But Nembhard saved it, like when a great goalie in the Stanley Cup playoffs stands on his head.
“He’s our guy,” Haliburton said.
By contrast, Nembhard was out of the Pacers’ locker room in about three minutes, having answered just a few questions.
The Pacers didn’t flinch even though they played terribly in the first half.
And the Pacers didn’t stop Gilgeous-Alexander.
Oklahoma City — The Indiana Pacers are in a large room in Secaucus, North Carolina, waiting for forgiveness in front of a number of television screens. The J. discussed their offensive strategy if they were trailing by one point or three points when they regained possession of the basketball from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The NBA MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, currently leads the league with 38 points in his first NBA Finals game, but they made no mention of how they intended to stop him. They might not have needed to.
In the end, Indiana’s argument that the ball either went out of bounds off Oklahoma City or that Thunder guard Cason Wallace fouled Pacers player Pascal Siakam prior to the ball going out of bounds was rejected by the NBA’s Replay Center. Despite this, the Pacers maintained their composure by preventing Gilgeous-Alexander from shooting.
It was Drew who had him.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Pacer, this is Andrew Nembhard.
After the Pacers’ most recent brilliant comeback, 111-110, Indiana’s seventh road victory in nine postseason games this season, Haliburton remarked of Nembhard, “I have the utmost confidence in him.”. Indeed, Game 1 was won by Haliburton’s game-winning basket with 0:3 seconds remaining, which was his fourth basket of the playoffs with less than two seconds remaining. Like a great goalie standing on his head during the Stanley Cup playoffs, Nembhard saved it.
This group is embodied by Nembhard. Nobody is interested in how, when, or who scores. At Madison sq\. Garden, Aaron Nesmith occasionally goes thermonuclear. Siakam appears to be among the league’s top ten players on certain nights. Furthermore, Haliburton is currently the world’s best closer. Whoever is in rhythm and open gets the ball.
However, they are very particular about who defends. For the majority of the previous two seasons, Nembhard has been among the league’s top on-ball defenders.
“We have him,” Haliburton declared. He’s our man. All this year, he has been our guy. He would be an All-Defensive player without the 65-game rule. He is the one we trust the most. In the NBA, Shai is the toughest guard. In the NBA, he is the most difficult player to cover one-on-one. Therefore, we can’t give him a single look that will always work. In such cases, we have faith in Drew. Although we are doing our best to assist, he is handling the majority of the grunt work. For years, he has been doing a lot of the grunt work. His specialty in this league is that. He’s also a very good defender. “.”.
Thursday, as is typical for someone with his extraordinary talent, SGA saw a wide variety of men. He received some Haliburton, some Siakam, and some Nesmith. As he has done since the day after Christmas in 2023, when he started Nembhard and Nesmith alongside Haliburton and Myles Turner, Rick Carlisle put his 25-year-old guard Nembhard as his go-to stopper when the game was on the line. This was an unlikely choice, though, because Indiana had kicked the ball all over creation for more than 47 minutes and committed 24 turnovers. When the Pacers acquired Siakam from the Toronto Raptors a few weeks later, that situation permanently changed. Jalen Smith was the fifth starter that day. ().
No double-teaming was practiced. For the majority of the evening, Indiana did not double Gilgeous-Alexander. Nembhard, SGA’s teammate on the Canadian national basketball team, was the only player present most of the time. It’s true that they have known and competed against one another since they were young.
However, not with Larry at stake.
Nesmith positioned himself at the nail, prepared to move to his right if SGA did. However, he wasn’t assaulting him. Nembhard went it alone.
Going to the left, Gilgeous-Alexander attempted to blow past Nembhard. However, Nembhard absorbed the blow to his chest and straightened SGA. Whenever he has been able to draw fouls and get to the free-throw line with minimal difficulty, Gilgeous-Alexander spun right, as he has done all season. As SGA attempted a 15-foot fadeaway, Nembhard swiped at the ball and stoned him once more. He frequently makes that shot. He failed on Thursday. Lu Dort, of OKC, had dominated Indiana’s offensive boards all evening, but Nesmith managed to hold him off and grab the rebound.
With fewer than two seconds remaining, Haliburton, the Springtime Killer, made his fourth game-winning shot of the playoffs less than ten seconds later. The majority of the media waited for him to do his postgame news conference for thirty minutes, so he received nearly all of the attention after the game.
In contrast, Nembhard only had to respond to a few questions before leaving the Pacers’ locker room in roughly three minutes.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, he said, “I don’t know what the deficit was, but we felt like we (were) just right there, honestly.”.
Either way. His play had many messages.
Pacers guard T says, “If there’s a guy we want guarding the last possession, it’s Drew.”. J. . McConnell stated.
Nembhard had a fantastic night, scoring eight of his 14 points in the fourth quarter, including a huge stepback 3-pointer over Gilgeous-Alexander with 1:59 remaining to pull Indiana within three points, 108-105. Midway through the fourth quarter, he helped Turner make an excuse-me three, and he had the ball in his hands as much as Haliburton in the closing minutes. He played a major role in Indiana’s comeback from a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
Carlisle stated, “He made big plays at both ends.”. “We had the rebound after a huge play with the final one-stop on Shai. One significant momentum play was the stepback 3. Several major plays. When playing Oklahoma City, you must have playmakers. Defensively, they just make it so hard. “”.
The Pacers are experiencing a run of success that—well, let’s not boast. With a regular season record of 68-14, the Thunder tied the Boston Celtics of 1972-73 for the sixth-best regular-season record in NBA history. The Golden State Warriors, the greatest single-season team ever, lost to Cleveland in seven games in the 2016 finals, but four of the five teams with regular-season records better than Boston and Oklahoma City went on to win the championship. OKC had a reason for being the overwhelming favorite going into these finals. Game 1 of seven was this one.
However, Indiana never seems to give a damn about such matters. Despite playing horribly in the first half, the Pacers didn’t bat an eye. All night, the Paycom Center’s sold-out crowd was unbearably noisy. When the Thunder defense was among the best in NBA history, it was at its peak for the entire season. Gilgeous-Alexander was also not stopped by the Pacers. Despite this, he managed to score 38. But to do it, he needed to take thirty shots. Some were open, but he missed them. He did, however, have fewer open ones than usual after he unleashes his seemingly limitless repertoire.
And Drew got him when the game was on the line. The Pacers played well.
The NBAE/Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images provided the top image of Andrew Nembhard.
