Pacers give themselves one more chance

The visiting Pacers stayed alive in the playoffs with a 95-88 win against Atlanta Thursday night. The series is tied at three games each with the seventh game set for Bankers Life Fieldhouse at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. The winner will go on to face the Washington Wizards in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Forethoughts

David West had 24 points, 11 rebounds and six assists
to lead the Pacers to a Game 6 win in Atlanta.

So, Game 1 of the win-or-go-home set was a success for the Pacers. The fact that they did so on the road would seem to be encouraging. Even in the post-game show on NBATV, Dennis Scott talked about how this could be the game that turns the Pacers around. Well, those of who faithfully follow the Pacers have heard and thought that before in the last month. There was the big win over Chicago back in March, the Sunday afternoon win over Oklahoma City in early April, and that Game 4 win at Atlanta earlier in the series. And none of those were really the games that got the Pacers back into their early season groove. Now they are faced with trying to do something they did only once in the last 21 games. Win two straight. One would think with the Pacers at home, in a Game 7, that well, they could certainly pull it off and win two straight this time. We've thought that before though in this series. Hopefully the Pacers will assume nothing here. We know what has happened when they have assumed they would be OK.
The Big Plays
In the last 3:16 of the game, the Pacers outscored the Hawks 16-4 and if you have to pick a time of the game to have that kind of run, that's a good time to do it. With the Pacers down 84-79, David West scored four straight points. Then when the Hawks' Pero Antic hit a free throw to tie it at 85, West hit a running jumper down the left side of the lane to give the Pacers the lead for good.
The Ups
1) It's true that Paul George's numbers weren't outstanding: 7 of 18 from the field, including 1 of 6 from 3-point range and he had four turnovers. However, George did come out and play with a sense of purpose in this game. It wasn't a I'm-going-to-win-this-game-by-myself type of attitude, but it was a no regrets type of attitude and that was important to have from your all-star player.
2) The Pacers defense was generally good for large stretches of this game, with probably the exception when George went to the bench with four fouls midway through the third quarter and sat out the rest of the quarter. But the defense was exceptionally good in the final 3:16. After that, the Hawks missed four straight shots and had two turnovers. Not scoring until a Lou Williams meaningless jumper with 12.4 seconds left. That's the kind of defense we saw for large stretches in the first two third of this season.
3) And yes, you have to admit, it was nice to see George and George Hill combine to hit all six of their free throws in the final minute. That eliminated any last second drama.
4) Lastly, Pacers coach Frank Vogel has come under some fire in this series for not making enough adjustments. And certainly, some of that is justified. So let's give him a little credit here. He used Chris Copeland enough to make the Hawks have to guard him and that helped spread the floor on offense. Also, with the normal top subs Evan Turner and Luis Scola struggling to cover on defense in the last game, they saw zero minutes in this one (well Scola officially got 12 seconds for that last inbounds pass). That's a nice reminder by the coach that he still wants this to be a defense first team. The Pacers held the Hawks to 35 percent shooting overall from the field and just 9 of 35, for 25 percent, from 3-point range. It's hard to lose games when your defense is that good.
The Downs
1) The fact the Pacers allowed Atlanta to take them to a seventh game is still an issue here. It's just one game and anything can happen. We've already seen the Hawks' Jeff Teague throw in a 3-pointer from out of bounds that counted, Paul Millsap bank in a 3-pointer as the shot clocked expired, and Mike Scott make like he's Reggie Miller for a quarter from 3-point land. Who knows what else can happen?
2) There were a couple of times when NBATV announcer Greg Anthony said things he was clearly wrong on. One was when he called Lance Stephenson's foul to stop an Atlanta fastbreak a bad foul. It was actually a very good foul. The Pacers made it clear they did not want Atlanta to run. But one thing that Anthony was correct about is that the Pacers are not a good passing team. The Pacers had only 13 turnovers in this one, but three or four of them were simply because of sloppy passes. It's been a season-long issue that hasn't really improved much.
Next Up
It's all on the line Saturday. A season that began with so many hopes and high expectations will continue or come to an end. The Hawks have shown they aren't afraid to let it fly in Indiana, so there's no reason to expect them to play any different. Even if the Pacers jump out to a big early lead (hey that would be nice for once wouldn't it?), I wouldn't expect the Hawks to simply stop playing. I do expect Vogel to stay with a similar substitution pattern like the one he used in Game 6. It may not be the way the Pacers want to play, but it's gong to be the way they have to play to win this series.