Honestly, if basketball was a three-quarter game, Indiana would have won this series in a sweep. They just couldn't pull it out in the fourth quarter -- for the past three games! They finally rallied, shutdown Rose, and actually beat the Bulls.
Many fans from Chicago came here to celebrate the team's sweep, but Indiana fans came here to finally see a win from this team since 2006. My goal all along was just at least one win. And Indy has finally done that.
With how crazy the crowd was, twelve-year veteran Jeff Foster has never seen anything like it.
"I have seen every professional game in this arena, and I have never seen anything like that," he said.
The Pacers finally came through and finished when it really counts as it came down to the wire.
"We've lost games like this recently where they have come back," Pacers interim coach Frank Vogel said. "Today we grew, and we held them off."
The Pacers in a win or go-home situation right now. Although it would be a miracle if they come back down 3-1 right now, it's still possible to win it. Anything is possible. However, Indiana will have to travel to Chicago, where the Bulls have a good shot at closing this series out. Before the series, I had Chi-Town winning it in five. This still looks possible.
Danny Granger came up huge when it counted, scoring 24 points including very important free throws in the final seconds. What was interesting out of all of this was that there were boos in the crowd -- and it was at Conseco Fieldhouse!
"Maybe there were a few flashbacks," he said. "More importantly, I was just trying to get my team to calm down. We lost our poise those last two or three minutes and I was just trying to get them calmed down a little bit."
The Pacers struggled to hold on to their leads in the past three games, but led throughout the game and never gave it up.
After averaging 37.5 points at home, Rose has struggled at Conseco Fieldhouse, only averaging 19, including a low 15 today and going four-of-20 overall.
Vogel was not happy by the Pacers' efforts on closing out the games in this series. The Pacers should have easily be winning this against the league's top-seeded team.
"I think we deserve to be in the series," he said. "I'm still upset that it's 1-3. We should be up in the series."
Rose struggled, but he did manage to get a double-double, along with ten assists. But acting like the MVP man he is, he didn't make excuses.
"A sprained ankle is going to slow you down a little bit, but all of my shots were on line," he said. "They were just short. No excuses. It's the playoffs. I've sprained my ankle many times, you've just got to make shots."
A great win by Indiana. Maybe they can actually win this.
I hope so.
