The Indiana Pacers now expect to fail late in game — and now never fail to meet those expectations.
The Good: The first three quarters, outside of apparently thinking Nikola Mirotic’s shots don’t count, were generally fine. The late-game defense was stellar.
The Bad: The Pacers scored 12 points in the final 12 minutes, just 6 in the final 8 minutes, and 2 in the final four minutes. In fairness, a few of the misses were good looks. But in reality, many of them were trash shots just sorta hurled unconfidently by players who looked like they were putting up the rock because that is what basketball players are supposed to do more so than seeming like they actually thought the ball had any real chance of going in. It’s been a disease for awhile now, and it’s now beyond clear that this team gets tight late and is unable to execute simple basketball actions because they are too deep in their own heads. They now expect to fail and now never fail to meet those expectations.
MVP: Ian Mahinmi. Who oddly didn’t play for most of the fourth quarter because … reasons?
LVP: Monta Ellis didn’t shoot well, but this could go to pretty much everyone. Let’s let Ellis share this award with George Hill and Paul George, who allowed Jimmy Butler to walk to the hoop and beat them with a wide-open six-footer.
X-Factor: Nikola Mirotic torche the Pacers for 28 points. They lost him in the half court. They lost him in transition. They lost him on good sets by the Bulls. They lost him on broken defense and awful miscommunication that cannot happen this late in the season. They lost him in a box. They lost him with a fox.