numbers against the opponent in the regular season, that’s at most four additional games of data.

We’ve already seen some of these teams change lineups mid-series. And sometimes, like when the Dallas Mavericks decided to start J.J. Barea in Game 4 of the 2011 Finals, a lineup change can make a big difference.

So, as we take our first day off of the playoffs, here are some notes from 53 games worth of postseason lineup data…

The drop-off in Indiana
The most-used lineup of the playoffs should be no surprise. The Pacers’ starting lineup of George Hill, Lance Stephenson, Paul George, David West and Roy Hibbert have been getting it done on both ends of the floor and were a terrific lineup in the regular season as well. Though Indy ranked 19th defensively overall, this lineup scored at a rate that would have ranked fourth, playing the second-most minutes of any lineup in the league.

It was a plus-48 in the first round and a plus-5 in both Games 1 and 2 of the conference semifinals. The problem, of course, is that the Indiana bench stinks. In 216 minutes, all other Pacers lineups have scored 93.1 points per 100 possessions and allowed 105.8, for a NetRtg of -12.7 in the postseason.

Indy coach Frank Vogel talks often about his emphasis on defending without fouling. That’s key to not only keep the Pacers’ opponents off the line, but also to keep their starters on the floor.

Over their eight playoff games, every Pacer starter has a positive plus-minus and every sub has a negative one. So maybe the Pacers can benefit as much from three days off as the banged up Knicks can, with an ability to use their rested starters for heavy minutes in Game 3 on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, ABC).

Time for OKC to go small?
Setting a minimum of 35 minutes played, the best lineup (offensively, *defensively and overall) of the postseason has been Oklahoma City’s small lineup of Reggie Jackson, Derek Fisher, Kevin Martin, Kevin Durant and Nick Collison. This unit of two point guards, two scoring wings, and a versatile big has outscored its opponents by 46.5 points per 100 possessions and had its best run in Game 6 in Houston, outscoring the Rockets 31-20 in 14 minutes. It was a plus-7 in seven minutes of Game 1 against the bigger Grizzlies, but Scott Brooks didn’t use it at all in Game 2 on Tuesday.

If you remove Nick Collison and just look at the four smalls together, they’ve been just as effective (OffRtg: 130.2, DefRtg: 80.9, NetRtg: +49.3) in a slightly larger sample of 51 minutes (43 against Houston and eight against Memphis).

With Thabo Sefolosha, the Thunder have other small-lineup options. And thus far against the Grizzlies, they’re a plus-13 in 14 minutes playing small. They’re a minus-17 in 82 minutes playing big and their starting lineup (Jackson, Sefolosha, Durant, Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins has shot a brutal 13-for-47 (28 percent) in its 28 minutes together.

That, of course, will be something to keep an eye on as the series heads to Memphis for Saturday’s Game 3 (5 p.m. ET, ESPN).

*The best defensive lineup with a minimum of 35 minutes played was actually the Thunder’s original starting lineup, which allowed the Rockets to score just 73.1 points per 100 possessions in the first two games of the first round. But Russell Westbrook‘s injury puts that lineup out of commission.

Small works in the other West series too
Both Gregg Popovich and Mark Jackson changed their starting lineups for Game 2 in San Antonio on Wednesday, moves that worked out better for the Warriors. Their (small) lineup of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut is a plus-17 in the series (plus-12 in Game 2), the second-best mark of the conference semifinals thus far.

It was a mini lineup of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard and Boris Diaw that pulled off the Spurs’ amazing comeback on Monday, racking up a plus-13 in 10 minutes over the fourth quarter and two overtimes. With Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter healthy, Popovich didn’t use that lineup at all in Game 2.

Supersubs in Chicago
Obviously, Wednesday’s blowout in Miami makes for some funky lineup numbers in that series, but the Bulls do have a lineup – Nate Robinson, Marco Belinelli, Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah – that’s a plus-14 over the two games (plus-13 in 16 minutes in Game 1 and plus-1 in three minutes in Game 2). It was a plus-7 in 21 minutes in the first round and was a strong plus-20.3 points per 100 possessions in 129 minutes in the regular season. If Kirk Hinrich and/or Luol Deng return for Game 3 on Friday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN), it will be interesting to see how much time that lineup plays together going forward.

A change of fortune in Miami
The Heat had a killer lineup – Mario Chalmers, Ray Allen, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh – that Erik Spoelstra used rather sparingly (only 112 minutes), but outscored its opponents by 30.3 points per 100 possessions in the regular season. That lineup was a plus-12 in 10 minutes in the first round against Milwaukee, but is a minus-13 in six minutes in the conference semis, having allowed the Bulls to shoot 6-for-9 (3-for-3 from 3-point range) in the closing minutes of Game 1.

Offensive struggles in New York
The best offensive lineup in the regular season (minimum 200 minutes) was the Knicks’ lineup of Raymond Felton, Jason Kidd, J.R. Smith, Carmelo Anthony and Tyson Chandler, which scored 119.3 points per 100 possessions in 269 minutes together. With Kidd, Smith and Anthony all struggling, that unit has scored just 86.6 points per 100 possessions in 18 playoff minutes, and has been even worse defensively.

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Posted in 2013 Conference Semis: Heat-Bulls, 2013 Conference Semis: Knicks-Pacers, 2013 Conference Semis: Spurs-Warriors, 2013 Conference Semis: Thunder-Grizzlies, 2013 NBA Playoffs, NBA.com/Stats / Comments (17) /

No Easy Answers For Knicks

May 7, 2013  ·  10:52AM

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NEW YORK – The politicking has begun.

Just one game into Knicks-Pacers, we’re already hearing some talk that may be meant to influence the officiating. Raymond Felton went there after his team lost Game 1 on Sunday, saying that Indiana was doing more than just playing tough defense.

“They’re being really physical with ‘Melo,” Felton said after the game. “They’re banging him, hitting him, they’re going at his [injured left] shoulder. It’s one of those things that goes on in a series. He’ll get those calls.”

Carmelo Anthony drew seven fouls in Game 1, but also shot a brutal 3-for-13 in the paint, as Roy Hibbert and company contested his drives to the basket. He (and the rest of New York) grew visibly frustrated as the game wore on.

“I guess I’ve got to earn my respect,” Anthony said Monday. “It gets frustrating sometimes out there, but I try not to let that negativity sink in.”

The Knicks should hope so, because the Pacers aren’t going to stop being a physical team. They’re the bigger and stronger squad in this series, especially when New York plays small with Anthony at power forward. And on Monday, Indiana was dismissing any ideas of intentional contact.

“We’re just playing ball, man,” Pacers forward David West said. “I thought Roy did a great job with his straight-ups. We take the brunt of the contact most possessions. I thought we were doing a good job of playing our style of defense.”

Pacers coach Frank Vogel may have been doing his own politicking when he made it clear that his team does its best to defend the rim without fouling.

Paint shooting, 2013 playoffs
Team FGM FGA FG% %FGA
L.A. Lakers 89 140 63.6% 27.2%
Miami 108 179 60.3% 38.6%
Golden State 150 253 59.3% 28.1%
L.A. Clippers 128 229 55.9% 36.7%
San Antonio 106 190 55.8% 29.5%
Brooklyn 159 286 55.6% 34.6%
Indiana 144 261 55.2% 33.4%
Memphis 149 272 54.8% 34.9%
Oklahoma City 129 236 54.7% 27.8%
Houston 120 229 52.4% 38.3%
Chicago 165 316 52.2% 36.5%
Boston 88 169 52.1% 29.0%
Milwaukee 77 149 51.7% 35.8%
Atlanta 107 208 51.4% 30.0%
Denver 142 277 51.3% 37.1%
New York 110 224 49.1% 31.1%
Total 1,971 3,618 54.5% 33.1%

%FGA = Percent of total FGA

“Part of the plan with these guys is do not put them to the free throw line,” Vogel said. “We’ve got to have discipline to be legal with our body position and earn no-calls. That’s a major point of emphasis to our defensive attack.”

The Pacers, of course, had the No. 1 defense in the league this season. They were No. 1 in defending both the 3-point line and the restricted area. And they ranked ninth in opponent free throw rate, allowing their opponents to attempt just 26 free throws per 100 field goal attempts. The Knicks attempted 23 free throws and 81 field goals in Game 1. That’s 28 per 100, a higher rate than they attempted in the first round against Boston (23 per 100).

The Knicks’ offense was struggling well before Sunday. They scored less than a point per possession against the Celtics and are the only team shooting less than 50 percent from the paint in the playoffs.

If you were to give a Knick a single vote for postseason MVP, it would go to Felton, not Anthony. The point guard has clearly been New York’s best and most consistent player in these playoffs, averaging 17.3 points and 5.0 assists, while shooting 49 percent. He has attacked both the Boston and Indiana defenses on the pick-and-roll, getting to the rim when the opening is there, and pulling up for jumpers and floaters when opposing big man stays back to protect the rim.

While Anthony and J.R. Smith have combined to shoot 47-for-152 (31 percent) over the last four games, Felton has shot 57 percent from the paint and 48 percent from mid-range in the postseason. And Vogel knows that Felton with the ball can be a dangerous situation for his defense.

“They got a lot of stuff off their middle pick-and-rolls,” the coach said Monday. “So we’ve got to be prepared for a lot of adjustments and some Plan Bs.”

But the Pacers will be fine if Felton continues to be the only guy getting points out those pick-and-rolls. He scored 18 points on 8-for-12 shooting on Sunday, but totaled just three assists. While Hibbert was forced to choose between contesting Felton’s floaters or protecting the rim and preventing the lob, he has the length to be a threat to both Felton and the rolling big man (Tyson Chandler or Kenyon Martin).

Hibbert’s rim protection and Paul George‘s ability to defend Anthony one-on-one allows the Pacers’ other defenders to stay at home on the Knicks’ shooters.

“We know that, for them, it’s all about the 3-point shot,” West said. “We’ve got the luxury of having Paul, who can guard his guy straight up. So we don’t have to help as much. We know we’re going to help at the rim. But not allowing them angles to the basket prevents us from over-helping and overextending our defense.”

The Knicks shot just 7-for-19 from 3-point range in Game 1 and are now 5-12 when they hit less than eight threes in a game. They’re 24-3, meanwhile, when Felton dishes out at least seven assists.

Now, the Knicks had a decent offensive game on Sunday, scoring 95 points on 90 possessions. But that wasn’t good enough to make up for their shaky defense.

In order to even this series in Game 2 on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET, TNT), New York will have to improve on one end of the floor or the other. Breaking through against the No. 1 defense in the league will be easier said than done.

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Posted in 2013 Conference Semis: Knicks-Pacers, 2013 NBA Playoffs, HT News / Comments (15) /

Pacers Beat The Knicks With Offense

May 5, 2013  ·  10:54PM

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NEW YORK – The Indiana Pacers aren’t nearly the best offensive team in the NBA. But they’re a lot better than the Boston Celtics, a painful lesson learned by the New York Knicks on Sunday.

Defense was the Pacers’ calling card this season. And behind the exceptional rim protection of Roy Hibbert, Indiana kept a great offensive team at bay in Game 1 of the conference semifinals. The Knicks shot just 12-for-28 in the restricted area as Hibbert blocked five shots and contested countless others.

But it was the other end of the floor that really determined the 102-95 outcome, giving the Pacers their first win at Madison Square Garden this season, as well as home-court advantage in this series.

The Knicks looked like a pretty good defensive team against the Celtics. They pressured Avery Bradley and swarmed Paul Pierce, and there was nothing that Boston could really do about it, because they didn’t have anyone who could create shots or make something out of nothing.

The Pacers have that. They have Hibbert and David West in the post. They have George Hill in the pick-and-roll and Lance Stephenson on the break. And they have a jack-of-all-trades in Paul George. Throw in some hot shooting from D.J. Augustin (4-for-5 from 3-point range) and Indiana had six guys in double figures on Sunday, even though neither George (5-for-14) nor Hill (5-for-17) shot well.

It was a balanced attack in more ways than one, because there was no real offensive set or action from which Indiana got a lot of production. It was a real mixed bag of early offense, pick-and-rolls, post-ups, random plays made late in the shot clock, and second-chance points.

“If you’re going to score the ball offensively in the playoffs, especially in an environment like this, teams are going to take away your first option, your second option,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said afterward. “Random action is a huge, huge part of playoff basketball on the offensive end. And our guys did a great job of just playing the game.”

After some early struggles (10 points on their first 15 possessions), it was a couple of offensive rebounds (from Hibbert and Tyler Hansbrough) that produced five second chance points and got the Pacers going. And it was in the second quarter when they hit their stride, scoring 30 points on just 20 possessions and turning a seven-point deficit into a six-point lead that they continued to build on in the second half.

The Pacers’ spacing was good, they shared the ball, and they didn’t force anything. They played smart. They had 16 turnovers, but only four of them were live balls, keeping the Knicks from getting out in transition.

“I thought we didn’t have a careless turnover,” West said. “We took our time tonight. I thought guys did a good job of putting them on their heels, attacking and being aggressive.”

The Knicks weren’t awful defensively (meaning that they weren’t nearly as bad as the Nets were in the first half on Saturday night), but going from the Celtics to the Pacers (or any other team, really) is an adjustment. New York tried applying pressure on the ball like they did against Boston, but unlike the Celtics, the Pacers have real NBA point guards who are able to handle that pressure, as well as more guys who can make plays once the defense is compromised.

So the Knicks have some things to figure out. Because the Pacers scored from all directions, there’s no obvious defensive adjustments to make. They may just have to work harder and longer defensively.

You can point to the offense and that Carmelo Anthony (10-for-28) and J.R. Smith (4-for-15) shot a combined 33 percent. And make no mistake about it, the efficiency at which the Knicks were scoring at the end of the regular season has been completely lost.

But with Hibbert staying back to protect the rim, Raymond Felton was again productive in the pick-and-roll on Sunday. Overall, the Knicks did score 95 points on 90 possessions, a solid output in a playoff game against the league’s top defense.

The Knicks themselves ranked 16th defensively this season. They looked much better in the first round, but if Game 1 of this series is any indication, that was more about the Celtics than the Knicks.

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Posted in 2013 Conference Semis: Knicks-Pacers, 2013 NBA Playoffs, HT News / Comments (27) /

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