The best, most competitive, most entertaining NBA postseason I can remember begins its last chapter this Thursday — game one of the Finals matchup between the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Oklahoma City’s trip to the Finals is unsurprising. They were the best team all season — best record and the biggest scoring margin in NBA history — and other than an epic second round tussle with the Denver Nuggets, they’ve largely maintained that level of domination. At +10.8 per 100 possessions, they have the seventh best scoring in NBA postseason history.
Fun (and weird) fact: This year’s [Cleveland Cavaliers](https://www.fearthesword.com) have the fifth best postseason scoring margin in league history, despite getting vanquished in five games by the Indiana Pacers (the other finalist).
As much as I liked and respected the Pacers this season — Tyrese Haliburton continues to be my current favorite player — and took note of their excellent play the last couple months of the season, I did not think of them as a team ready to reach the Finals.
But Haliburton returned to all-NBA level performance, Pascal Siakam is good, a bunch of guys bought into roles, and head coach Rick Carlisle showed once again why he’s long been considered one of the league’s top basketball minds.
Indiana’ superb offense predicated on LOTS of ball and player movement starts but does not end with Haliburton. The slender guard, who should have been Washington’s draft pick in 2020, is a rarity in basketball history — an elite playmaker who doesn’t dominate the ball.
He pushes the pace, gives up the ball to teammates, sets screens, cuts, induces cuts, and makes an array of daring (and sometimes downright crazy) passes without committing turnovers. His playoffs assist-to-turnover ratio is 5-to-1, which is the level of cautious passers like Monte Morris or Tyus Jones...except Haliburton is not cautious. He’s an elite processor and he’s just that doggone good.
Per NBA tracking data, In the postseason, he’s averaged 4.13 seconds per touch — less “ball in hands” time than Cameron Payne, Ty Jerome, Dennis Schroder, Paolo Banchero, Cole Anthony, Delon Wright, Cory Joseph, and Craig Porter Jr.
In this series, Haliburton will not be the best player on the floor. That honor goes to newly crowned Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who’s putting up Jordanesque scoring and efficiency numbers. Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith have a major assignment ahead of them in trying to keep SGA under control.
OKC’s season-long excellence is only partly an SGA story. Their calling card is a preposterously good defense — possibly, arguably the best defensive team ever. The “best ever” argument is about their effectiveness relative to league environment, and their versatility in throttling an array of offensive attacks.
NBA players are more skilled, athletic, conditioned and coached than ever before. NBA offenses are more sophisticated, multi-pronged, and faster-paced than ever. (Pace in this context refers to the speed and force at which players are cutting and moving, and not to the tally of possessions, which is usually called “pace.”)
What casual fans imagine NBA games to be is a thing of the past. Offenses run multiple actions simultaneously, and flow through multiple options at amazing speeds. Defenders have to somehow keep up, and it’s impressive to see the level of effort, intensity, and excellence from defenses...and a full league postseason offensive rating of 113.3.
Given that my two favorite non-Wizards teams are facing each other in the Finals, I don’t care much who wins. I’m hoping to see intense, fast-paced, high-quality basketball that last six or seven games. My Official Prediction: OKC in six.
And by the way, here’s a scary thought for the rest of the league: by minutes-weighted average, Oklahoma City is the youngest team in this year’s playoffs. They were seventh youngest in the league this season. Plus they control a staggering number of draft picks over the next few years, which will give them opportunities to restock on the fly.
Programming note: I’m tentatively planning to host a Playback stream during each Finals game. The ESPN crew: Mike Breen, Doris Burke, and Richard Jefferson is good. We’ll supplement with talk about the Wizards, the upcoming draft, and arcane basketball history.