Pacers’ Andrew Nembhard no longer about to go into reverse from excellent friend SGA in NBA Finals

OKLAHOMA CITY — He used to be drained.

After enjoying one of the vital most vital mins of his occupation — which is announcing one thing, given he has performed in 34 playoff video games and counting, to not point out an Olympic event, previously 13 months or so — Andrew Nembhard simply sought after to get out of the Paycom Center, to find his circle of relatives for a fast catch-up and get some leisure.

Everything else didn’t topic. Not that the Pacers had simply pulled an disenchanted on the buzzer, in spite of everything silencing the jackhammer-level crowd quantity that had made it tough for Indiana gamers to listen to every different at the courtroom for many of Thursday night time.

Not that Nembhard’s fingerprints had been in all places the overall consequence, making massive performs down the stretch of Indiana’s comeback from down 15 with 9:42 left within the fourth quarter, all of sudden striking the underdog Pacers in regulate of the collection in opposition to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Not that he had effectively guarded MVP and previous buddy and rival Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for another essential ownership within the ultimate seconds, enabling teammate Tyrese Haliburton’s 21-foot pull-up jumper to be the game-winner.

There used to be no adrenaline rate. No temper to have fun, and no power for it both.

“Is it bad if I just go back to the hotel and got to bed and catch up with you guys tomorrow?” he advised his father Claude, who had flown in from Indianapolis with the remainder of the Pacers folks and group of workers on a workforce constitution previous Thursday for Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

“Not at all,” his father advised him after exchanging hugs. “Do what you need to do.”

It would possibly as smartly be the more youthful Nembhard’s motto. Guard the opposite workforce’s absolute best participant? Sure. Engineer fourth-quarter comeback, together with an attractive cross-over step again 3 over Gilgeous-Alexander with two mins left to chop the Thunder’s result in 3? Yup.

Get able to do it in all places once more Sunday night time? Absolutely.

After an off-day Friday, the local of Aurora, Ont., mentioned he used to be absolutely charged for Game 2 on Sunday — “I’m 25, I bounce back quick,” he advised me — however likelihood is that he’s going to be in a an identical state of affairs by means of the tip of the night time.

Gilgeous-Alexander will likely be coming, and Nembhard will likely be there to fulfill him.

Nembhard is used to taking up tough defensive assignments. But guarding the guy Canadian is a reduce above.

Not handiest is he the NBA’s regular-season scoring champion and the main scorer within the playoffs, however Gilgeous-Alexander has the ball so much — his 37.3-per-cent utilization price used to be the 3rd best the Thunder celebrity has had in 40 occupation playoff video games and his 30 box function makes an attempt had been tied for his occupation post-season prime. He’s made up our minds to assault whoever is protecting him, buddy or foe.

He performs downhill nearly completely, the usage of his shoulder, forearms and elbows like battering rams, growing area for himself and drawing fouls when defenders attempt to hang their flooring.

“I always try to be aggressive and I never, like, predetermine it. I always just let the game tell me what to do,” Gilgeous-Alexander mentioned Saturday of his means. “So I guess last game, I felt more often than not, I had a shot or a play that I could attack on more than in the past, and that’s just the way it went.”

Gilgeous-Alexander had 38 issues, however they didn’t come simply. He overlooked 16 pictures and for up to he had the ball and as ceaselessly as he drove into the defence, he were given to the free-throw line handiest 8 occasions, slightly below his season reasonable.

More ceaselessly than no longer, Nembhard used to be there, soaking up the frame blows along with his chest, retaining his fingers out broad so Gilgeous-Alexander couldn’t entice him into fouls, and transferring his toes.

It’s no longer glamorous paintings, however it’s an important, and the Pacers recognize him for it and no longer handiest as a result of he nonetheless had the legs to file 8 of his 14 issues and 3 of his six assists within the fourth quarter. That’s standard too: Nembhard’s occupation playoff averages of 13.9 issues with an efficient box function proportion of .598 are a lot better than his occupation regular-season marks of 9.6 issues with an eFG of .524.

But it’s defence that the Pacers have come to rely on.

“He loves the challenge. He has a great intellectual curiosity about defence and the challenge of trying to — I mean, you don’t stop players today. You try to make it hard,” mentioned Pacers head trainer Rick Carlisle. “… They are both from Canada and they both have played a lot with and against each other over the years … but this is the ultimate challenge, a guy like him who is the MVP. He’s just so skilled, so quick, bigger than you think. Everybody talks about the lethal mid-range, but he makes threes easily, too. He lives at the free throw line. So there’s no breaks. There’s no breaks. But Drew is one of these guys that he has an equal focus on the defensive end as the offensive end, and that’s — it’s a bit rare with today’s players.”

Nembhard spent extra time guarding Gilgeous-Alexander than any individual else at the flooring and greater than held his personal, as his Olympic teammate used to be simply 3-of-9 in opposition to him of their one-on-one battles and — crucially — went to the free-throw line handiest as soon as.

“It’s definitely a job that has no breaks. It’s a consistent 48-minute job from our whole team,” mentioned Nembhard of the project.

And Gilgeous-Alexander felt him. How may just he no longer? Nembhard is not any shrinking violet. He employs the darkish arts of bodily basketball as successfully as any individual else, he simply doesn’t leap up and down about it.

He drives to create touch, comparable to his momentum-shifting ‘and-1’ that sparked the Pacers’ comeback early within the fourth quarter when he barrelled during the Thunder’s Alex Caruso, a rugged defender himself.

And at the different finish, Nembhard bumps and grabs and makes use of his leverage to throw ball handlers off steadiness, and he does it constantly. It’s no longer unusual for his fighters to get thrown off, aggravated or worse, and when that occurs Nembhard is there too.

During Indiana’s run to the Conference Finals final season, Nembhard were given right into a war of words with Bobby Portis of the Milwaukee Bucks of their first-round collection. Portis is not any stranger to blending it up and no longer anyone to clutter round with performatively, however it used to be Nembhard used to be greater than prepared and Pacers assistant Jenny Boucek discovered herself sprinting the duration of the ground to de-escalate.

“I got made fun of for how quickly I got down the court when Andrew stepped up to Bobby Portis. But one of the reasons I got there so quick is because I know how tough Andrew is and that he wasn’t going to back down, and I didn’t want something to break out where he takes a swing and gets suspended, he’s too valuable to us,” Boucek, who has been an assistant to Carlisle in Indiana and Dallas for 5 seasons, advised me for a characteristic on Nembhard I wrote final summer season. “A lot of fake tough guys in those situations, nothing’s going to happen, but Andrew just is legitimately tough … and I think the world saw that, and I think a lot of people around the league have already felt that (and) I think players know the difference between real and phony.”

In that context it used to be telling — and engaging — that Gilgeous-Alexander used to be frustrated sufficient by means of Nembhard’s defensive tenacity that the typically cool, calm and picked up Thunder guard used to be the only doing the shoving, with Nembhard shoving again in a temporary skirmish halfway during the fourth quarter because the Thunder’s lead used to be starting to shrink.

In the grand scheme of items, there wasn’t a lot to it, however showcases Nembhard’s means.

“It’s just competition, getting a little physical guys out there trying to win the game, and it’s no friends at this point,” Nembhard advised me because the Pacers had been getting able for apply Saturday. “I think I’m just out there to compete now. I’m willing to do what it takes to get it done, and I’m not too worried about making friends out there. So whatever happens, happens in that sense.”

Gilgeous-Alexander respects it.

“It’s nothing more than two guys wanting to win. No malicious intent behind it, just wanting to win,” he mentioned Saturday. “(Nembhard’s) a competitor. He’s a winner. Plays the game the right way on both ends of the floor. Really good player. Yeah, he’s a winner for sure. No doubt.”

And after a excellent night time’s sleep and a pair days to recuperate, Nembhard will likely be proper again the place he used to be in Game 1, chest-to-chest with an previous buddy who occurs to be the NBA’s maximum deadly scorer, able to do it once more.