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More than one play leads to Pacers loss down the stretch

The Pacers lost on the last play but earlier lapses also hurt at winning time.

By Tom Lewis

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The Indiana Pacers lost in an instant on Friday night when Gerald Green lost track of Chase Budinger to give up a layup and give the win to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

That one play deserves plenty of credit for the loss and after the game, Green took it all, according to Mike Wells.

"It was all on me," said Green, who kept his eyes toward the ground during the interview. "Definitely my fault we lost the game. That's unacceptable. I just lost vision of my own man. Careless mistake. I get paid too much to make that mistake."

But the situation on that last play may have been different were it not for a couple of other lapses by the Pacers down the stretch. First of all, Sam Young and his defensive reputation watched that final play on the bench while Green watched the ball. Vogel thought Young had been out of the game too long, but that's his role. Utility defender off the bench, he should be ready whenever called on.

Backing up to play on the court, the Pacers finally made it back and tied the game up with just under three minutes left. After Alexey Shved got to the rim to score on Paul George, a frustrated George didn't focus on the inbounds pass and threw it into the long arms of Andrei Kirilenko, leading to an easy bucket for Minny. Again, the Pacers were down four points and chasing.

About a minute later, the Pacers had a chance to tie and George Hill's pass in the paint to an open Roy Hibbert wasn't handled by the big fella. Instead it was poked loose for the Timberwolves to cash in at the other end.

A pair of otherworldly plays by George Hill bailed the Pacers out late to tie the game, but they had momentum on their side before each of the two bad turnovers which swung the game back in Minnesota's favor. No telling how the game would've ended, but these certainly weren't winning plays at winning time which then left Green to take the blame on the final play of the game.

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