Pacers Season Highlights: Oladipo sinks the Celtics

In perhaps the defining moment of the Indiana Pacers season, Victor Oladipo hit a monstrous shot to beat Boston.

The story of the Indiana Pacers season revolved around Victor Oladipo, in one way or another. Whether it was scintillating clutch performances or devastating injuries, the Pacers went as Victor Oladipo went.

After his first injury, Oladipo was never the same and ultimately met an unfortunate fate that would define the rest of Indiana’s season. This isn’t a time for the melancholy, though. This piece is created to relive my favorite and most joyous moment of the Indiana Pacers’ season, against arguably their greatest rival of the campaign.

Even when Victor Oladpo’s health limited his playing ceiling, one aspect of his game was as superb as ever: crunch time. In his time on the court this season, Victor Oladipo was the best clutch player in the NBA, bar none. The multiple game-winning shots (sorry Bulls, Knicks, and Celtics) and raw numbers back this statement up.

Speaking of numbers, Victor Oladipo’s statistics in the clutch are absurd. In the clutch, Oladipo led the NBA in points per game (5.1), field goal percentage (63.2 percent), three-point percentage (60 percent) and true shooting (80.4 percent!!!!!), all insane marks (min 15 games played, 2.0 FGA).

When Oladipo was on the court in clutch time, the Pacers’ net rating was +34.8, the highest of any player in the NBA. Putting these insane numbers even further into context, Steph Curry ranked second in clutch field goal percentage and true shooting percentage in the clutch, at 46.2 percent and 68.6 percent respectively. In terms of clutch volume and efficiency, Victor Oladipo sat in his own stratosphere.

Oladipo’s virtuoso moment came on November 3rd, 2018 at home against the Boston Celtics. Boston and Indiana both started the season well, at 6-3 and 6-2. An early season clash of Eastern Conference powers, this showdown was as entertaining as advertised.

We begin our journey back in time late in the fourth quarter, with 3:10 left on the game clock. At this point, Victor Oladipo only had 13 points. However, this was the calm before his late-game onslaught. Nate McMillan calls an effective BLOB, running Oladipo off of floppy screens and he nails the three. 92-91 Pacers:

This battle featured two of the game’s greatest shot makers in Oladipo and Kyrie Irving. On the next possession, Irving missed a tightly contested fadeaway from mid-range. The Pacers looked to set up the same floppy action, but this time Oladipo chose the side with one screen.

This confused Jayson Tatum, who was trying to prevent Oladipo from using the double screen. He runs off scot-free but can’t sink the wide open three:

Allowing middle penetration is the death of any defense, forcing rotations and giving elite scorers open shots. Darren Collison is behind the dribble handoff on the ensuing possession, giving Irving a free lane to the rim.

Victor Oladipo commits a mortal sin, helping one pass away, especially with two defenders already in the paint. This leaves Tatum wide open, whom Bojan Bogdanovic closes out to on the x-out (this is a little tight for an x-out but they could have rotated like that). Tatum swings to Jaylen Brown who splashes the corner three. 94-92 Celtics:

The player who suffered the most from Victor Oladipo’s absence was Domantas Sabonis. His short roll creation, not his post-ups, are Sabonis’ most valuable skill. When Indiana doesn’t have a ball-handler who commands double teams, Sabonis rarely gets the chance to create like this. Oladipo’s scoring gravity was threatening enough that it commanded a double team.

Sabonis ate defenses alive on the short roll, finding all manner passing windows and here finding Bojan Bogdanovic on the wing. Watch how he stunts middle, forcing Jaylen Brown to freeze, allowing Bojan to hit this “holy crap I’m so wide open I could fly to Croatia and back and still be open” three-pointer. 95-94 Pacers:

Kyrie Irving misses another pull-up mid-range shot on the next trip down, but Al Horford grabbed the offensive board. Sabonis fouls him and Horford hits a free throw. The Celtics had tied it up.

The Indiana Pacers were still alive though. Next time down the floor, attacking Marcus Smart in the pick-and-roll, Oladipo foolishly tries to float a pass over his hawking arms, turning the ball over. Making up for that mistake, he hustles back in transition, thwarting the fastbreak opportunity:

As one would expect, Brad Stevens draws up a gorgeous BLOB on the ensuing out of bounds. The main component of the play is a curl to the corner for Kyrie Irving. This play on its own is a good idea here, but Stevens adds a little wrinkle to make it even deadlier.

Stevens sends Jaylen Brown careening to the rim on a middle cut, catching Domas Sabonis’ attention. This cut holds Sabonis from helping on the corner and Irving drains a cold-blooded three in the corner. 98-95 Celtics:

At this point, Victor Oladipo decides he’s done with these fancy offensive shenanigans. He sizes up Marcus Morris, steps back and drills the clutch three. At this point, a feeling reverberated through the air in Banker’s Life that something special was brewing. 98-97 Celtics:

After his corner three on the last possession, Irving’s hand began to warm up.

He fakes a pass to Al Horford, but it doesn’t fool Collison. Kyrie instead answers Oladipo with a double-clutch contested three. That put Indiana down 4 with 38 seconds on the clock, the outlook dimmed ever so slightly for Indiana. 101-97 Celtics:

Oladipo got to the free throw line on the next trip down, hitting both. The lead was down to 2 for Boston.

On the ensuing possession, Horford flashes his incredible passing timing and chemistry, finding Irving wide open on the backdoor cut. Cory Joseph shows excellent effort to contest the shot and force a miss:

Victor Oladipo grabbed the rebound.

You know what comes next:

One of the best shots of the season, Oladipo stutters at half court before accelerating past Kyrie. On this magical night, no Al Horford contest was going to kill the spark in the building and stop this game-winner from swishing through the net.

Boston still had time on the clock. They called a timeout to advance the ball up the sideline.

For the final SLOB, Brad Stevens sets up a flex screen on the baseline, presumably seeking a Joseph switch on to Tatum. However, Oladipo thwarts Boston’s nefarious plan, soaring through the air and intercepting the inbounds pass, ending the game. Pacers win, 102-101.

This wasn’t Victor Oladipo’s only clutch shot of the season, but the totality of the clutch period is what made it spectacular. All of his difficult shots and excellent defense were the catalyst ultimately leading to the win.

Let this piece be a reminder of what Victor Oladipo can do when he is healthy and a moment of joy on a normal Tuesday. Here’s to hoping Oladipo comes back healthy next season, full of game winners and clutch moments to give to the Indiana Pacers and the World.