Some games you just shake your head and thank the basketball gods. Other games you shake your head and curse them.
In a make-or-miss league, the Pacers got the make they needed. And then Washington got the miss the Pacers needed, and that was that. Their 107-105 victory, which ended with a Wizards player sitting on the floor with his head in his hands and their coach pounding the scorer’s table, gave the Pacers (15-14) a winning record for just the third time this season.
They had a lot to be thankful for after this one, and they knew it. But they had a lot to be proud of as well, producing an impressive balanced effort that included clutch plays from a variety of sources.
Their place in the gridlock of the Eastern Conference standings improved a bit, moving them into eighth place on percentage points but a tie for fifth among teams one game over .500. It figures to be like that throughout the season, so they might as well get used to it.
The good news for them is that they’re closing out the closest games well. Monday’s was their first of the season that came down to the final possession (they led the league in such games last season) but they’re 3-1 in overtime games and getting decent shots when they need them most.
Thad Young hit the one they absolutely needed, with 0.9 seconds remaining, off an improvised inbound play. Then Bradley Beal missed the one the Wizards needed.
First things first.
The Pacers seemed to have the game in hand with a 105-98 lead after Paul George scored nine straight points, and had a possession to increase the lead. George, however, followed with a turnover, a missed 3-pointer and a missed 15-footer, leaving time for Beal to score Washington’s final seven points and tie the game.
After a timeout with 15.7 seconds left, George went one-on-one from out front. The Pacers weren’t in the bonus yet, however, so Otto Porter fouled with 4.6 seconds remaining to force them to take the ball out of bounds again. After another timeout to set up a play, the ball was supposed to go to George again. But Porter had him covered, so the inbound pass went to Thad Young, who caught the ball outside the 3-point line, where he was met immediately by Markieff Morris. Young took three forceful dribbles to his left and floated a soft shot off the backboard and through the net to give the Pacers the lead with nine-tenths of a second remaining.
“Thaddeus did what he was supposed to do, flash to the ball and be the pressure release, and he did the smart thing: attack the basket,” McMillan said. “Put the pressure on the officials to call a foul.”
Young was bumped on the shot and fell to the floor, but the officials didn’t call a foul. That left Washington enough time to get off one last shot.
Guarded by Glenn Robinson III, Beal ran off a screen by Marcin Gortat near the top of the key. Gortat bumped Robinson off the play, getting away with a foul, leaving Beal free to run to the left corner and take Porter’s bounce pass in stride. He turned, fired, and bounced his shot off the rim with George running at him.
Even after the miss, McMillan turned and pounded the scorer’s table in frustration over the wide-open look his team allowed. Gortat, meanwhile, sat on the court with his head in his hands. A smiling Porter approached Beal and slapped hands. Just one of those things.
“We talked about switching, something we don’t do a lot,” McMillan said. “We got hung up and we didn’t have communication. It was just a breakdown. He was wide open. I think he was so surprised he was wide open. A lot of times that’s a tough shot to make.”
Maybe that was a good thing, then, leaving Beal so open he was distracted by all the space around him?
“No,” McMillan said. “We got lucky there.”
“It felt like it was good,” Beal said. “It was a tough angle and I’ll take the blame for that, but it definitely was a shot that I can make.”
But not one he made with regularity in this game. Beal, a 42 percent 3-point shooter at tipoff, hit just 3-of-11 3-pointers. Backcourt partner John Wall, an improved 36 percent shooter, missed all five attempts. The Pacers’ backcourt defense, which included George most of the evening, deserves credit for some of that inaccuracy.
Several players, meanwhile, get credit for an offense that hit 52 percent of its shots over the final three periods. George led with 27 points, nine in a 2 1/2 minute stretch late in the game. He’s now scored 20 or more in eight of the last nine games. Jeff Teague started slowly, missing all five of his shots in the first quarter, but dominated in the second half. He scored 11 points in the third period, hitting 4-of-6 shots, and passing out three assists as the Pacers outscored the Wizards, 31-22.
Teague added two quick baskets upon re-entering the game with 9:16 left in the final period, before George took over. Teague finished with 23 points and 10 assists, his fourth double-double in the last eight games.
Myles Turner, meanwhile, scored a point for every year he’s been on the planet (20), grabbed eight rebounds (seven in the second half) and matched his season high with five blocked shots. He had to watch the excruciating final nine-tenths of a second from the bench, though, after fouling out while trying to prevent Beal’s layup with 50.1 seconds left.
“I didn’t know I had five fouls; that’s all on me,” Turner said. “I was just trying to give a hard foul. That was frustrating. I have to be smarter than that.”
Throw in Young’s double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds, not to mention the game-winning shot, and 10-point outputs from reserves C.J. Miles and Al Jefferson, and it amounted to one of the most well-rounded performances of the season.
They’ll need more of this kind of production, though, because they play in New York on Tuesday and back home against Boston on Thursday, and the gods are fickle.
