The Pacers earned their third straight win Saturday afternoon in a rare afternoon contest this season, 112-105.
Ellis played 162 regular season games with the Mavs over the last two seasons.
With five minutes to play the Pacers’ lead was just two, 95-93. They scored five straight points to reach the century mark — the 14th consecutive Mavericks opponent to do so.
Following a free throw from George Hill — he missed the second one to end the Pacers’ perfect game at the line (26-for-26) — the Mavericks, trailing by six, inbounded the ball after a timeout with 17.5 seconds remaining.
As the Mavericks gathered in a stack formation on the left wing, Monta Ellis, who played in Dallas from 2013-15, was on the floor and immediately began sharing what his former team planned to do.
From the stack, point guard Deron Williams curled to the top of the circle and then came back for the ball, took one dribble and then darted a pass to the right corner to Chandler Parsons for the 3-ball. Parsons missed and the Pacers held on for the win.
Dallas coach Rick Carlisle, a former Pacers assistant (1997-2000) and head coach (2003-07), has a reputation for diagraming great ATOs (after timeout plays), much like Boston’s Brad Stevens. Credit to Ellis for immediately recognizing how his previous team had planned to execute out of the timeout.
The Pacers (35-30) outscored the Mavericks (33-33), who dropped their fourth straight home game at the American Airlines Center, 17-12 over the final 5:02 of regulation.
Watch the play and how Ellis directs his teammates below: