APEX OF EFFICIENCY 🗣️ Brian Windhorst reacts to Pacers’ Game 4 win vs. Knicks | NBA Today

APEX OF EFFICIENCY 🗣️ Brian Windhorst reacts to Pacers’ Game 4 win vs. Knicks | NBA Today

Indianapolis, Indiana. Let’s send these sons of back to New York with their ears. Bring it. Let’s turn this on. We on the move. We on the You take 23 shots. You have 15 assists and you have zero. Way to fight. Stay with it. 48 minutes. Great, man. One more. One more. What did you learn about this young group? I learned nothing, but they’re easy to bet on. SGA spins falling away. It’s up. It’s good. Two series, two 3-1 leads for the Thunder and the Pacers. We are back here live in Oklahoma City ahead of game five as the Minnesota Timberwolves are on the brink of elimination with the Thunder on the cusp of an NBA Finals birth. And this isn’t necessarily uncharted territory for the franchise. It has been 13 years since Oklahoma City last went to the finals, dating back to their time in Seattle. The franchise has been to the finals four times, winning it all in 1979, while Minnesota has yet to reach the finals. Now, looking back at game four, it felt like a moment where any questions about who else can step up for this team next to their MVP for the Thunder, they were answered. SGA, JDub, Cadet, Homegrren, they combined for 95 points, the most by any Thunder trio in a playoff game. When you consider who’s played for this franchise, that’s pretty impressive. And that leaves the Wolves facing elimination. That’s a spot that Anthony Edwards has been in seven times before. He’s won four of those games and puts up 277 and six with his back against the wall. So, let’s break it down with the best in the business, Chana. Brian UD. Brian, start this out for me. Fill in the blank. Game five, it is going to come down to what? margin of error as in very small for the Minnesota Timberwolves. They just have to play almost perfect basketball. I thought they played a pretty good game in game four. It wasn’t able to get it done. They have even less margin for error here in OKC. To me, it’s pressure. There’s the pressure of elimination. There’s the pressure to extend, but most importantly on the court, it’s the pressure to attack the paint. So far, the Thunder have been excellent at that. SGA, he’s a mid-range monster, but also it’s hard to keep him in front. Now, Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves, he needs to find the paint. Again, this is a team that at times settles for jumpers. But when he’s most lethal is when he has those highlight plays, these two guys are going to be attacking the rim. And it’s not the bigs, it’s the guards, it’s the guards that are trying to attack the inside. And for me, it’s Julius Randle. Flat out, hands down, Julius Randle. When he comes to play, we see the difference in the outcome when they come. So, we can argue that Ant is their best player, but I say Julius Randle is the most important player right now. I would say defense, right? We saw that when the the Timberwolves needed it most, it was the Thunder that could get stops and it was Minnesota that could not. They played a pretty good game, but they couldn’t get those pivotal stops while the Thunder were making these really incredibly difficult shots. But if we see an allout effort here from the Timberwolves, this has all the makings of what could be an awesome game. And speaking of, we saw that last night in Indianapolis. That crowd was rocking from the get-go. And in game four, Jaylen Brunson, Tyrese Hallebertton, John Hallebertton reinstated. But early in the first quarter here, Chené, the Knicks defense, it leaves Hallebertton wide open. This would be a theme. Big mistake right here. Usually, this is a guy that loves to have the game-winning shot. Well, that happened from the jump from wire to wire. He was looking for a shot. And when he does this, knocks down threes, that makes everything easier for his teammates. Yeah, you don’t want to give a guy like Halenberg, who’s going to have the ball in his hands majority of the night, open shots early and get him going. Less than five minutes to go here. Hallebertton a nice little scoop inside for the layup. And then right here, a little over a minute later, Hallebertton again with a sweet dish right here. Pascal Seakum, he was spicy when the Pacers needed them. They are a great duo, a tag team. I mean, if you talk about Rick Carile and the style and the pace they play, those two are complimentary and they’re just such a deep team as well here at Chenet. Hallebertton corrals it gives it back up to Tony Bradley who lays it in. Hallebertton 20 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds in the first half. He also either made or assisted on all eight of the Pacers triples here. So to the fourth quarter we go here. Under five minutes to go. The Knicks down by eight. Carl Anthony Towns corrals it inside gets that put back to go in the Knicks down six. The Pacers though, it felt like every time the Knicks hit here, Brian, the Pacers hit right back. They just had so little resistance on offense. That was because of Hallebertton and the position that they kept putting the Knicks in. We’re showing consecutive plays here today. Again, the Knicks, they made offensive plays down the stretch. They just couldn’t get stopped. Yeah, but you see countless plays afterward. I mean, look at this basket right here. There’s no there’s nobody in front of Hallebertton. Like, this is the NBA conference finals. Defense has to be present. And OG Anobi has consistently guarded their best player, but it just hasn’t quite worked in this series. Scary moment here. Carl Anthony Towns, it looks like they went knee to knee here, collided. He goes down clearly in pain here. He would stay in the game, but he was shaken up as you can see here on the sidelines. And then less than a minute left. The Pacers up seven and inbounding. Look how much time is left and still what they’re able to execute here. Chenet. I mean, this was the moment where you’re like, it might be their time. Obie Topphen sweet on the other side and pops all business. He got you think he’s loving it. Hallebertton 32 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds. The Pacers win 13. He’s out on good. Out on good behavior. Got to give me some t-shirts. Hallebertton though continued to dazzle. And Rick Carile, I know you’re going to say this is a group effort. You don’t want to hear about individual stats, but the man is doing something we’ve literally never seen before. He’s the first player with a game of 30 points, 10 rebounds, 15 assists, and no turnovers. Such a team thing right now. So, um, happy for him. you know, it’ll get celebrated on all the networks and stuff like that. But, um, in our world right now, it’s day seven of 13 and tomorrow’s day eight. And we’ve got to just keep our eye on the ball and keep focusing on each day. Hi, it’s us. We’re the networks and we’re going to celebrate those stats because it’s hard to look past them. I know this is a special special team, Brian, but in your mind, what did you see? Just a historic game from Tyresese Hallebertton. Okay, he obviously had the scoring. Look, scoring is cool, but what can you do to help your team get better? That’s where you get to superstar level. That’s how you get to MVP level in this game. His passing was absolutely elite. 15 assists. Okay, 15 of 23 shooting. That means that he shot he made 23 passes that led to shots and they made 15 of them. Put it together, 67 points created by him scoring or setting up his teammates. That’s an awesome number. And when you include the fact that all of his rebounds were defensive and so he got the ball and got them going the other way with those fast breaks. He had four steals which allowed him to start other fast breaks and you can’t compute no turnovers. There was no blemishes on that. It’s the apex of efficiency at a high value time. Thing that makes this team special to me is how everyone stars in their role. I mean we talk about Nay Smith, we talk about Nimhart, but they bring in a guy like Bradley who hasn’t played. Thomas Bryant has been getting those minutes all the way down to a guy like James Johnson who’s been in the locker room with me who doesn’t play at all. But you see all these guys rave about his leadership and what he brings to this team. Everyone starts in their role and there’s no egos. Even Carile who’s a wizard as a coach, right? And when we talk about margin for error and how thin it is for a team like the Minnesota Timberwolves, it feels like the Pacers, their margin for error, it’s a lot wider because they’re so deep. It’s because a guy like Ben Mathan who struggled the last couple of games could come in and give you 20 in 12 minutes off the bench. Like it’s that sort of effort that really separates this Indiana team. For some reason, they can’t win on Indy500 day, but pace is so important for them, Jana. You’ve been pointing it out all season long. Yeah, quick shots and turnovers are the Pacers ticket to the NBA Finals. They had 22 fast break points, tied for the most so far in the postseason. And the last thing you want to do is Tyrese Hallebertton, have him get a defensive rebound cuz watch this right here. They flip the switch quick. He’s off to the races. And watch Muel Bridges. He’s like, “Hey, somebody’s got to stop the ball.” What does this do? This forces Jaylen Brunson to come off the strong side, the corner three. So now he’s coming off to try to slow down Tyrese Hallebertton. And now it goes up. Shot clock 19 seconds, 18 seconds. It happens so fast. Turnovers again, you get your hands on the ball, they’re off to the races. You see Pascal sprinting like a track star. Now again, you have an advantage. That’s the worst position you want to be. Backwards to the basketball. Now you have the guy with the most vision in the NBA with two options, a three or a two. A nice little pump fake to finish. This is a squad that just honestly they play the right way. They play fast. They distribute the ball. They can all shoot. They can all run. It is a track meet. You know how they say you a runner, you a track star. They’re all track stars and they’re running their way to the NBA finals. You even see it in their half court sets. And it’s not just the team. It feels like Rick Carile is the perfect coach for this group. UD, I know that personally. Rick, you owe me a ring. You took one. You took you took one from me. And Spo will tell you this personally. Rick made him better in that series. He is a person that thinks outside the box. Yep. There’s the things that we play half court basketball. We get into a lot of pick and rolls. They’re playing fullcourt basketball. It’s almost like pickup, man. Get it and go. Get to your spots. Get your lanes. Run the M truck lane like we used to talk about in Miami. Give them as much space as possible and get downhill. These are things that you’re not seeing and you cannot emulate this in practice. You only see it when you see it and it’s too late. Special mention to Aaron N Smith. We weren’t even sure he was going to be able to go. He goes, plays 16 minutes. Very impactful. all contributing to this terrific Pacers. Again, these Pacers, they just come at you in waves, and that’s why we’re seeing them up 3-1 in this series. To give Tyrese Hallebertton his flowers on his statline last night, we’d have to like fill up a Rose Bowl with arrangements. But we can try. Here are just some of the list of historic nuggets from his performance last night. But if you ask Tyrese, having a oneofone statline, it doesn’t mean all that much. I mean, no, I didn’t know that. I feel like we we making up stats at one at some point. uh uh to make me look better. But I think um I’m just trying to play the right way, man. I just want to impact winning. I promise we’re not making up stats just to make you look good. But how does Indiana’s style of play? It kind of leads to these sorts of numbers. Shane, you ready for this? Let’s do it. It’s time to go shot for shot. We can give you one, too. Oh, thank you. Big bro, little sis, uh Stephen A, if you’re out there, please uh close your ears because it’s time to give the Pacers some welldeserved love because they have a dynamic duo. I’m going to take Pascal Seakum and UD. Who are you taking? Tyrese Halenberg, the superstar. Stephen A. Oh goodness. And on this breakdown. So here’s the 77. And this is why he’s such a wizard. We can call it a double drag. But he comes off this and this looks like the same every time, but this time he turns, he gets downhill and he lays the ball up. Now we get to the same play. It looks like the exact same thing, but this time there’s a show by Brunson. Tyrese immediately recognizes the show, throws back to Nimhart. Nimhart takes one dribble. Now that causes confusion. You have to get in the paint to take away the layup. This opens up Pascal Seakum for the game for the Dagger three Cash Money Records wide open fallback team. 99 2000. Yes, sir. And if you look at the number of games, the most with 30 points, 15 assists, and zero turnovers. Look at the numbers that have combined versus three. Nine times he’s had at least 20 points and 15 turn 15 assists with no turnovers. Yeah, he he he’s he’s hot when it matters most. Now, let’s talk about his partner in crime, Pascal Seatham. He’s had two 30-point games in this series. But if you watch this right here, this is a mismatch because Carlton Towns was his matchup. Instead, he goes behind the back, puts you on skates. What you have in size, I have in speed. Once again, this is how bad the Knicks defense was. Brunson, go help. He needs help. He’s already cooking cat. Instead, he stays on the perimeter. He has no gravity around him. Instead, he’s able to knock down the mid-range once again. They have really exposed the Knicks defense in a way that we have not seen in a long time. Three games allowing 125 plus points. That’s because Hallebertton is excellent scoring the ball. He’s excellent distributing the ball. And Pascal Seakum, it seems like he’s a perfect running teammate.

On NBA Today, Brian Windhorst, Chiney Ogwumike and Udonis Haslem react to the Indiana Pacers taking a 3-1 lead over the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals.

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