LeBron James scores 30 points in less than 3 quarters and the Lakers roll past the Pelicans to reach the In-Season Tournament title game.
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LAS VEGAS – Whoever wins in Vegas stays in Vegas.
That was the case Thursday for the Indiana Pacers and the Los Angeles Lakers in the Semifinal games of the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament. The Pacers beat the Milwaukee Bucks 128-119 in the afternoon at T-Mobile Arena near the Vegas Strip, and the Lakers dominated the New Orleans Pelicans a few hours later.
While the defeated head home, the two winners stick around to bring matching 5-0 records in tournament play to the first In-Season Tournament Championship game Saturday evening (8:30 ET, ABC). They will vie for the NBA Cup and, not insignificantly, prize money of $500,000 per man for the team that survives its third straight single-elimination test.
Here are five takeaways on four teams, two games and a unique day of one-and-done satisfaction or disappointment:
1. Another day (and night) of firsts
No one knew how it was going to go because no one ever had done this before. Just having four NBA teams in one arena – for practices Wednesday and the Semifinals on Thursday – was unusual. Like something out of old Madison Square Garden doubleheaders when the NBA was played in black & white.
Neutral court? That was different. The theater-like presentation with fans sitting in darkened stands? That’s rare at least, something they do in New York. And anyone telling you there was no buzz, no dialed-up intensity, from the levels games in early December traditionally generate needs to stay out of the poker rooms this weekend.
“This time of the year,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said, “games don’t have this kind of exposure, attention, interest. So it’s really a fascinating time in the history of the league.
“I’ve been around this a long time. I believe that the NBA can make just about anything happen.”
No one is pretending the memo didn’t go out. The league wants this tournament to become a fixture, a new tradition to boost interest and chatter in what has been a low-wattage time of the season. It wasn’t likely we’d hear disparaging words from coaches or players this deep into the first try.
But these guys aren’t good enough actors to account for all the enthusiasm on display this week.
“Feels good,” Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “It’s always good to play for another trophy during the season. … Overseas they do it. I know the G League does it. It was kind of strange when I came around here, 10 years ago, that the NBA wasn’t doing that.”
Said Indiana point guard Tyrese Haliburton after his team advanced: “This was the whole point of the In-Season Tournament, to see a young group like ourselves compete and come out here and fight. I think we’re shocking the world right now.”
On Thursday, Tyrese Haliburton posted his 3rd game this season with at least 25 points, 15 assists and zero turnovers.
2. It’s Tyrese time
With a minute left and Indiana ahead by five, Haliburton launched a 3-pointer from 30 feet. Miss. He grabbed the rebound and reloaded, a little closer and a bit to the left. Boom!
Haliburton turned toward the nearby Pacers’ bench and then, mere feet away from Julius (Dr. J) Erving in the front row, looked down at his right wrist. He and his team were up by eight now, plenty, vs. an opponent featuring the man known for “Dame Time,” his legacy of hitting clutch shots.
It was a pretty frontal taunt. But Damian Lillard was cool with it.
“I learned as a kid, when you dish it out, you’ve got to be willing to take it,” the Bucks guard said. “We shook hands after the game. I wasn’t moved by it left or right.”
Haliburton said it was just some fun in the moment. “I kind of pounded my chest and said it was my time, whatever,” he said, “but I think really looking at it, it’s our time. It’s our time as a group.”
If this is the NBA facsimile of the Final Four, the Pacers are the Cinderella team. They are 6-0 in In-Season Tournament games through Thursday, compared to 6-8 otherwise.
They have been known for scoring in bunches this season but, in the final quarter, they bothered the Bucks into five turnovers worth seven points, outrebounded them 19-12, held them to just four second-chance points and 25 points in the period. All after surviving Milwaukee’s 43-point assault in the third.
The engine was Haliburton, who manages to dominate, exhilarate and moderate all at once. He posted his third game this season with at least 25 points (27), 15 assists and zero turnovers. No one else, since the NBA began tracking turnovers in 1977-78, has done it more than once.
“He’s like a machine that is not turning the ball over and makes good plays,” Antetokounmpo said, crediting Haliburton for eventually shifting gears when the Bucks had success after halftime with a zone defense.
Almost with a shrug, Carlisle said: “Just one of those transcendent players that with him on the court, anything is possible. … He’s a great closer. He’s becoming an even better closer.”
3. Frustration for the Bucks
It was fair when Antetokounmpo agreed with a question about Milwaukee, loaded with talent and ambition, getting every opponent’s ‘A’ game. The problem comes when the Bucks themselves lean too heavily on just talent.
Losing to Indiana happened for several reasons: The Pacers’ second-chance scoring and a killer 43-13 edge in bench points were clear on the stat sheet. But this was more fundamental, something puzzling and not really acceptable for a 15-7 team with championship visions.
“Played harder than us. Simple as that,” Antetokounmpo said. “Sometimes we’re not organized at all. We don’t know what we try to get from our offense, or sometimes defensively we’re not sprinting back.”
Finding a rhythm between the Greek Freak and Lillard is taking longer than expected. The surrounding players have to keep adjusting to whatever adjustments those two stars make.
The Bucks have a six-game homestand that begins Monday against Chicago to get past the speed bumps, because it’s seven of eight on the road across the holidays.
4. Irresistible force meets movable objects
LeBron James needed only 22:32 of court time to score 30 points, break whatever will the young Pelicans team brought to town and boost his team into Saturday’s showcase. He played just over six minutes after halftime, none at all in the final quarter, wonderful efficiency for a fellow three weeks shy of his 39th birthday.
The Lakers stomped the Pelicans 81-41 in the second and third combined. James was plus-36 in his time on the floor, meaning New Orleans, er, only got beat by eight in the 25-plus minutes he sat.
Water birds, meet birds of prey. “We got guys that are hawks,” Lakers coach Darvin Ham said.
Ham’s team outscored the Pelicans by 30 points from 3-point range. It dominated the boards 59-42. It limited the losers to 35.8% shooting while hitting 54.7%, and allowed no New Orleans starter to score more than 13 points.
Ham ran through a few adjectives and superlatives about James in hopes of finding unused ones. Failing, he settled for praise and gratitude.
“He is the ultimate tone-setter. For him, to go out from the start, just everything, from our meeting to our walk-through, everything, his communication, helping guys visually see what game plan we were trying to execute… It’s a huge, huge blessing to have that working in your favor and to be on the same side as that.”
The Pelicans left the building feeling like the Bucks, only worse. “A lack of competitive spirit from our group,” coach Willie Green said. “That’s not indicative of who we’ve been and who we are, but we took a step in the wrong direction.”
LeBron James will look to help the Lakers hoist the NBA Cup in the inaugural In-Season Tournament.
5. An underdog vs. heavyweight finale
Bucks vs. Lakers would have been the marquee matchup. Pacers vs. Pelicans might have been a tough sell to the casuals for Saturday’s broadcast. Now there’s a classic dynamic at play, pitting one team (Lakers) that expected to reach this stage from the start against another that is surprising everyone but itself.
The Lakers have won 17 NBA championships and boast the biggest star in the league in James, who has been avid in his embrace of the new tournament. A fresh trophy or two to hoist, if he snags both the NBA Cup and MVP honors, is absolutely on brand. Particularly in the first year.
“We are just trying to build a rhythm and be the best team we can be,” Ham said. “The tournament just happens to align with what we got going on in general.”
The Pacers, by contrast, are a franchise team with three old ABA titles but only one unsuccessful trip to The Finals (2000 vs. the Lakers). They are relishing each step of this experience as prep work for the postseason, with a chance to be kings of a new hill while they’re at it.
“Look, we’re a disruptor,” Carlisle said. “A lot of people didn’t want us here. We don’t care about that. We earned our way here.”
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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