I’m still gob-smacked at something I saw near the end of Game 5 at Toronto, on which the Raptor-Pacer series turned, featured the home team’s and which fourth-quarter comeback. It happened after the Raptors’ 15-2 run tied the game at 92 … Indiana, desperately trying to right the ship, had called time out.

You know what those courtside strategy sessions look like nowadays: the head coach, and seven or eight somber-faced assistants, clipboards, chalkboards, six or seven extra players milling around and slapping backs, trainers, towel boys, water boys and, oh, yes, the five guys actually in the game. They wound up trying to run a play for Paul George – which Toronto blew up. George Hill, methodically, looked for something else … only to have the 24-second clock expire. The Raptors came down, took the lead, and never looked back.
All those people, intent on trying to save what turned out to be the team’s biggest game of the season – at a crucial moment — and yet nobody reminded the players they were working with a short clock. I still can’t get over it.