After the Indiana Pacers put collectively the very best capturing efficiency in NBA playoff historical past to advance to the Jap Convention finals, Tyrese Haliburton needed to set the report straight on his workforce’s standing because the shock of the 2024 playoffs.
“It is no fluke,” the All-Star guard mentioned on Sunday after Indiana captured Sport 7 at Madison Sq. Backyard. “We anticipate this from our group, after which as soon as we added [Pascal Siakam], we knew that we might actually take off.
“It does not actually matter what anybody thinks besides the folks in our journey celebration. As a result of I do not assume anybody right here picked the Pacers to win the sequence.”
Following their Sport 7 win, issues will not get any simpler for the underdog Pacers, who earlier than this season hadn’t gained a playoff sequence since reaching the convention finals in 2014. The subsequent problem: taking down the 64-win Boston Celtics, who’re within the East finals for the sixth time in eight seasons.
Forward of Tuesday’s Sport 1 (8 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN2), this is a have a look at the components that can decide which contender will advance to subsequent month’s NBA Finals.
MORE: NBA playoff schedules and information | Offseason guides 
How the Celtics and Pacers acquired right here
Boston has comfortably run by means of the opening two rounds of the playoffs. The Celtics dispatched the Miami Warmth in 5 video games as Jimmy Butler missed the sequence with a knee damage, as solely a historic capturing efficiency by Miami in Sport 2 prevented a sweep.
The Celtics coughed up one other Sport 2 at dwelling to Cleveland, however Donovan Mitchell’s exit with a calf damage after Sport 3 turned that sequence into one other five-game triumph.
Indiana, in the meantime, has reached this level with a break-neck offensive tempo led by Haliburton. However there’s a lot extra to the league’s second-rated offense. Siakam assaults relentlessly and offers the younger membership some much-needed playoff expertise on the prime of the rotation, whereas backup level guard T.J. McConnell is integral to arguably the NBA’s finest bench due to his underrated midrange jumper and his potential to hound opposing gamers for 94 toes.
Pundits will inevitably level to Indiana’s first two playoff opponents and cite accidents to the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard and the New York Knicks’ Julius Randle and OG Anunoby, amongst others. However the Pacers have sufficient younger expertise — particularly on offense — to grow to be a perennial participant within the East’s playoff image.
Porzingis’ availability is Boston’s largest unknown
The 7-foot-3 middle, who the Celtics acquired throughout the offseason to present them a special look towards switching defenses within the playoffs, has been sidelined with a calf damage since Sport 5 towards Miami. He has slowly begun ramping up his exercise over the previous couple of weeks however is anticipated to overlook at the least the primary two video games of this sequence, sources instructed ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Friday.
Porzingis is an elite rim protector and 3-point shooter who recorded profession highs in area purpose proportion (52%) and efficient area purpose proportion (59%) this season, whereas permitting simply 44.3% capturing within the paint, second finest amongst gamers to contest at the least 300 photographs this season, in line with Second Spectrum monitoring knowledge.
Can Indiana’s protection afford to double Tatum or Brown?
In not seeing the Bucks or Knicks at full power, Indiana was typically capable of keep away from having to defend a number of stars without delay. Due to that, the Pacers have been capable of throw a number of defenders at Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, similar to they have been capable of throw swarms at Lillard within the first spherical.
The query now could be whether or not Indiana can defend the high-powered Celtics effectively sufficient. If the Pacers attempt single protection towards Boston’s famous person wings, the Celtics might dominate the free throw battle. No workforce within the league despatched opponents to the road at a better price than Indiana this season.
Doubling might show simply as dangerous. The Celtics took and hit extra 3-pointers than every other workforce. Nonetheless, the Pacers surrendered fewer makes an attempt and makes than any workforce within the league throughout the common season.
Matchup to look at: Haliburton vs. Boston’s stingy backcourt
To have an opportunity on this sequence, Indiana will want elite offensive manufacturing from its star level guard towards arguably the league’s finest defensive backcourt in Jrue Vacation and Derrick White.
The Pacers acquired such a efficiency throughout their in-season event victory towards Boston on Dec. 4, when Haliburton had 26 factors with 5 3-pointers, 13 assists and 10 rebounds to advance to the IST semifinals in Las Vegas.
Vacation and White, nevertheless, are each lengthy and rangy sufficient to present Haliburton loads of bother all through the sequence. Boston’s duo is coming off a Sport 5 victory through which it helped maintain Cleveland guards Darius Garland and Max Strus to a mixed 23 factors on 7-for-27 capturing.
Indiana’s turbo-charged offense is constructed across the scoring and playmaking of Haliburton. Vacation and White current the hardest problem but.
Collection wild card: The rebounding battle
If the Pacers’ protection is unfold skinny — both as a result of Indiana opts to double-team, or Boston’s potential to house the ground with shooters — the query of rebounding might be essential, similar to it was within the convention semifinals between New York and Indiana.
In Sport 5 of that sequence, throughout which the Knicks began 6-foot-1 guard Miles McBride over 6-8 ahead Valuable Achiuwa, Indiana struggled defending Brunson. Once they sprinted at him, he dumped the ball to McBride, who served as a screener and launch valve on offense.
Boston could have comparable counters, ones which can be probably extra environment friendly than New York’s. The Pacers, who struggled mightily at instances to maintain the Knicks off the offensive glass, could have that drawback towards the Celtics, too. Indiana ranked twenty sixth in defensive rebound price throughout the common season. By halftime of that Sport 5, the Knicks had extra offensive rebounds than the Pacers had complete rebounds.
Stat that might outline the sequence: Factors!
The Celtics and Pacers ranked first and second in offensive effectivity this season, however every East finalist acquired there in dramatically alternative ways: Boston led the NBA in made 3-pointers, whereas Indiana led the league in paint factors.
That is the sixth playoff sequence since 1998 to function the highest workforce in made 3s towards the highest workforce in paint factors, and the primary in a convention finals or later because the 2000 Finals between the Pacers and Los Angeles Lakers. Up to now 5 such conferences, the workforce that led the league in paint factors gained three of them.
ESPN Stats & Data’s Matt Williams contributed to this story.
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