Pacers turn a quiet Tuesday into a perfectly special night

Poor Josh McRoberts. Great night, great game -- both for him and his team -- and he's the goat.

I write that with love (and not in any creepy sense).

"Way to (bleep) it up!'' Dahntay Jones yelled from in front of his locker stall after the Pacers' extraordinary 144-113 victory over the Denver Nuggets. "That was point shaving right there! Point shaving!''

On one of the most ridiculous nights in Pacers history -- and one of the most remarkable in NBA history -- the Pacers hit 20 straight field goals, eight of them 3-pointers, in a surreal, 54-point the third quarter.

Until it happened.

With the shot clock running down on the Pacers' final possession of the quarter, McRoberts found himself behind the 3-point line.

His shot clanged off the rim.

"I didn't know we hadn't missed (the entire third quarter) until after the fact,'' said Mike Dunleavy, who knows how to break out of a shooting slump in style by scoring 31 points.