Indiana Pacers vs LA Lakers

What a game tonight between the Lakers and pacers which was looking like it was going to be a blowout for Lakers in the 4th. I almost turn of this game when the Lakers were up by 14 points but I’m sure glad that I continued to watch because the finish was great. Tory Murphy and Rasho Nesterovic were hitting big shots down the stretch, so you know this was just one of those games that the basketball gods were looking out for the Pacers. The last play of the game was a big mistake that went right. TJ Ford took the inbound pass with the Lakers up by one and about 18 seconds left on the game clock, he dribbled around for a bit and passed the ball to Rasho instead of Granger. Rasho mishandled the ball and almost had the ball stolen but recovered a the foul line. Marquis Daniels was cutting to the basket without any defenders anywhere near him, so Rasho passed the ball to Daniels. Daniels caught the pass and finally some help came to put pressure on Daniels and he put up a wild layup that had no chance of going in. Then out of nowhere Troy Murphy jumped in the air and tipped the ball up and the ball bounced on the rim for what was literally 2 to 3 seconds before it went through the cylinder at the buzzer.

You have to watch the highlights of the game just for that play because it looked bad from the very start and ended up with a ridiculous layup. I can imagine what Phil Jackson’s face looked like when that ball went through the basket at the buzzer. Having Rasho handling the ball in crunch time was denefitly what Phil wanted but Rasho didn’t turn over the ball like expected.

All this being said about the heroics of Rasho and Troy Murphy, the fact reamins that the ball should have been in Danny Granger’s hands. Gary Payton and Chris Webber stressed this in the post game show and TJ Ford should listen to what they have to say. TJ saw Granger at the top of the key just wanting for the ball and TJ just passed it Rasho hoping that he would pass it right back to him. TJ Ford had issues in Toronto with wanting more minutes and being a the second banana to Chris Bosh but Jose Calederon was and is much better then TJ. TJ needs to realize that he is a point guard and do his job (which is getting the ball to star player in crunch time) instead of trying to be the franchise player that he never will be.