Victor Oladipo’s triple-double jump started his revival

Victor Oladipo was shooting 24 percent over his last three playoff games and was struggling to get anything going. He changed all that with a dynamic Game 6.

Pacers fans have spouted the narrative all season that Victor Oladipo learned how to be an on-court leader and dominant player from Russell Westbrook. He backed this theory up by posting a Westbrookian stat line in Game 6, recording his first career postseason triple-double to lead the Pacers to a 34 point win over the Cavaliers

Even if you’re in the “triple-doubles are arbitrary stats” camp, Oladipo’s stat line was supremely impressive. 28 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists don’t grow on trees. Doing that while shooting 11/19 and 6/8 from deep is even more impressive. Add in that he put the clamps on Kyle Korver for multiple defensive possessions, and Oladipo had an all-around performance for the ages.

In Games 3-5, Oladipo shot 12/50. Just brutally bad. He couldn’t get to the rim, his pull-up jumper wasn’t falling, and he simply couldn’t put it all together. Tonight, he found a way, starting with a made three that was set up by great team play. A back screen from Bojan Bogdanovic before setting up some floppy action gave Oladipo enough space to rise up and nail the open three with JR Smith still a few feet away:

Has a basket ever been more emblematic of a game before? Oladipo has had trouble over the last few games for two-fold reasons. Beyond just struggling to hit shots, the Pacers were trying to get him to score by having him be the almost exclusively the ball handler. Tonight, they struck a balance between off-ball actions and on-ball attacks for Dipo’s offense, and it worked perfectly.

It also helped the crowd, the team, and Victor’s confidence that his second basket was an emphatic slam. Just three minutes later, he did this:

(Side note, look at Lance Stephenson making the extra pass!)

Vic made six shots in the first quarter after making 12 total shots in the last 3 games. He regained his shooting stroke fast, and the rest of his game came right along with it.

Throughout the regular season, Vic was never much of a rebounder. He averaged just a smidge over five per game and only cracked into double digits twice. But not for lack of trying, mostly for lack of strategy.

In this game, the Pacers let him try. Instead of having him get back on defense or push ahead in transition, they had Vic go try to grab rebounds himself. Before you knew it, he had grabbed 13 of those things, his second best ever number in a Pacers uniform. Seven alone came during Indiana’s dominant third quarter. His lone offensive rebound should have been a sign for the Cavs that they were not going to stop Vic tonight:

Like rebounds, assists were never really Dipo’s thing this season either. He only averaged four-ish per game and only hit double digits once. But he was a bank teller tonight, handing out dimes left and right. He delivered 10 assists, a second-best in the Blue and Gold for Mr. Oladipo.

Ultimately, his tenth assist might have been the coolest one. After coming off a screen, he whipped a cross-court pass with his weak hand to the wide open Cory Joseph. To quote Mike Breen (who I missed very much on the broadcast) “Bang”:

Victor was the pilot of the plane in the game, making sure everyone had a comfortable trip at cruising altitudes. Except for Kyle Korver. He did not let Kyle Korver get comfy.

Korver had killed the Pacers for two straight games. In Game 6, he hit two bombs in the first four minutes. It looked like the Pacers were headed for another troublesome night from Korver. But then, they switched Vic on to him.

Vic made life hell for the sharpshooter. He chased him around screens, got into his jersey, and most importantly, he closed out hard every time Korver caught the ball in a dangerous position:

He shut down Korver. He got his teammates involved. He scored points and got the crowd into it. He snagged rebounds. What more can Victor Oladipo have done?

Next: Post-Game Grades: Pacers demolish Cavs in Game 6

How about four steals. He quite literally did it all tonight. All season Victor Oladipo has claimed Indianapolis was his city. After the last three games, it looked like he lost the key to the city. In Game 6, he found it. In Game 7, hopefully, he keeps it.