This month of March, the Pacers have been one of the most clutch teams in the NBA, winning their last matchups in the final moments of the game. Their last victims were the Mavericks on Wednesday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, and Andrew Nembhard was the captain in charge.
Let’s take a look at what happened. With 6:08 left until the final buzzer, Indiana was trailing behind 112-101. However, they home team stepped into another gear and scored 34 points in the final 5:54, going for 9-for-10 shooting, plus 13-for-14 Fromm the foul line, and finally pull out a 135-131 victory.
During this span, guard Bennedict Mathurin scored 16 of his 23 total points with a perfect 4-for-4 from the field and 8-of-8 from free throws, but it was Nembhard’s clutch three-pointer with 16 seconds left that really buried the game in their favor.
The ball was in Max Christie’s hands with 26 seconds left and Dallas leading 130-128, but Pascal Siakam somehow took the ball off the former Lakers man and handed it to Nembhard. “I guess that’s just my lucky spot,” he said postgame about his dagger from beyond the arc.
“I feel like everybody knows we have depth on this team,” teammate Mathurin shared after Wednesday’s win, as the Pacers now sit fourth in the Eastern Conference with a 39-29 mark. “But those kind of wins shows how together we are as a team.”
Coach Rick Carlisle praised his squad. “Our guys just hung in,” he said, as his team are in the midst of a five-game homestead. “These games coming up are all going to be like this. These teams coming in here are attacking teams. You’ve got to take the fight to them.”
The Indiana tactician then added: “We did a pretty good job in the first quarter, then we had a let up, and of course the third and start of the fourth quarter was very poor. Fortunately, we were able to get things back together.”
