The three key moments in the Pacers’ 113-98 Game 2 victory over the Hawks Wednesday.
Horford gets T’d
With 8:23 remaining in the second quarter, and the Hawks trailing 37-29, Al Horford went up for a basket in the paint and was fouled by Jeff Pendergraph. The center let out a scream and pumped his fist as he walked toward the foul line. He was right in the path of oncoming referee Ken Mauer who came cross court to hit Horford with a technical foul. Horford had to be restrained by teammate Devin Harris.
“I was celebrating, trying to get my team fired up, and I got a technical for that,” Horford said. “I’m pretty shocked by that.
“I didn’t even ask the guy (for an explanation). I’m done even trying to talk to any of the referees. It’s a game you try to play with emotion, but [they think] you can’t show emotion. All I’m trying to do is get my team fired up, we’re on the road and it backfires on us. I’ve never seen that call before.”
The double-dribble that wasn’t
The Hawks cut a 14-point third-quarter deficit to eight points and trailed 73-65. After a Jeff Pendergraph basket the Hawks turned the ball over. The Pacers threw a long outlet pass to Paul George, who gathered the ball as it was about to cross the baseline and go out of bounds. The forward clearly bounced the ball with both hands, took a step and the dribbled past Kyle Korver for a layup. It extended the Pacers’ lead to 12 points.
“It’s a passionate time in basketball right now,” Josh Smith said. “All we ask for is a fair game. If there’s something that’s blatant and needs to be called – like a double dribble – then it should be called.
“That was like when I watch my son play – and he’s four.”
Decisive fourth-quarter run
Once again the Hawks had a comeback thwarted. They trailed by 10 points, 95-85, in the fourth quarter on a 3-pointer by Josh Smith. The Pacers answered with a 15-1 run to push their advantage to 24 points, the largest margin of the game. The run included nine straight points.
“I don’t think we have executed the game plan to the best of our abilities yet,” Devin Harris said. “We are still making a ton of mistakes on defense allowing them to exploit us in different areas.”
