CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers said all the right things to the media about the Indiana Pacers last week, from a repetitive, almost droning on about how quickly they get up and down the court, to insisting Tyrese Haliburton is anything but “overrated.”
But Andrew Nembhard, well, he didn’t come up. Maybe that was the media’s fault.
Nembhard had every bit as much to do with the Cavs’ 121-112 home loss to Indiana in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals as Haliburton did; for it is Nembhard who leads the Pacers’ surprising pressure on the perimeter that led to so much of what went wrong for Cleveland on Sunday.
“I mean, he went 5-of-6 from 3,” the Cavs’ Donovan Mitchell said of Nembhard. “He hit some big shots, but I mean, he’s been doing that. He did it last year against the Knicks, and he damn near (averaged) a triple-double against the Celtics. He’s tough. … Obviously, we know what he brings defensively, but offensively, when he’s able to give them that … it’s huge.
“It opens the lane for Tyrese, and he’s able to get in there and create.”
The numerical damage was such: Nembhard led all Pacers in scoring with 23 points, making 7 of 10 overall. As Mitchell mentioned, Nembhard was 5-of-6 from 3. Haliburton, meanwhile, added 22 points with (checks the stat sheet again) 13 assists.
But the pain they inflicted on the Cavs runs deeper than the statistics suggest. Nembhard didn’t record a block or a steal, but he was noticeably pressing Cleveland’s ballhandlers and working hard to bother any perimeter shooter near him.
Mitchell was also right that Nembhard did indeed have a big playoffs last season, though the best he did against the Knicks in the conference semis was shoot 3-of-4 from 3-point range, and he was nowhere near averaging a triple-double in the conference finals against Boston (21 points and 7.8 assists are close, but 3.8 boards are not). Nembhard made himself a lot of money with the Pacers by shining like he did last year in the playoffs, especially with Haliburton out for much of the conference finals with a hamstring injury, going for 32 and 24 points in narrow losses.
Nembhard is 6-foot-5 and possibly remains underrated because he plays next to Haliburton, who is a two-time All-Star and an Olympian, and Pascal Siakam, another All-Star, is also on the roster. But when you hear about the “pace” at which Indiana plays, Nembhard has as much to do with it as the point guard Haliburton, because he speeds you up when you have the ball. He leads a defense that, despite its reputation, forces tough shots, which allows the Pacers to get out into the transition game they want to play.
When you see the Cavs were 9-of-38 from 3-point range, and Indiana took too many open shots en route to shooting 19-of-36 from deep, consider Nembhard’s impact, and you begin to understand where the lopsided 3s in favor of the Pacers started.
Nembhard didn’t register a steal or block, but he didn’t have to. He was there, at the point of attack, getting into passing lanes and putting a hand in the face of Cleveland’s normally solid shooters.
Haliburton doesn’t just score and create; he also moves the ball ahead to teammates as soon as he gets it. This is part of the “pace” with which Indiana plays. It’s not just quick shots, it’s not just running the floor, it’s all of those things and then some, which starts on offense with Haliburton throwing it ahead to a teammate who’s already made it to the frontcourt.
And then if the defense catches up, and the game slows down to the half court, that’s when Haliburton utilizes screens and those open lanes Mitchell mentioned to attack.
“I think it’s not only the pace of their speed, how fast they run, but they touch (the ball), they move around, and Tyrese is a master of just … he’s like a hockey distributor, just kind of banging it around, and that’s hard,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said. “They’re an excellent offensive team, and I think we struggled not only with their pace, but with their ball movement.”
The Athletic’s anonymous NBA player poll, in which dozens of players were asked a bunch of questions and granted anonymity so they could speak freely, had Haliburton as the league’s most “overrated” player. The Cavs vehemently refuted that idea in the run-up to Sunday’s Game 1. There was no winking or smirking, either. They genuinely seemed to view Haliburton as one of basketball’s preeminent playmakers.
Also, to a man, the Cavs pointed to Indiana’s “pace” as a primary concern heading into the series. But being aware and prepared is not the same. Cleveland may have known what was coming in Game 1, but couldn’t stop it.
“Yeah, I mean, you don’t practice at that pace,” Mitchell said.
The more you dig into it, this series opener was a pretty bad one for the No. 1-seeded Cavs. Darius Garland missed his third consecutive playoff game with a sprained big toe on his left foot. Atkinson continues to stress that it’s a day-to-day thing, an injury that has gone on for more than a week. It’s not quite into Jarrett Allen territory with the rib injury that cost him most of last year’s playoff run, despite being listed as “questionable” for every game, but it was pretty clear all week that Atkinson doubted Garland would be ready to play.
De’Andre Hunter was knocked out of the sky on a transition dunk attempt by Bennedict Mathurin and dislocated a finger. Evan Mobley stepped on Myles Turner’s foot and rolled an ankle. Mitchell, who led the Cavs with 33 points, was hobbling around as though he suffered a leg injury.
Cleveland felt it made some halftime adjustments that helped (down by 12 in the third quarter, the Cavs regained the lead a few times before a brutal final three minutes cost them the game), but overall, the opinion shared by players was that poor offense led to worse defense.
Atkinson started Sam Merrill again in Garland’s place, but neither Merrill, Isaac Okoro nor Ty Jerome could quite match Nembhard’s effectiveness and impact.
A healthy Garland gives the Cavs two dynamic scoring threats at the guard position. Perhaps getting the ball in the hole more often and knocking down more 3s takes away Nembhard’s chances to shoot 70 percent from the field like he did Sunday. But it’s a safer bet that there is something schematically that Cleveland will have to do to account for him, whether or not Garland plays Game 2. Garland is only 6-1 (and Mitchell is 6-3), and only a few teams in NBA history have won a championship with two small starting guards.
What happened in Game 1 does not suggest the Cavs will fail in their pursuit, but it demands a more balanced and forceful performance from their guards.
Because Haliburton and Nembhard crushed them on Sunday.
(Top photo of Andrew Nembhard: Jason Miller / Getty Images)