The key ball is not good? Then address you before the moment of truth

In the second game of the finals, the Thunder pulled one back at home, and the whole game was uneventful, without the ups and downs of the previous game. After the Thunder stretched the margin to 23 points in the second quarter, they never let the Pacers chase within 10 points.

If you look at the two games together, the Thunder is still the team that has the advantage most of the time, and if the first game is not for the Thunder sending the "death" five in the fourth quarter, the outcome of the game is really hard to say.

One of the strengths of Thunder's head coach Daigneault is that he listened to persuasion, played the Nuggets' first penalty kick and smashed it, and when he made another penalty in the subsequent game, he obviously made targeted changes and did not continue to make mistakes.

G1 Thunder's own five small played themselves to death, today the Thunder did not let the five small appear for a minute, even if Harden and Chet are off the court, they will take Kenway to protect the rebound. In the seven minutes Kenway played today, the Thunder won by 15 points.

The Thunder can take both Harden and Chet on the court, which is a huge advantage in terms of size comparison. Although the Thunder still let Harden come off the bench today, compared to the previous game, Harden played five minutes more, Chet played four minutes more, and during the time when the two were on the court at the same time, the Thunder blew up the Pacers at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends.

In Finals G1, the Thunder lost as many as 17 rebounds, which was simply unacceptable. After adding height today, the Thunder outscored the Pacers by 8 rebounds, which is a normal rebounding gap between the two sides.

It can be said that the Thunder gave up some of the pressure on the ball carrier today, increased the protection of the rebounding ball and the protection of the frame in the restricted area, and found the right way to win. The Pacers had "only" 15 turnovers today, fewer than in the last half, but Haliburton played harder today.

After the first three quarters, Haliburton had 5 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 turnovers, at least in the first three quarters. As for the 12 points in the fourth quarter, the difference was already around 20 points at that time, and the intensity of the game on both sides went down.

The Thunder's defense can limit a player as talented as Huazi, and when the intensity is given to Haliburton, the latter's dumb fire seems to be expected. In the first game, Haliburton actually only had 14 points, but the shutout covered up all the problems.

Haliburton's hard dispersion ability has always been quite poor, he doesn't have enough tough confrontation ability, and he doesn't have absolute speed to get rid of. In the face of the Thunder's Tianluo Nets, he had to shoot a three-pointer from a long distance, and 5 of his 7 shots in the first three quarters today were outside the three-point line, only 1 of 5. If the three points are not opened, Haliburton will have no good means of scoring.

Against the Thunder in the regular season, Haliburton only scored 4 points in the first game, shooting 2-of-6, and this is just an offensive performance under the defensive intensity of the regular season. Of course, at that time, Haliburton was also in the stage of "being overrated", and his own state was not adjusted.

As for Alexander, he is so powerful that he doesn't know how to score 30. Since the ability to play the key ball has been criticized, settle the battle before it gets to the moment of truth. Today, Alexander was 11-of-21, 1-of-4 from three-point range and 11-of-12 from the free-throw line for 34 points, five rebounds and eight assists

In 18 playoff games this season, Alexander has 30+ in 13 games, including 30+ in 9 consecutive home games, tying the ancient beast Chamberlain. There is another statistic that is even more exaggerated, 72 points in the first two games of the career finals, surpassing Iverson's 71 points, the first in history.

Carlisle still chose to believe in the player's individual defense ability, and then sent Alexander a 30+ game again, and in the face of all the defensive changes, Alexander has the self-confidence to attack the basket. In the face of the league's only scoring ability, the Pacers should give Alexander a catch.

After two games, returning to Indiana with a 1-1 home-court advantage is perfectly acceptable for the Pacers. We also saw in this year's playoffs how much the Pacers' home court can add to them, and the gap between the two sides is real, but it's not impossible to make up for it.

I'm not going to be surprised by the Pacers this season, whatever happens to them.