NBA In-Season Tournament Finals Preview

The NBA In-Season Tournament Finals is set for a rematch of the 2000 NBA Finals of the Indiana Pacers and the Los Angeles Lakers. This game is the classic small market vs big market team. The ages and payrolls of each team will get brought up a lot too on the broadcast. But none of that matters as there is a best of one game series to win a trophy and 500 thousand dollars for yourself and teammates. Last nights game truly felt like the final four. I liked the idea of combining TNT and ESPN as well, I thought Reggie Miller was great with Mike Breen. Tomorrow has a National Championship feel but features one of the best players of all time and a superstar in the making.

In the first game, the Pacers blitzed the Bucks early. Giannis was able to dominate the entire game but the only time the Bucks were truly in the game was in the third quarter when Damian Lillard starting going crazy. Dame put up 16 of his 24 in the third quarter and the Bucks took a 3-point lead into the 4th quarter. The Pacers defense gets a bad rep but TJ McConnell and Aaron Nesmith might be the hardest playing duo in the entire league and jolted the bench to outscore Milwaukee’s bench 45-13. The bench mob retook the lead for the Pacers and then it was Hali’s time to take over. Tyrese put up 7 3 and 3 in the final 7 minutes of the game and hit the two biggest shots of the game, the last one being the step-back three dagger over Brook Lopez to take an 8 point lead with 50 seconds left. Haliburton hit the Dame Time celebration and the Pacers are one win away from a massive payday.

Everyone on the Pacers stepped up yesterday. Myles Turner hit some huge shots and Ian Jackson had 11 and 6 off the bench in 16 minutes. The team also locked into their defense in the second half holding the clutch player of the year frontrunner, Damian Lilliard, to 1/5 shooting in the fourth. The Pacers have so much fun on the court and I hope they can win the whole damn thing.

In the second game, the Pelicans seemed to have celebrated a little too early as they came out on that court last night with no fight. The Pels had the lead after the first quarter but it went all downhill after that. Lebron decided that he wanted to put the game away early and went absolutely nuclear in the second quarter scoring 18 points and hitting logo threes. The Lakers have the classic glue pieces needed to win an NBA championship like Tauren Prince, Cam Reddish, and Rui Hachimura and they all stepped up last night on both ends of the floor. The Pelicans were awful. Zion looks slow and out of sync. CJ and BI combined for 8-27 shooting.

This finals game should be another fun one. Admittedly, I got each prediction wrong yesterday and will be putting those on pause after this post for the time being. The Lakers should win and even at 38 years old, it doesn’t seem that there is a team that can beat Lebron James in a best of one series. Bron looks like he really wants to win and it will be an uphill battle for the Pacers to stop this Lakers team. The Pacers need to play their game and hit their shots. I like Myles Turner guarding Anthony Davis and Bruce Brown was great against the Lakers in the playoffs last year. I have fallen in love with this Pacers team and will be rooting for them tomorrow. The X-factor in this game is going to be Reaves/DLo. One of these two need to play well and hit their open shots in a high scoring game. I think it is gonna be impossible to stop a determined Lebron James and I think the Lake Show will win. I am not ready for the IST to end but cannot wait to watch this Championship game.