Hustle Plays A Big Part in the Indiana Pacers Winning Game 1
By Ben Gibson
The Indiana Pacers won Game 1 in Toronto by making the small hustle plays that end up having a big impact in the game.
Hand down, man down, as the saying goes.
In Game 1 of the first-round series, the Indiana Pacers made sure they weren’t allowing easy baskets for the Toronto Raptors. On Saturday, they kept the Raptors to a 40.5 eFG% — nearly 10% below the league average — and outscored them in all but the first quarter of the game thanks to their relentless defense. The end result was a 100-90 victory for Indiana. It also helps when Paul George scores 33 points, too.
Part of how they did that was keeping a hand in the Toronto shooters’ faces, making it just a little bit harder for them to make their shots. On the Raptors’ 79 shots, the Pacers closed out and had a hand up on 67 of those, or 84.8%. Indiana’s defense made Toronto -7.8% worse on their shooting while the Pacers only shot -1.1% worse when the Raptors were defending them in similar situations. One of the biggest factors was the way the Pacers defended the 3-point line. The Raptors were -15.8% worse than usual from beyond the arc on Saturday.
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Throw in 8 blocked shots — 5 by Turner — and you have a nightmare for Toronto’s offense.
While Toronto had a similar number of hustle plays in Game 1, what might have been the difference in the game was the way Indiana hit their mid-range and 3-point attempts. Sometimes luck, or whatever you’d like to call it, ends up mattering. Some days players struggle to hit shots even when they’re wide open. While both teams looked to putting out the same effort defensively, we saw Indiana’s shot’s falling, even on the contested ones.
Monta Ellis’ first 3-pointer in the game might be a perfect example of this. The shot clock was winding down, he was covered, but the 3-pointer he hoisted up went in. Ellis had a shot fall that probably won’t more often than not.
Toronto’s Kyle Lowry took seven attempts from beyond the arc— some of which were open — but the 38.8% 3-point shooter couldn’t even get his easy ones to fall. Luck isn’t the right word, but on Saturday, some of Toronto’s easier shots just weren’t going in. They were the 5th ranked team in the NBA in the regular season when it comes to making 3-pointers, so I imagine it won’t be as bad in Game 2 even if the Pacers continue to play great defense.
It is a small sample size, but even if the Raptors were hustling just as much, hitting those harder to make shots helped push Indiana to the win. Sometimes the bounces aren’t going your way, like they did for the Raptors, but Indiana created some of their own luck in Game 1.
Game Stats and Shooting Percentages in Previous Toronto Raptors Game | PointAfter
Individually speaking, Myles Turner contested 16 shots — 3rd most in any of the games on Saturday — while Paul George was second on the Pacers with 12. When you throw in PG getting 4 of the 8 loose balls Indiana wrangled — of 13 available in the game — you start to see how hustle plays add up.
Getting 15 deflections were just another part of that. With 9 steals a game in the regular season, Indiana was ranked 4th in the NBA. Getting those deflections can often lead to those steals, and if nothing else they slow down and disrupt the flow of the offense. We saw that on Saturday as Toronto had 19 turnovers in the game, 11 of which were steals.
Next: Myles Turner Shines in Playoff Debut
Both teams may make a similar number of hustle plays, as the NBA defines them, but just being able to turn a few of them into points can have a huge impact on the game.