Fantastic NBA Night

I had prepared to write about the Lakers and Hornets today, but then as the NBA likes to advertise—amazing happens. On a Tuesday night where L.A. and New Orleans stayed undefeated, they just get the bronze medal of best stories. The silver goes to the Indiana Pacers, who scored a whopping 54 points in the third quarter of their 144-113 win over the Denver Nuggets. The Pacers shot a whopping 20-for-21 in that quarter; that’s right, 20-for-21. In fact, they made their first 20 shots in the stanza with the only miss being a Josh McRoberts’ 3 at the buzzer.

The top story of an amazing NBA night happened in Miami between the Heat and the Utah Jazz. With Dwyane Wade scoring 39 points and LeBron James getting his first triple-double in South Beach, you would naturally expect a Miami blowout win. Combine those numbers with Al Jefferson scoring two points and Deron Williams fouling out, and the ‘Big 3’ coasted to another home win, right?

The game started out that way for Miami, leading the Jazz by 22 points late in the first half. But then Paul Millsap happened. The Utah power forward went on a second-half tear that ended in a career-high 46 points and an improbable 116-114 overtime victory for the visiting Jazz. Millsap went 19-of-28 from the field on the night, including making all three of his 3-point attempts, but it was his ‘Reggie Miller in Madison Square Garden’ imitation that was stunning to watch. With Utah feverishly trying to catch up in the final minute, the man who entered the game 2-for-20 from beyond the arc in his career could not miss. Millsap made his first trey of the season with 28 seconds to go, and then scored eight points in the final 12 seconds with two more 3-pointers and an offensive rebound bucket at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.

Following their 72 second-half points, the Jazz would get two free throws from Francisco Elson with less than a second to go in overtime to seal the win. Miami was outscored 12-10 in the extra frame, with all 10 points being tallied by Wade. It was the Heat’s first home loss on the season, and one that may raise questions about their ability to close out games.

On a random Tuesday night in November, the NBA had some wonderfully entertaining storylines. As far as Millsap and the Pacers’ third quarter—amazing.