I’ve enjoyed watching the Pacers’ offense so far this season. They flow from one action to the next—usually through Sabonis—maintaining space and patiently waiting for the defense to make just one small miscalculation.

Indiana is not only using clever concepts like empty DHO and staggered screens, but there is almost always an added component (a setup action or wrinkle) that makes it even tougher on the defense. Over the next few days, I’ll be tweeting about some of the things I am seeing.

Let’s start with empty DHO/PnR. Here’s what it looks like, why it’s generally tough to guard and what the Pacers do to minimize a likely counter defensively:

Of course, no thread is complete without a few Spain PnR clips. Every team runs this action nowadays, but the Pacers have a clever way of initiating it.

Next, take a look at the multitude of options the Pacers have at their disposal when using staggered screens.

Watch how the Pacers manipulate their spacing to open up a drive from Sabonis, plus two wrinkles they use out of the same alignment.