Pacers reach Eastern Conference finals, Thunder take 3-2 lead on Nuggets; PGA Championship picks

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🏀 Good morning to all, but especially to …

THE INDIANA PACERS

Underestimate them at your own risk: The Pacers are back in the Eastern Conference finals, finishing off the Cavaliers with a 114-105 Game 5 win. Indiana is the only team to make the conference finals as a No. 4 seed or worse in consecutive years since the 1984 playoffs expansion.

• Tyrese Haliburton scored 31 points on 11-for-15 shooting (6 for 9 from 3). Indiana outscored Cleveland by 27 when he was on the court.
• Indiana outscored Cleveland 33-20 in the second quarter and then held off a late Cavaliers charge, with Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard and Myles Turner making big shots.
• The Pacers overcame a 19-point deficit. They overcame a 20-point deficit in Game 2.

Indiana’s offense is a symphony, not only in its beauty, but its precision. The Pacers hunt switches and punish mistakes. They shoot the lights out. Here are four stats to explain the dominance:

• Indiana is one of just six teams ever — and the first since the 2014 Spurs — to shoot 50% from the field and 40% from 3 through 10 playoffs games.
• The Pacers have assisted on 68.9% of their buckets, the highest rate through 10 playoff games since the 2018 Warriors.
• The Pacers are the only team ever to have a different leading scorer in every game of a series win that goes at least five games.
• Indiana is 5-0 in clutch games, officially those are contests within five points with five minutes or fewer to go. The 2024 Celtics are the only other team that did that in their first 10 playoff games.

Credit that defense, too: Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith and TJ McConnell are hard-nosed, high-effort perimeter pests, Pascal Siakam is a strong individual defender and an even better team defender, Haliburton is much improved, and Turner defends the rim with aplomb. Last year was no fluke, and this year isn’t, either: Indiana is legit.

The Thunder, meanwhile, showed their own late-game mettle with a 112-105 Game 5 win over the Nuggets. The Game 5 winner of a series tied 2-2 goes onto win the series 81% of the time.

• This was an instant-classic duel between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (31 points — 10 in the final 3:33) and Nikola Jokić (44 points — 13 in the fourth quarter — and 15 rebounds).
• But it was Jalen Williams‘ 3 that put Oklahoma City up for good, moments after Jokić had hit a trademark miracle 3 to tie it up at 103.
• Oklahoma City has outscored Denver 63-37 in the last two fourth quarters. The difference in depth between these two teams is apparent.
• Six Thunder players scored 12+ points. Only two Nuggets — Jokić and Jamal Murray — did so.

😃 Honorable mentions

🏀 And not such a good morning for …

THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS AND THE DENVER NUGGETS

The Cavaliers’ excellent season has gone up in smoke. Blame untimely injuries — to Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and De’Andre Hunter — all you want, but this was an awful showing from the East’s No. 1 team.

• The Cavaliers had the second-best offensive rating in NBA history. Then they completely forgot how to shoot — 29% from 3 in the series and 9 for 35 (26%) in Game 5.
• The Cavaliers went 34-8 at home in the regular season. They went 0-3 at home in this series, fading late in Game 1, incomprehensibly blowing a seven-point lead in the final minute of Game 2 and then blowing a 19-point lead and producing a dreadful second half in Game 5 with their backs against the wall.

This was a stunner. Garland, who could hardly move with his toe injury, still played 33 minutes, including most of the fourth quarter. He shot 4 for 16 (0 for 6 from 3) and turned the ball over five times. Cleveland was outscored by 18 with him on the court. Mitchell finished with 35 points but shot just 8 for 25. Max Strus was 0 for 9 and 0 for 6 from deep.

It’s the second straight year an injury-hobbled Cleveland team got bounced in five games in the second round. This year’s version was much, much better, but there are significant financial obstacles to running it back, Sam notes.

As for the Nuggets, I’ll just say this: Non-Jokić players shot 23 for 72 (32%) overall and 1 for 15 (7%) in the fourth quarter.