Why Pacers Disregarded Rick Carlisle’s Directive On Jaylen Brown’s Clutch Shot
BOSTON — Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle wanted his team to foul before Celtics star Jaylen Brown got off his game-tying shot in the final seconds of regulation in Game 1.
But that never ended up happening for the Pacers, and Brown drilled the clutch basket with six seconds remaining to force overtime, where the Celtics ultimately came away with a thrilling 133-128 win at TD Garden to open the Eastern Conference finals.
There was no confusion for Carlisle as to why Pascal Siakam, who was the primary defender on Brown on the play, didn’t follow instructions, though.
“(Brown) caught the ball and he was face up so Pascal decided to lay off,” Carlisle said. “I understand that’s probably the right decision. You don’t want to give up the four-point play. Look, a lot of things had to go wrong for us and right for them. They did. So, we got to own it and get ready for Thursday.”
Fouling Brown before he could get his attempt off certainly was on the mind of Siakam. He just felt like he didn’t have enough time to properly execute it and didn’t want to gift wrap three free throws to the Celtics.
“As soon as I got to him, I was a little late because of the screen, he was going up, so I didn’t want to do it,” Siakam said. “And then, when I was going to do it, it was too little, too late. It’s one of those where it’s like if you have the opportunity to do it, you do it. It was just a judgement call. I felt like he was going to his motion, like he had a pump fake, I didn’t want to foul then.
“And it’s a tough shot. I was in front of him. Maybe I could have contested it better, but it was just a tough play.”
A turnover by the Pacers in the backcourt, which Carlisle felt he could have prevented by using a timeout, helped set up the game-altering shot from Brown. The Celtics inbounded the ball underneath Indiana’s basket and the position in which Brown caught the ball didn’t make it an ideal place to foul.
“It’s not a usual circumstance,” Jayson Tatum said. “Normally, when guys take it out on the sideline, they pass the ball above the three, you can see guys trying to foul. But you catch it deep in the corner like that, it’s risky to try to foul. Hindsight is 20-20.”