Following the Pacers' Game 2 loss last night in Cleveland, Nate McMillan is taking a lot of heat. This post, in particular, from Matt Moore of CBSSports.com really takes him to task:
Moore points out several coaching-related issues that the Pacers have run into in this series:
- Being unprepared for Paul George to be double-teamed in the final seconds of Game 1.
- Defensive mismatches, mostly involving Indiana's guards like Lance Stephenson (on Kevin Love last night) and Jeff Teague (being forced to switch on LeBron).
- Playing Teague and Monta Ellis together for long stretches
The Pacers' personnel is obviously an issue, and they don't have a lot of defensive solutions to Cleveland's offensive firepower, but they need to be put in a better position to be successful. I'm not sure that McMillian - with his incredibly average 534-514 career head coaching record (including playoffs) - is the guy to put them in the right spot.