It was enough for him to move up the field to gain precious seconds on the clock. Jayson Tatum had just missed the game-tying shot, and his Pacers led by three points (114-117) with about 30.0″ to play. There, with no apparent pressure other than Jrue Holiday closing in on him, Tyrese Haliburton dribbled on his knee. Aaron Nesmith tried to make up for his teammate’s mistake by diving to the ground. In vain, turnover by the Pacers, gift to the Celtics. “I don’t know what happened. It’s frustrating because it’s not something that normally happens to me. But no one forced me, I just dribbled on my foot”: so the Pacers point guard can’t believe it and find peace in the press conference.
His mistake had no direct negative consequence, as Boston failed to score near the basket on the ensuing possession. With 10.0″ to play, Jayson Tatum had to commit an intentional foul on Haliburton himself. Not in the bonus, the Pacers had to throw in from the sideline. Now it’s Rick Carlisle’s turn to blame himself for not calling a timeout.” This defeat is totally mine. We should have taken the timeout, moved the ball forward, found a way to make a free throw or two and ended the game. But that didn’t happen and we made other mistakes.” Carried away by his momentum and under pressure from Jaylen Brown, Pascal Siakam was unable to receive the ball. Another Pacers walker, another gift for the locals who they will find, from the baseline, Jaylen Brown in the corner for the equalizer.
Another mistake, as Rick Carlisle himself confirms: the idea was to commit an intentional foul to avoid this type of 3-point shot. “But Brown got the ball and was in front of him, so Pascal decided to get out of the way, which was… I see. It’s probably the right decision, you don’t want to concede a four-point game. Look, a a lot of things had to go wrong for us and go right for them. That’s what happened,” continues the Indianapolis coach. “It was just a question of judgement. I had the impression that he was moving, that he had made his last shot. I didn’t want to make a mistake at that moment. It was a hard shot, I was in front of him. Maybe I could have challenged her better , but it was a complicated action”, admits the Cameroonian.
2024-05-22 11:55:57
#NBA #Playoffs #Pacers #betrayed #trivial #errors #final #moments #Boston
