With 1 minute 24 seconds left in Saturday’s Game 3, Reggie Miller hit his third three-pointer in less than three minutes, giving the Pacers a 101-93 lead. Finally, the Pacers had put away the Bulls.
Or so most everyone thought. The Bulls blitzed their way back into the game, nearly stealing their third victory of the series in a bizarre 84 seconds.
First, Toni Kukoc was fouled on a three-point attempt, the second such foul the Pacers had committed in less than a minute. But with a chance to pull within five points, Kukoc missed his first two foul shots before making the third.
With possession, a seven-point lead and barely a minute left, the Pacers should have felt comfortable. But they didn’t.
“We knew their guys weren’t going to quit, especially at the end of the game,” Pacers guard Jalen Rose said.
Rose was right, partly because one of his passes was wrong. He turned the ball over to Scott Burrell, and Michael Jordan eventually made two free throws to cut the lead to 101-96.
Then it was Travis Best’s turn to turn it over. With his team leading by five and less than a minute left, Best drove to the basket rather than milk the clock. His out-of-control drive ended with the ball in Kukoc’s hands.
Kukoc promptly fed Scottie Pippen for a three-pointer, making it 101-99.
Rose hit two free throws to extend the lead to 103-99, and the Bulls needed a big shot.
Fortunately for the Bulls, they happen to have a guy who has hit even more big shots than Reggie Miller. But they didn’t go to Jordan right away. Instead, Pippen launched a three-pointer, which caromed off the rim to, of all people, Steve Kerr, who is to offensive rebounding what Jordan is to anonymity.
Kerr immediately passed to Jordan, who was left open when Rose went for the rebound. Jordan hit a three, and the Pacers’ lead was down to 103-102.
The Pippen miss had taken valuable seconds off the clock, and when the Pacers called timeout after Jordan’s basket, there were just 23.7 seconds remaining.
The Bulls had to foul. The whole arena knew it. Certainly the five Pacers who went out on the floor knew it. But Chris Mullin was not among them. Larry Bird, the NBA’s coach of the year, had left the NBA’s top free-throw shooter on the bench.
The Pacers still had Miller, one of the league’s best from the line. But Rose, who was inbounding, couldn’t get the ball to Miller. Instead, he was forced to pass to Antonio Davis, who shot 69.6 percent from the line during the regular season, ninth-best on the team.
Davis knew what not to think.
“Not, like, my team has worked their butt off to get into this situation, and now it’s up to me,” Davis said.
He tried to think of it as “an ordinary game.”
Nice try.
“I’m not going to lie,” Davis said. “I was a little nervous.”
Davis was calm enough to sink both foul shots, pushing the Pacers to a 105-102 lead.
With 12.2 seconds left, Jordan was fouled. And it was the five-time Most Valuable Player, not Davis, who missed a free throw.
Miller hit two more free throws, and the game was in hand. Pippen’s dunk as time ran out was meaningless.
Pacers, 107-105 final.
