If we didn’t have a garbage head coach, Zu would have had even more points and assists, but Ty Lue failed to give him the ball against teams with no center and/or utilize him to break zone defenses.

When Nembhard entered the game in Q4, the Pacers were down -15, 94-79. From that point until the last Ind possession when Halliburton hit the dagger, Nembhard had the ball in his hands for almost every possession. He had ZERO turnovers, 8 points, 2 assisted 3PMs, 1 rebound. He was responsible for 14 points and that doesn’t even count the hockey assists and overall points per possession when he was on the floor with the ball in his hands. Indiana outscored OKC by 16 pts in Nembhard’s Q4 stint.

Everyone has picked OKC in this series. I had them winning in a tough 6 game series, but I’m telling you if Carlisle has found a second quality ball handler on the floor to help Halliburton, get the Pacers into their offense and cut down on turnovers, they’re going to win this series.

Lu Dort had a magnet ball game, but one thing about playing Indiana in the Carlisle era (and especially the Halliburton era) is that you will not out magnet ball these guys. They make the wildest 3 pt and off balance 2 pt shots. No one makes more of them than they do. They also do it routinely and make enough of them to win games (like this Game 1).

Carlisle played his entire rotation in Q1. He really worked to figure things out and when he settled on Nembhard as his anchor and moved Halliburton off the ball, it all clicked.

…also I don’t think Milwaukee would take that w/o at least a couple 1sts in there so I don’t think I’d do that.