Pacers don't get mad, they just get even

The visiting Pacers defeated the Atlanta Hawks 91-88 Saturday to pull even in their best of seven first-round playoff series at two games apiece. Game 5 will be at 8 p.m. Monday at Banker's Life Fieldhouse on NBATV.
Forethoughts
Well, yes, as everyone pretty much knows, this was a must win game for the Pacers. If they had lost this one, coming back from a 3-1 deficit would have been difficult. Now, the series is at 2-2, same as it was last year. This series is reminding me a bit of the Pacers first-round series in the 2000 playoffs, the year they went to the finals. That was back when the first-round series were just five games and the Pacers and Bucks each won a game on the road, just like what has happened this year. You may remember it took a key shot from Travis Best for the Pacers to win that series. And that looks like that will be what it's going to take to win this series, someone making big shots late in the game. And that's what happened Saturday afternoon. The best part about this game, aside from the win of course, was the competitive spirit of the team. The Pacers were far from perfect, but they they stayed with this game and responded when they were down 10 points in the third quarter to take the lead, then down six points midway through the fourth quarter to take the lead. So, now they have momentum on their side and are coming home for the key Game 5. The big question now is can they keep the momentum and win two games in a row for just the second time in the last 20 games. And by the way, that Pacers team in 2000 also had a regular season record of 56-26, just like this one. It's hard to predict whether this team will make the finals or not. Just how they play Monday night at home may go a long way toward answering that question.
The Big Plays

David West had 18 points in this Saturday's win and also played
some key late defense on the Hawks' Paul Millsap.

Well, they are pretty simple here. There was George Hill's 3-pointer from the corner cut the Hawks lead to to with 4:37 to go, then Paul George's three-pointer from wing put the Pacers up 86-85 with 2:11 to go, and then maybe biggest of all, David West's 3-pointer that gave the Pacers am 89-85 lead with 1:33 to go.
The Ups
1) Welcome back to the offense George Hill. With all of Roy Hibbert's struggles, the fact that Hill had been almost a non-factor on offense recently had been forgotten. It's important for Hill to be at least a threat on offense in this series because if it makes Hawks point guard Jeff Teague do at least a little work on defense, maybe Teague won't be quite as effective on offense. Hill finished with 15 points and five assists in this one, hitting two key 3-pointers and also pushing the pace on occasion, including hitting a late layup for the Pacers final points in this one. It was good to see Hill be aggressive on the offensive end and he had just one turnover on the day, too.
2) I've said all along David West is the most clutch player on this team. And West stepping back and calmly hitting that late 3-pointer was just another example of that. While he did finish with 18 points, what was just as important in this win was his defense on Paul Millsap in the fourth quarter. Millsap killed the Pacers all day and finished with 29 points. He did it mostly with bigger guys Roy Hibbert and Ian Mahinmi trying to check him. But with West on him in the last 6:53 of the fourth quarter, he was 0 for 1 from the floor with one turnover. West's late defense may have been as big of a factor as anything in this win.
3) The bench played a key role here, too. Yes, there was Evan Turner's 11 points in a reserve role and C.J. Watson played some key minutes with six points and also solid defense on Teague. But what I'm talking about here is the bench players being emotionally involved in this game throughout. Winning playoff games on the road, those are the kind of things that can bring a team together. It was especially good to see Hibbert leading cheers off the bench, too, instead of being upset about not being in the game.
4) Finally, about Hibbert. No he wasn't great in this game with six points and two rebounds, but he was involved throughout and he did have two blocked shots to lead a defense that had 11 blocked shots in this game. It was good to see the defense have active hands in this game, and generally being annoying to the Hawks shooters. That's what good defense does and it was nice to see for once from the Pacers, who held the Hawks to 35.7 percent shooting.
The Downs
1) OK, about those late game free throws. It would have been much easier to breath in the final seconds if West and Paul George had not each missed two free throws in the closing seconds. Hopefully, they will come through if given that chance again.
2) I'm not sure what game the referees were watching, but sometimes it wasn't this one. The call here didn't really favor one team, but they were equally bad at times. There was a foul they called on the Hawks' Pero Antic where he appeared to barely if at all touch West on a left-wing drive. Then there was a play where the Pacers had the rebound in hand and then the whistle blew to call a foul on the Pacers after the Hawks had yelled at the officials. It certainly looked like they let the players call that foul. Then, the double technical against the Hawks' Mike Scott and the Pacers' George Hill was unnecessary and I think it was only called to make the officials look like they were doing their job, which didn't do very well in this game.
Next Up
It will be interesting to see what adjustments each team makes for Game 5. The Hawks offense is to pretty much have Teague penetrate and dish or let Millsap try to take one the Pacers' big men off the dribble. The Pacers can't assume they can just come home and win without playing another solid game. The key here will be see if they have learned that they can't relax against the Hawks.