Pacers Report Cards: Grading every Pacers player's Conference Finals performance
By Mueez Azfar
Myles Turner
Stats: 4 Games, 32.3 MPG, 15.3 PPG, 7 RPG, 1.5 APG, 0.3 SPG, 0.5 BPG, 4.3 TOV, 3.3 FPG 54.8/43.8/100 Splits on 67% TS
Myles Turner's Boston series can be split into two sections, each with two games. In Games 1 and 3, Turner was fantastic. In Games 2 and 4, not so much.
To start off, let's talk about Turner's good points, which were emphasized in Games 1 and 3. Especially in Game 1, Turner took advantage of every matchup Boston gave him. With Al Horford out, Indiana went to Turner plenty of times in the pick and pop to utilize his greatest strength, the top-of-the-key three-pointer which provided drop coverage nightmares against bigs such as Isaiah Hartenstein and Brook Lopez in the first two rounds. Turner's 18 points on 7/10 shooting and 2/3 from deep in the first half of Game 1 spoke for themselves, as Boston's best match for him, Al Horford, still could not do much due to his lack of quickness.
Unfortunately for Turner, he got fewer touches in the second half, only taking three shots in the final two quarters and scoring five points before scoreless in overtime. This seemed to carry over in Game 2. Despite Turner being a solid post-up threat for Indiana and their tallest starter, he seemed to shy away from contact in the post, reluctant to back down smaller players and instead using a short turnaround jumper which was far less effective than simply bulldozing his way in the paint. This led to only eight points on 3/7 shooting in Game 2.
Turner's Game 3 saw him fix his post-up issues and bang down low more. Despite shooting 0/3 from deep, he still scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Going with the theme of scoring inside, all of Turner's nine field goals came inside the paint, with the furthest one coming from just inside the free-throw line. Myles Turner showed in Game 3 that he could bang down low, especially with a smaller player on him, and Indiana would need him to bring that ability out in Game 4.
Unfortunately, Turner did not deliver in Game 4. In only 27 minutes, he scored eight points yet again, this time shooting 2/6 from the field and 2/5 from deep. Yes, only one of Turner's field goal attempts came from inside the arc.
Additionally, Turner also had four turnovers and five personal fouls, including a technical foul when he got into a scuffle with Jaylen Brown. After a promising showing in Game 1, followed by more hope in Game 3, especially with his inside scoring, Turner completely forgot what worked in the final game and played like his team could afford a loss.
In these playoffs, Myles Turner has shown that he is able to compete with talented big men in the playoffs. However, the Celtics series was a bit of a letdown. Outside of Games 1 and 3, Turner was downright awful and could not get anything going for himself, even struggling to keep the ball in his hands at times.