OPPORTUNITY LOST: Roy Hibbert, who said the Pacers put forth a less than manly effort after their 85-75 loss to the Knicks in Game 5 last night at the Garden, and Lance Stephenson agreed they blew a golden chance to close out this series. (
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They shot like cadavers. They missed 14 free throws. They committed 19 turnovers, seven in the fourth quarter. And yet the Pacers were down just four points with 6:42 remaining.
Still, all those self-inflicted sins were not the cause of the fuming in the Pacers’ locker room after they took opportunity and shoved it out the door in their 85-75 Eastern Conference semifinals Game 5 loss to the Knicks.
“Excuse all the women in here, but we played like p—ies tonight, to tell you the truth,” foul-plagued center Roy Hibbert said. “We didn’t deserve to win this one. I’ll probably get fined for that. I don’t care.”
Fines are the least of the worries for the Pacers, who could have closed out the Knicks but now return home with mounting pressure for Game 6 tomorrow night. They want to avoid a Game 7 as much as they would like to have sidestepped missed free throws and turnovers and playing like, well, not Pacers.
“We blew it,” Lance Stephenson said.
“The game was right there for us,” David West said. “Just some costly turnovers, guys not following assignments. That comes down to concentration. You [must] concentrate late.”
And early. Indiana shot just 27 percent in the first quarter, ended at 36 percent.
“We’ve got to play better,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. “Clearly if you’re not going to make your free throws and turn the ball over 19 times, we were out of sync offensively
“Turnovers, free throws … every team has a night like this.”
So let’s sum up what went wrong.
Turnovers.
“We had too many turnovers, myself included and we knew they were going to fight hard and try to punch us in the mouth,” said D.J. Augustin who filled in at point guard for the injured George Hill (concussion).
Free throws bricks.
“At the free-throw line we just didn’t focus. Point blank,” said Paul George, whose 3-pointer got the Pacers within four but was followed by four misses and a turnover.
Stupidity.
“We had some real dumb situations out there,” Hibbert said.
And playing like you know whats.
“We didn’t deserve to win,” Hibbert said. “We’ve got to like figure it out, man up, toughen up, sack up and try to close this thing out. … But we didn’t deserve to win. We played soft.”