Then things got increasingly sloppy and the increasingly bad play of Roy Hibbert (2 points on 1-for-10 shooting and 0-for-0 from the line, 3 rebounds and 3 turnovers in 24 minutes) started to make it look like the Pacers would lose. It just started to feel like Indy had blown too many opportunities to put away a team that wasn’t playing well. Someone was going to have to win this one, and the Pacers looked just as uninterested in doing so as the Hornets.

As it so often does, it came down to the end.

Neither team executed beautifully throughout the final two minutes, but each team made some big plays. In the video below, I’ve done a breakdown of the final six possessions, highlighting both the good and the bad points for the Pacers.

Here’s a complementary written breakdown from Tim Donahue on the pick-and-pop from CP3 and David West that put New Orleans up by 1 with 3 seconds to play.

The Hornets run that play better than anyone else in the league, and Paul and West are the best pick-and-roll/pick-and-pop combination in the game. They executed it perfectly.

Foster was staying in the lane, and West came all the way out the three-point line to set the pick. Ford tried to go under, but West actually hopped a little to his right and caught Ford — hanging him up for a second. It was an illegal screen, but the type that never gets called. (Watch a replay of Foster sliding to his right to try to set a screen for Danny on the following play.)

Paul, meanwhile slides at an angle towards the elbow, creating enough space so to make it hard to cover both players. After Ford gets disengaged from West, he frantically tries to recover, and then — and this makes the play — Paul pump fakes a shot. The pump fake does two crucial things.

First, it gets Ford in the air and moving between Paul and the basket, which opens up a pristine passing lane to get the ball back to West. Second, it gets Foster to take one step up to challenge the shot — a half-jump that delays his recovery to West just enough to make sure West doesn’t have to rush it.

Beautiful work by the best in the business at it.

The other big thing was what New Orleans did with the other three guys. They got them completely out of the play. The wings — Jarrett Jack and Marco Belinelli both stood on the the sideline outside of the three-point arc, and Okafor actually set up out of bounds on the baseline. Jack and Belinelli drifted waiting for the pass, and Okafor came in bounds directly under the basket and started pushing Posey out to get rebounding position.

It was set up so that any help besides from any of the three defenders not involved in the pick-and-roll defense would have opened up a guy for a good look at the basket — leaving Ford and Foster on an island of sorts.

I criticize the Pacers for this play a little bit in the video, but Tim’s take is definitely more nuanced. Ultimately, this play is a lot like the Andrew Bogut tip-in game-winner: really good execution. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap. (Still, TJ letting himself get man-handled that badly can’t be considered good work.)

Related posts:

1. Breaking Down Andrew Bogut’s Tip-In
2. Game #12 Recap – Too Little, Too Late
3. Pacers Weekend Recap: Breaking the Losing Streak and Getting Embarrassed

Sam Holako of Raptors Republic, however, has a much more nuanced take of the team and has been covering it all year. And luckily for us, he was nice enough to stop by to share his dino wisdom. Below is a Q&A we did. Also, I returned the favor and answered a few questions on the Pacers generally and tonight’s game specifically for him as well. So be sure to stop by Raptors Republic and check out more from me and Sam over there.

Jared: An underrated story of late is that your Raptors are 15-5 since December 18, making it one of the most successful teams in the whole league over the past six weeks. What has been working so well over the last 20 games that wasn’t during the first 28?

Sam Holako: A few key things happened during this stretch:

1. Bargnani has really stepped up his play. He is rebounding better and scoring more efficiently, but most of all, his defense in the post has been shockingly good from where it was — just ask Tim Duncan and Dwight Howard.
2. Jose Calderon lost his starting role due to injury, but is proving to be far more effective coming off the bench since he has returned. He also is a team player and will do whatever it takes to win, so the move to the bench doesn’t bruise his ego as much as it would others.
3. When the Raptors go to their bench, there is real production. Marco Belinelli and Sonny Weems are very aggressive on offense, Antoine Wright has been playing great defense at the 2/3, and Amir Johnson is a beast.

Jared: Hedo had a big game last week against the Knicks, dropping 26 points and 11 rebounds. And more importantly (to me anyway) is that he gave us the best postgame quote for the year with “Ball.” I think it’s safe to say that the Turkoglu acquisition wasn’t looking great at the beginning of the year. How about now?

Sam Holako: It’s still not looking great, but it isn’t ALL his fault. Hedo is the kind of player who needs the ball to be effective, and Triano is finding it hard to effectively use Hedo in a rotation where the point guards (Jarrett Jack and Calderon) also need it in their hands. His postgame quote was not only epic, but indicative of what it will take for him to get back to the levels he played at with the Magic. He isn’t helping the cause by not attempting to adapt to a new team/concept/style of play. Doesn’t look like a great signing, all things considered.

Jared: Amir Johnson looked very good the other night and that alley-oop was ridiculous. Discuss.

Sam Holako: Amir Johnson is a favorite of everyone. He’s one of those blue-collar guys who gets in the game and battles like a warrior. He is very aggressive, very athletic, reasonably consistent and gets after it. His only knock is that he gets something like 6.8 fouls per 36 minutes, which affects his minutes depending on how quickly he picks them up. When he plays in control, like he did Sunday against the Pacers (1 foul in 20 minutes of play), the guy is playing himself into a full mid-level contract at the end of the year.

Jared: Pacer fans aren’t going to get to see DeMar DeRozan in either game, but he has been playing pretty well. What type of player do you expect him to be around this time next year? Also, I have him winning the Dunk Contest. Is that correct?

Sam Holako: DeRozan is an interesting kid. We haven’t had an athlete like him since Vince Carter, but he is very raw. His jumper has improved significantly since the start of the year, but his career will be made on how aggressively he attacks the rim off the dribble. The guy is a gym rat and is always practicing, so it will come — just a matter of when. Truthfully, I see him as a poor man’s Vince Carter; he isn’t quite as explosive, but he will be a solid starting shooting guard in the league. The Dunk Contest is just a formality to make Nate Robinson feel important. DeRozan takes it.

Jared: Lastly, how depressing is it that Bosh is definitely leaving this Summer? Or are you still holding out some hope?

Sam Holako: I have always contended that he was going to resign with the Raptors unless they were just God-awful. With the Raptors trailing the Celtics by only 3 games in the division (and sitting in 5th place in the East), things are looking up. With the CBA up at the end of next season, he can’t afford to leave the $30 million or so on the table if he resigns with another team. The only way I thought he wouldn’t be a Raptor come next season is if in fact he does have a pact with Wade/LeBron to play together, in which case, Toronto wouldn’t be the destination for that grouping of talent with our cap situation and all. At the end of the day, the Raptors are HIS team, and Toronto HIS city; if he leaves to join Wade/LeBron, he loses that.

Related posts:

1. Game Recap #37: Pacers Beat the Best National Basketball Association Team in Canada
2. Game #12 Preview – Our Resistable Force Meets Their Movable Object
3. Toronto Introduces Jarrett Jack