On Haliburton, Lillard, & potential changes for the guards (Patreon)

Caitlin Cooper and Samson Folk look both backward and forward at the glaring contrast between Tyrese Haliburton and Damian Lillard following Game 1 and ahead of Game 2

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

As was explained in our series preview, when the Pacers went 4-1 against the Bucks during the regular season, the Pacers played those games like playoff games -- at least by comparison to the game-planning from Milwaukee. Fast forward to Game 1, however, and the opposite appeared to be the case, as the Pacers opened a playoff game like a regular season game -- at least by comparison to their more seasoned, field-tested opponent.

After all, with 3:02 left to play in the first half, Damian Lillard had nearly outscored the Pacers by himself, tallying 29 points against a team that was slow to trap and, quite frankly, looked as though they were trapping themselves when they did. Meanwhile, as the Bucks led 56-29 (yes, the Pacers had the same number of points as Lillard), Tyrese Haliburton had only attempted three shots, finishing with a grand total of seven field-goal attempts for the game. Needless to say, the contrast at the guard position was glaring under the bright lights and continued to put out plenty of flashbulbs even after halftime, when Lillard's scoring explosion started to dim.

To put all of that into context, as far as what changed and what still needs to change for the Pacers with regard to both star guards, I was once again joined by Samson Folk to reflect on Game 1 and look ahead to Game 2.

Here are the relevant timestamps:

0:00 - Introductions

2:35 - How the Pacers defended Dame

11:36 - Overboard with overs?

20:47 - Potential changes for Game 2

20:53 - Samson's idea: deeper drop + more trapping

23:26 - Caitlin's idea: cross-match Nesmith + switch ball-screens

29:59 - Why did Tyrese only take seven shots?

35:02 - Pascal Siakam leading with experience

36:22 - Playing a lineup without Haliburton or Siakam in the playoffs

40:22 - How the Bucks defended Haliburton (some of this was foreseeable!)

43:22 - Potential counters for weaking + switching

45:24 - Tyrese being overly deferential

46:46 - Letting Dame off the hook on defense

50:54 - How the Pacers can help Tyrese get easier shots

57:58 - Confidence level following Game 1

1:02:02 - Samson wants to know what all of you think about Siakam

1:04:40 - Samson Folk, the T-Shirt merchant

1:07:11 - Thank you and Goodbye (mailbag coming soon!)