The Pacers lost an intense game against the Knicks last night, largely on the strength of their inability to score in the 4th quarter. Throughout the period, they turned the ball over, took rushed shots outside the paint (see this fourth quarter shot chart), got whistled for technicals, and continually committed what Knicks legend/announcer Clyde Frazier called “asinine fouls now by the Pacers.”
There were other reasons for the loss, of course: the whole second quarter, 15 missed 3-pointers, David West only taking 4 shots despite spending 21 of his 26 minutes matched up against the defensively challenged Amar’e Stoudemire, the fact that Pacers without the last name “Hibbert” shot 24-for-63 (38.1%) in the game.
But it was a shame that weak execution and seeming frustration down the stretch ruined what was otherwise a fun game to watch between two teams that have probably seen as much of each other as they care to this season. As the third quarter was coming to an end, it felt like this one was going to have an excellent finish with a playoff-level atmosphere.
Instead, after starting off the quarter by cutting the Knicks lead to just one, they had the offensive sequence shown in the video above and then continued to squander possession after possession while watching New York’s margin of victory continue to balloon.
In the NBA, there is an unwritten rules that good sportsmen will simply accept victory graciously and not continue to pile on once the game has been decided. So last year, after Leandro Barbosa took an unnecessary shot late in a game his Toronto Raptors were about to win against the Pacers, Danny Granger took umbrage with what he thought was a player trying to rub it in.
Danny Granger has gone from wanting to take Barbosa’s “head off” and bust his “lip” a year ago to now being his teammate. Granger didn’t like how Barbosa took a shot in the final seconds of a game in Toronto last season. “If I was on him I would have took his head off and been suspended for a game for a flagrant foul,” Granger said after the March 12, 2011, game. “If I was on him I would have took his neck off him. That’s unsportsmanlike. I would have taken his head off and busted his lip.”
Obviously, the two Dahntay Jones blunders were the easiest errors to point to in terms of why the Pacers were unable to beat the Heat in regulation last night. But there were of course two other major reasons: Indiana allowed LeBron to shoot a wide-open corner three to tie the game and then were unable to even get a shot off on the ensuing possession, as Darren Collison got swallowed up by that same soon-to-be-MVP player and coughed the ball up.
Good stuff showing what actually went down in terms of Xs, Os and scrambling rotations. Apparently Frank Vogel said after the game that Danny Granger should have stayed home and not rotated over to help on a driving Dwyane Wade. That is certainly one way to look at it. And a reasonable one considering that the team was up 3 and their wasn’t a ton of time left. But, still, how does Granger overlook 20 years of basketball instincts to not slide over and cut off a guy from getting a wide-open layup, as Wade appeared to be headed for? There was still about 12 seconds left and LeBron isn’t exactly Ray Allen. Nor does he sit in the corner waiting for drive-and-kicks that often like he is Bruce Bowen.
Regardless, what happened when the Pacers tried to win it in regulation was even uglier.
Not much to discuss here. Collison needs to be able to get rid of that ball or do something with it. Paul George clearly had some daylight over on the left wing and could have, at worst, gotten off a three with Dwyane Wade sagging.
There was a mini-dust-up between Danny Granger and Kevin Love late in the third quarter during Indiana’s 109-99 win over Minnesota earlier tonight. It was most likely one of those “he-did-he-thought” things. Love clearly reached out and smacked Granger with his arm extended and also sorta grabbed Granger’s shoulder while he was fouling him and lost his balance. But Danny, not having eyes in the back of his head (as anyone who has seen him pass can attest … ZING), thought Kevin was doing it more-on-purpose than he likely was. Perhaps he was up to something a little more nefarious. Love said it was a “hard foul.”
Either way, nobody was harmed, Danny yelled, Love just sorta stood there, Michael Beasley and Frank Vogel rushed over, and nothing really happened. But then something did happen.
Granger, who was already having a whale of a third quarter (15 points in the period up to that point), scored 14 more points following the fracas as his team pulled away. And he was ultra-physical and aggressive while waging his little one-man army campaign in a way that you know he was all sorts of charged up. As the philosopher Billy Hoyle once prophesized, Danny, unlike most guys, seems to play better when he’s mad.
