Jeff Foster, one of the most tenured Indiana Pacers ever, has seen about everything in the NBA. A teammate playing hurt impresses him.
Pacers point guard Darren Collison, a game-time decision, managed to play 34 minutes on a sprained left ankle Thursday.
"He played a good game," said Foster, one of only three players with 700 games in a Pacers uniform. "Anytime you play injured, it speaks a lot of the person. We're glad to have him out there."
Collison injured his left ankle Monday when he stepped on a cameraman late in the first half of Game 2 in Chicago's United Center.
The second-year point guard scored nine points on 4-for-8 shooting in the Pacers' 88-84 loss to the Bulls in Game 3.
The ankle caused some issues. Collison had just two assists and four turnovers.
But the biggest contribution for the Pacers was that he was on the court. His 34 minutes, 28 seconds were the second most of any Pacer, six seconds fewer than top scorer Danny Granger.
"It's definitely not 100 percent. I pushed it. I managed to help my team," Collison said, admitting the ankle bothered him "a little bit."
"But I'm not going to make any excuses. What happened at the end happened. I was happy to get in the game and contribute."
With the score tied at 84, the Pacers called a timeout with 55.4 seconds left. They ended up getting just a contested jumper from Collison that missed with 40.9 seconds to play.
After Derrick Rose's surging layup put Chicago ahead 86-84, the Pacers had another chance.
Pacers coach Frank Vogel had been substituting for the situation. He had Dahntay Jones in for defense on Derrick Rose. During a timeout with 17.8 seconds left, Vogel brought Collison back in to run the offense for a potential score-tying or winning play.
The possession bogged down and the Pacers settled for a long 3-pointer from Granger that missed with 2.9 seconds to play.
"We've just got to execute better," Collison said. "We didn't take some great shots there at the end."
Collison played 11 minutes in the first quarter and didn't score or have an assist. He started to get it going a little bit in the second quarter, going 2-for-2 from the field.
The Pacers had been preparing as if Collison wouldn't play, readying A.J. Price to be the starter and T.J. Ford the backup. Instead, Price played 13 minutes as Collison handled starter's minutes.
"My hat goes off to Darren, trying to lead his team," Jones said. "He suffered a rough injury and he tried to play through it. He has guts for trying to play through it."
"He looked good," said Paul George, who teamed with Jones to hold Rose to 4-for-18 shooting. "He looked like he was at full strength. Hopefully with a couple more days of rest and healing, he'll be at 100 percent."
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