LeBron James didn’t do anything blatant here — he didn’t go for the ball or hit the shooters’ elbow — but make no mistake:
He fouled Paul George on the game’s final shot.
Despite some protestations of Pacers’ players there was no call and the Heat got a 97-94 win Wednesday night.
George did a nice job to weave around LeBron and get in position to receive the pass and get a clean look at the shot. LeBron is trailing him but puts his hand on his hip — just a subtle push can throw off a shooter’s balance enough to make him miss the shot. There is clearly contact there.
Paul embellishes and tries to sell it, but he was fouled. He has a right to be pissed.
This is not what cost the Pacers the game — the live-ball turnovers that led to easy Miami transition points, the inability to control Dwyane Wade, Roy Hibbert’s foul trouble were all much bigger factors. As a former coach of mine said, if you don’t make the plays earlier in the game and you leave it in the hands of the refs, you get what you get.
Still, LeBron got away with one.
Hat tip to Ben Golliver at SI for the video.
