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The Pacers Choked
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The Pacers had a three point lead with less than a minute to play in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals and they couldn’t protect the damn ball:
The Pacers had one of the biggest choke jobs at the end of the 4th you’ll ever see smh
pic.twitter.com/VoMkbv1JGq— Hater Report (@HaterReport_) May 22, 2024
Brutal. They went on to lose in overtime. A very Sixers-esque type of late-game meltdown.
Thing is, they had a timeout, so Rick Carlisle said this after the game:
“This loss is totally on me. With 10 seconds in regulation, we should have just taken the timeout, advance the ball and found a way to get it in and made a free throw or two and ended the game. But it didn’t happen and we made some other mistakes. Our guys just need to concentrate on fighting the way they fought in this game from start to finish, and we’ll be back Thursday.”
It goes one of two ways from here. One, the Pacers come back in Game 2 with renewed energy because they know they can play with these guys. They finish the job they couldn’t in Game 1. Or, two, they get their doors totally blown off and fly back to Indy down 2-0 in the series.
The Celtics were -1000 to win this series before it started. That number remains high, obviously because they’re up 1-0, but Indy looked good for the first 47 minutes of Game 1. They just couldn’t close the door.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com