Another day, another Pacers miracle

Again, they were down by seven points with less than a minute remaining. Again, they found a way to pull a rabbit out of a hat, just the way they did last week against the Bucks. Amazing.

When Cleveland’s Max Strus drained a three-pointer to give the Cavs a 117-110 lead with 1:06 left, I thought it was over.

So did my wife.

“You wanna walk the dog?” she wondered.

I considered the question – truth is, I didn’t really feel like it in the first place – but then I said this. “They were down seven points to Milwaukee with 40 seconds. This is a minute and six seconds.” I didn’t want to miss the last minute in the highly unlikely event that lightning could strike twice in one week’s time. Not that I was expecting it. I mean, who expects this to happen twice?

So…she walked the dog while I sat on the couch and played journalist, at which point I again witnessed one of the most remarkable comebacks since, well, last week’s victory over the Bucks.

I watched Aaron Nesmith (23 points) swoop in from outside the free throw line and slam Pascal Siakam’s free-throw miss to make it 119-114. I watched Nesmith (again) draw an offensive foul on Mitchell. I watched Siakam take it to the hole to make it 119-116 with 27.5 seconds remaining. I watched Andrew Nembhard (again) steal an inbounds pass, just as he did in the Milwaukee comeback. And then I watched Tyrese Haliburton (yes, him again) rebound his second free throw, pull it out to the top of the key, work over his defender, Ty Jerome, than splash a three with 1.1 second remaining.

For the record, my wife returned with the dog – his name is Espo, if you care – as Haliburton was shooting his free throws.

“What happened?” she asked with great excitement.

“The Pacers happened,” I replied.