LeBron James delivered tips on winning the game to beat them, but the Indiana Pacers essentially hampered the stretch on the way to a painful loss.
It was the Los Angeles Lakers who lasted the Indiana Pacers 120-119 thanks to the game-winning plays of the Superstars as both teams faced a Marquee Cross Conference showdown on March 26th.
Unsettled from a three-game lost skid and away from a brutal beatdown from Orlando Magic, LeBron James redeemed himself as his last second touch saved Lakers’ day when he followed up from Lukadon Sic’s miss floater.
Reflecting from the loss, Rick Carlisle acknowledged his flaws that led to the Pacers’ final seconds of death.
Ty Halliburton was the person in charge of leading Pacer to the Lakers. But when it was most important, his presence on the court was not present.
The franchise guard, who finished with 16 points and 18 assists, drove a 119-118 lead to Indiana after a massive 3-point play in 42 seconds. He has not yet touched the court again since.
After the play of Clutch, Halliburton went to the bench as Haras Walker replaced him for defensive purposes. Walker succeeded as the forward refused a layup for Dorian Finney Smith with 33 seconds remaining.
Rick Carlisle didn’t consider calling a timeout for Halliburton to take over, rather than sealing the game in the end. So the Pacers paid the price because they ultimately caused a collapse.
Without the general on their floor, the Pacers would have scrambled because Ben Matlin had thrown a terrible shot. The Lakers secured the board with 10 seconds left, and in the blink of an eye it was James who delivered the dagger putback to quickly silence Indiana fans.
On the postgame presser, Carlisle was conscious enough to deal with what was wrong with his out-of-hours phone call, which cost a great deal of victory to Pacer.
“I thought of it,” Carlisle said. “Looking back at it now, considering the outcome, it certainly was something to do. But there was a nine or ten seconds difference. If we scored, they were probably going to bring it back to us.
“That group had a good run on the fourth time, so I decided to stay with it, but that was my decision, really, there was a foul that we should give.
“We didn’t do that because everyone on the sideline was screaming it. So they were slowly turned for the shot and then we didn’t get a body at LeBron.”
The Pacers fought teeth and claws just to get back on track with the Lakers, returning from a 17-point lead in the first half from visitors.
Ultimately, their efforts went into vain as their hot five-game winning streak ended.
“I mean, obviously, I want to be on the floor. That’s not a surprise, but I think I trusted (Carlisle’s) decisions back then,” Halliburton said of the wild sequence.
“Of course I want to be on the floor, but I trust his decisions and I ride on what decisions he’s making. I think he’s riding on any decisions I’ve made when I’m on the floor.
“If we can get it back, we’d probably want to call a timeout there. But it’s going to happen over the course of the season and we thought we’d responded the right way.”
The loss caused the Pacers to fall 42-30-1.5 games behind the 5th Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Ladder.
Meanwhile, the Lakers improved to 44-28 as they retained a tiebreaker for the fourth seed of the Western Conference over the Grizzlies in Memphis.