Lob plays with under one second left in the game are a hot topic here, and after Danny Granger’s jumper with 0.3 seconds left, we got to see another one of these situations.  Instead of trying to go zone or sticking a big underneath the rim, the Pacers played straight man to man defense.  This decision provided the Knicks with a small window to try and tie the game, but only if they ran a solid play from the side.  Instead of trying to use a backscreen to free up a lob, the Knicks relied on Landry Fields faking to the ball and then cutting back to the rim to try and make the lob work.

As the ball goes to the trigger man, Carmelo Anthony flashes behind the three point line about 30 feet away from the rim (I thought this was for decoy purposes, but apparently Anthony wanted the basketball out there).  When this happens, Landry Fields flashes to the elbow and then cuts back towards the rim on the ball side.

Fields defender doesn’t bite on the fake cut to the elbow, and he sticks with him as the pass is man.  The defender is able to make a play on Fields and prevent him from tipping home the lob.  Another reason why I don’t like this set is they ran the lob on the ball side of the rim.  This means that even if Fields faked out his man, he would have had to blindly tip in the pass, without looking at the rim.  Here is the play in real time:

To me, this play is worse than the Grizzlies play a few games back, one that also didn’t involve a screen.  The reason why this one is worse is because it doesn’t even feature a slipped screen, the Knicks just hope that Fields fake cut would be enough.

Maybe the most frustrating part about this is that the Pacers have shown they are susceptible to late lob plays involving screens in the past:

The Pacers failed to make an adjustment, and still played man to man against the Knicks, and if they would have ran a backscreen to set up the lob, they could have come away with a game tying play.