Mastering the art of the counterpunch
After three playoff-style series in the month of January alone, San Antonio has been given a crash course on the importance of adjusting on the fly.
Mastery of the counterpunch is learned, not gifted from the heavens. Like any artform, there’s a requirement of trial and error before lessons are understood and applied to future situations.
For a San Antonio roster that features only two players with postseason experience, the three playoff-style series it’s played this month have offered as close a facsimile to late-April basketball as it’ll see until it tastes the real thing for the first time. More specifically, the Spurs have had the chance to learn what it’s like to not only make adjustments in a specific matchup with games only a day or two apart, but what it’s like to counter the adjustments made on the other side.
In their early January matchup, the Denver Nuggets learned from one night to the next they had to crowd Victor Wembanyama with smaller players and swipe at the ball every time he tried to rip through and drive. He turned into a turnover machine, and San Antonio’s offense crumbled late in that second game.
The Memphis Grizzlies figured out the best course of action was to let anyone other than Victor beat them, and regardless of whether the Spurs’ shots were going in, they were going to run, run, and run some more with the hope San Antonio would fall into their trap.
As for Indiana in Paris, it was pretty clear it figured out a thing or two ahead its rematch with the Spurs on Saturday.
Pacers pressure
The most obvious Indiana adjustment from the first game in Paris to the second was its switch to full-court, man-to-man pressure right from the opening tip. Much of San Antonio’s success in Thursday’s 140-110 win was due to the fact it was able to get into its sets and find good shots with relative ease, which is not something the Pacers have been affording their opponents lately.
Indiana — who figured out late in Game 1 its pressure could cause havoc — has boasted a top-five defense in the league since the turn of the calendar, and its guard rotation of Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, Benedict Mathurin, Aaron Nesmith and TJ McConnell is about as scrappy as you’ll see from a depth perspective. Most teams cannot play 94 feet of defense for 48 minutes, but so long as its working, these guys can.
It wasn’t just the guards putting in the work, though. The Pacers were also picking up Victor Wembanyama way out on the floor and often past halfcourt, not allowing him to get to his spots without resistance. This has been a common theme whenever San Antonio has faced an opponent for a second, third or fourth time this season: Defenses quickly learned they have to bother Victor, be physical with him, and (in the words of an opposing player overheard earlier this season at the Frost Bank Center) can’t show him too much respect.
And this is where the reality of San Antonio’s incomplete roster comes into play. The best way to get a defense out of that type of aggressive man-to-man pressure off made baskets is to beat it off the dribble and make it pay with penetration and kickouts. But beyond Stephon Castle and, at times, Tre Jones and Keldon Johnson, the Spurs don’t possess a consistent blow-by threat. It allows Indiana to play up without much concern, which is exactly the way it would love to operate.
So for this group of Spurs, defense is critical. Getting stops allows them to play against a backpedaling defense, rather than one on the balls of its feet. It allows for the hit-aheads and run-outs, and makes life easier in the halfcourt as the defense scrambles back into position. San Antonio was getting those stops on Thursday, but Saturday’s game was a different story. For the most part, at least…
Neutralizing the Wemby factor
Offensively, there was no question well-known warlock Rick Carlisle was going to return with a fresh plan after watching his team get swallowed up by Wembanyama in the pick-and-roll on Thursday. Indiana’s two-man game involving Myles Turner as the screener had been essentially neutered in San Antonio’s blowout win, so they went away from it to start the game, electing instead to use him mostly as a spot-up threat on the weak side to keep Victor away from the play.
But when the Pacers are at their best, there’s no offensive stagnancy. They move quickly, with a ton of ball- and player-movement aimed to force defenses into multiple decision points on every possession. And while Indiana didn’t utilize Turner nearly as much in the pick-and-roll on Saturday, when it did, every action was deliberate in its intention to neutralize the Wemby threat.
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