Paul George hit a big time shot at the end of regulation to get the Pacers to overtime, but once we got to the end of the extra session, LeBron James took his turn at the last-second heroics.
With the Heat trailing by one and 2.2 seconds remaining, James receives the inbounds pass and immediately bolts to the basket. It was poor judgment on the part of George to not make sure to stay in front of James there, and LeBron had a wide open lane to his left for an uncontested layup as time expired.
The obvious question afterward was to wonder why in the world Roy Hibbert was on the bench for that possession, especially after James had made a similar play with 10.8 seconds left and with Hibbert similarly sidelined by his coach’s decision.
Had Hibbert been there to protect the rim, it may have forced James to pass the ball to an open shooter (likely Chris Bosh) once Hibbert came over to help. And as solid of a shooter as Bosh is from the outside, his percentage is far lower than the 100 percent James shoots at the rim on an uncontested shot.
Frank Vogel will certainly have his reasons, but for now, he’ll shoulder the bulk of the blame for this one as the Heat took Game 1 from a Pacers team that had every chance to steal it.