While Rick Carlisle had been the better coach in the NBA Finals to this point, Draymond Green feels Mark Daigneault got the better of him.
The Indiana Pacers lost a crucial Game 4 to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Despite leading for a majority of the game, the Pacers blew their lead in the fourth quarter, allowing the Pacers to tie the series 2-2.
Tyrese Haliburton came out after the game and admitted the loss sits squarely on his shoulders. But the truth is that all the Pacers players deserve to be criticized for their effort.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was a man on a mission in the fourth-quarter. His 15-point outing down the stretch earned rave reviews from Mark Daigneault.
After the game, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle was not happy with his players, dismissing any notion of Shai hunting for fouls, and saying that the Pacers needed to do better to contain him.
Carlisle had earned plaudits for his coaching during this playoff run, especially in the NBA Finals. But despite proving himself to be the better coach, Carlisle allowed Mark Daigneault to get the better of him in Game 4.
Draymond Green spoke on his podcast after Game 4 of the NBA Finals. While Green can admit that Rick Carlisle has been the better coach in the series, he believes Mark Daigneault played a blinder in Game 4.
He pointed to the third quarter when the Thunder struggled, and Carlisle couldn’t get the Pacers to take advantage. And later, Daigneault forced Andrew Nembhard away from guarding Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, something Carlisle didn’t attempt to correct, and it led to Shai’s scoring outbursts.
“I thought, for the majority of the game, and for the majority of the series, Rick Carlisle has outcoached Mark Daigneault. Outcoached him, no questions asked… Three minutes to go in the third quarter – at that point, it was a 10-point game and they couldn’t get good shots.”
“That was the time when Mark Daigneault needed to take a time out… You need to call something. You don’t have your best player on the floor. They had like three-four possessions in a row, and that’s where Indiana needed to put the game away. They did not put the game away.”
“In turn, it ended up being bad shot after bad shot… They took Shai off the ball, that’s clear as day. They had J-Dub handling the ball more. But down the stretch, what did they go to? They went to Shai, J-Dub’s pick and roll for a switch.”
“Now you got Nesmith on Shai as opposed to Nembhard. They kept switching it, and he threw it to Shai… Shai got what he wanted on Nesmith. It’s matchup to matchup in the playoffs… Shai goes to work and gets to all the buckets he was getting to.”
There is no doubt that the Indiana Pacers will analyze the footage from Game 4 with eagle eyes. Carlisle is one of the most meticulous coaches in the NBA, and he will organize a robust film-study.
If Draymond could see the Pacers’ late-game collapse coming while watching, it’s hard to understand why Carlisle couldn’t.
Regardless, the Pacers don’t have time to harp too much on this loss. Nor is it a good idea for them to do so.
The best course of action is for Carlisle to understand what went wrong, and try to fix those problems heading into Game 5 in Oklahoma City.
