INDIANAPOLIS — LeBron James has beaten the Pacers like this before, ripped a game away from Indiana at the very end, ended the game with a shot released a tick before the red light flashed on the backboard.
He’s done it three times now, making Indiana the only team he’s walked off more than once, saving some of his best late-game work to torment the Pacers.
This time James came up with the dagger at the end of a game where he struggled offensively, where he wasn’t the primary option on the final play, where he had the ball early in the possession and passed out it.
This time James beat the Pacers with a hustle play, sliding past Jarace Walker to tap in Luka Doncic’s errant floater a moment before the final buzzer, snatching a 120-119 win for the Lakers over an Indiana team that had come roaring back in the final two minutes behind the brilliance of Tyrese Haliburton.
I really couldn’t have too much emotion, because I was trying to see if I got the ball off in time, to be honest,” James said. “It’s always tricky when you touch the ball, you kind of see the red light around the backboard and you don’t quite know if you got it in time. I thought I had it in time, but you never know.
The first two times James beat the Pacers at the buzzer were vintage, quintessential James moments.
The first came in overtime in Game 1 of the 2013 Eastern Conference Finals, flashing up to take an inbounds pass from Shane Battier, immediately reversing course and knifing past Paul George to the basket for a left-handed layup to give the Heat a pivotal win.
James set up the second one in Cleveland, blocking Victor Oladipo’s layup attempt in Game 5 of the first-round series, then ran Thaddeus Young off a screen at the top of the key, caught an inbounds pass heading back to the middle of the floor and pulled up for a 3-pointer, handing Cleveland a pivotal win in the series.
Handed the ball in the post, James fired the ball back out to Doncic, who drove to the middle of the lane and released a floater.
“I was just trying to read the ball off the rim,” James said. “It kind of looked like it was a little short, but I knew it had a chance if it hit the front rim to maybe bounce in, but once it came out of here, I just tried to tap it with enough time.
The buzzer-beater, defined as a game-winning shot taken when the shooter’s team was tied or trailing and left no time on the clock when the ball went through, was the eighth of James’s storied career, tying him with Kobe Bryant and Joe Johnson for second place all-time, just one behind Michael Jordan’s nine.
Jordan, like James, also beat the same team three times, ripping out Cleveland’s heart twice in the playoffs before finishing off his trifecta in the regular season as a member of the Wizards late in his career.
Three different generations of Pacers teams have now been victimized by James at the buzzer.
“That’s the first time I’ve ever been walked off in the NBA,” Indiana superstar Tyrese Haliburton said. “It’s only fitting that it was him.”
For most of the game, it looked like James would make history of a different kind.
The legend had just three points at the end of the third quarter, all on free throws, marking the first time in his career that he’d played in the first three quarters of a game without making a single shot. James had scored at least 10 points in 1,282 consecutive games, the longest streak in NBA history; for a moment, it looked like that streak might come to an end at the age of 40.
He got off to a slow start offensively, but he was so good defensively, he was so good on the glass for us, really led us on that end,” Lakers coach J.J. Redick said. “Takes over in the fourth quarter, then gets rewarded by the basketball gods. Didn’t let go of the rope, didn’t stop playing the game.
Los Angeles had trouble getting him involved in the offense in a game where Doncic poured in 34 points and Austin Reaves added 24; Redick pointed out after the game the Lakers missed James on three seals against smaller Indiana defenders early in the game.
But James has been too great for too long to let a tough night offensively take him out of the game entirely. When Indiana cut the gap to three at the end of the third quarter, James responded with two quick shots to start the fourth, sparking a 10-point burst to close out the game.
You don’t really know if you’re in a rhythm or if you’re out of rhythm with six shot attempts,” James said. “If the ball is going to come to me offensively, I’ve got to try to make some plays, and I did in the fourth quarter.”
The way he’s beaten the Pacers so many times before.
