8 points, 9 seconds
Fansided

Indiana Pacers 15 greatest playoff moments

By Jonathan Matthes

INDIANAPOLIS - APRIL 28: Reggie Miller #31 of the Indiana Pacers sits on the scorer's table during the game against the Boston Celtics in Game three of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals during the 2005 NBA Playoffs at Conseco Fieldhouse on April 28, 2005 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Pacers won 99-76 to take a 2-1 series lead. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2005 NBAE (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS - APRIL 28: Reggie Miller #31 of the Indiana Pacers sits on the scorer's table during the game against the Boston Celtics in Game three of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals during the 2005 NBA Playoffs at Conseco Fieldhouse on April 28, 2005 in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Pacers won 99-76 to take a 2-1 series lead. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2005 NBAE (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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(Photo credit should read JEFF HAYNES/AFP/Getty Images) /

Travis Best from the deep corner

2000 Eastern Conference first round, game 5

The 2000 first round series against the Milwaukee Bucks was not going according to plan.

In each of the Pacers previous two seasons, Indiana had just nearly missed punching their first-ever ticket to the NBA Finals. 2000 was the year, it had to be, the Indiana Pacers were the clear-cut best team in the East, and yet here they found themselves down by one to the spunky Bucks with 29 seconds left.

The series was not taken seriously by Pacers fans, even after Milwaukee (led by Sam Cassell, Glenn Robinson and a young Ray Allen) split the first four games with Indiana. Even after game five proved competitive, no one was too worried. Then Tim Thomas hit a deep jumper to regain the Milwaukee lead with less than a minute to go and reality crashed down on Conseco Fieldhouse: “uh-oh”.

Reggie Miller would’ve been the obvious candidate to take the decisive shot, he scored his playoff career-high 41 in that same game. But off the crucial inbound play (and a Travis Best miss) the ball zipped from a Dale Davis rebound to Miller, across the baseline to Best, up top to a wide open Jalen Rose who drove and kicked back to the corner to a wide-open Best who let fly.

Before that shot, Best, the Pacers backup point guard who was only in the game for defensive purposes, had missed 12 of his first 14 shots in the game including two missed shots in the game’s final 30 seconds. He had missed another go-ahead shot ten seconds before, but through a spectacular moment of either brazen confidence or horrifying hubris, there was Best trying it again.

Boom baby, as Slick Leonard would say.

Best’s blast was not a walk-off. Milwaukee, now down two, still had a shot at it. Allen even did his then-patented base-line drive which was blocked by Davis, who then immediately and accidentally fouled Ervin (not Magic) Johnson, sending him to the line.

Johnson, a horrendous free throw shooter, proceeded to execute one of the least-clutch free-throw trips in the history of the NBA playoffs.

Still down two with 6.2 seconds left, Johnson bricked the first attempt, which was expected.

Bucks coach George Karl then hatched a brilliant scheme for his two bigs on the blocks, plus Johnson, to take up Indiana’s rebounders while he blitzed Robinson and Allen into the paint to rebound the next attempt that Johnson was supposed to intentionally miss.

Johnson made the free throw he was intentionally trying to miss, foiling Karl’s clever plan and effectively giving the game back to Indiana.

It was one heck of a final minute to the game, really the whole fourth quarter was tense, all culminating with the most unlikely playoff hero in the history of the Indiana Pacers franchise. Travis Best, who for a brief moment, with the clock dwindling and the hopes of an entire state resting on his shoulders, ignored his recent inaccuracy and lived up to his surname.

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