Odds are stacked against the Pacers heading into Game 7. Upon their last trip to OKC, they got absolutely decimated by the home team, as they lost by eleven points. Their superstar Tyrese Haliburton looked like a shell of himself, scoring only 4 points on zero made field goals. So, they will need a genius strategy to take the Thunder by surprise this Sunday and avoid a similar outcome. And Warriors veteran Draymond Green might have made Rick Carlisle’s job easier by handing him a blueprint to taking down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Co.
During his podcast, Draymond highlighted that for Pacers to win in OKC, Carlisle will have to use his championship experience to outcoach Mark Daigneault, “This is the biggest game of Mark Daigneault’s coaching career. This is his first time playing in the game of this magnitude. Rick Carlisle coached a team to a championship.” Of course, Rick is the architect of arguably the greatest underdog story in NBA Finals history when he coached the Mavs to the title in 2011 against the LeBron James led Miami Heat.
Green continued, “I think that’s their upper hand is Rick been there. And I think Rick’s got something in his back pocket.” Then, the four-time champ revealed what his gameplan would be if was in Carlisle’s place, “OKC at times struggle to score. Think we all can agree on that. Every time J Dub come off a pick and roll, I’m all out blitzing him.” Yes, Draymond wants the Pacers to add more pressure on Jalen Williams, who has been lights out in this series.
With Shai demanding majority of the attention, J Dub often gets easy lanes to the basket. Draymond believes Pacers need to double-team him every time and cut out his scoring option. “You’re not getting comfortable. He also not accustomed to getting blitzed… He gotta adjust to that in the biggest game of his life with all the money on the line.” He added. Of course, he also addressed the massive SGA problem, “I’m guarding Shai one-on-one with Andrew Nembhard and I’m telling Nembhard, don’t play in front of him. Play on the side of him.” Sure, Shai being Shai, will get his 30+ points anyway, but Green wants to take away his step back option by guarding him from the side. Moreover, he urged the Pacers to not overreact to the MVP by sending double teams on him because that could get other players going. And for the Pacers’ offense, he suggested Carlisle to push the ball to Pascal Siakam on every fastbreak because he is the only player who can attract double-teams. That way he can kick it out to open players and create easy shots for them. “Their offense will flow from there.” He added.
(Developing Story)
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