Insider: Pacers' Mahinmi deflates Bulls' hack strategy

When the Chicago Bulls' entire defensive strategy focused on putting pressure on Ian Mahinmi, he welcomed every potentially embarrassing step to the free throw line.

The Indiana Pacers and Bulls had spent much of Friday night, shoving, tussling and grabbing the others' jerseys, but in the final 3 minutes, the physicality ceased as Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau sent his guys to run over and gently hug Mahinmi.

The indignation of intentionally fouling a poor free-throw shooter – all within the confines of the NBA rulebook – to force him to make like a basketball player and hit his two shots.

The plan made sense. Opponents recognize by now that Mahinmi is the second-worst free-throw shooter (now 36.0 percent) among rotational players in the NBA. Still, while this kind of scouting report quantifies numbers, it does not account for the confidence a player may have, nor the immeasurable belief his coach and teammates have in him.

So in the Pacers' 98-84 victory over the Bulls in front of a sellout crowd at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, it was the calm – and dare we say it – silky free throw shooting from Mahinmi that closed out the rough-and-tumble affair.

Mahinmi recorded his second double-double of the season (14 points, 11 rebounds) and made 6-of-10 free throws, including five within the final 3:01 of the game starting when Indiana held a nine-point lead. Indiana won by 14, so Mahinmi's five extra points went far in securing that the Pacers (27-34) remain as the hottest team in the NBA, winners of four straight and 10 out of the past 12 games.

So much for employing the so-called "Hack-A-Shaq" on Mahinmi.

"Teams aren't going to be able to do that," David West said. "He's too confident of a player. We've got too much confidence in him. We build him up too much to think that he's just going to go up there and brick free throws."

During the closed-door practices, with Pacers' brass seated in the stands and only his teammates on the floor, Mahinmi swears he knocks down his free throws. Hundreds and hundreds, he claims he takes in practice, and if you're counting – as Roy Hibbert has done in the past – Mahinmi easily makes those shots.

"All swishes," Hibbert reports.

Though Mahinmi has consistently shot in the mid-60s through his career – during the Dallas Mavericks' NBA title run in 2011, he made 78.6 for the season – something has changed in 2014-15. The bricks have kept on coming.

"Especially when you miss a lot, you start to think, 'Arggh! What am I doing wrong?' " Mahinmi said. "It's more mental than anything else."

Before Friday night, Mahinmi's .323 free-throw percentage would have justified Pacers coach Frank Vogel burying him on the bench late in games to keep Maul-A-Mahinmi from happening, and it hasn't this year. But when Thibodeau continued to call for the intentional foul, Vogel never flinched. He never looked in the direction of Hibbert, who was wearing a shooting shirt while on the sideline with only two personal fouls. Vogel stayed with Mahinmi even when he predictably missed the first two shots at the 3:01 mark. About 8 seconds later, Mahinmi walked back to the line and unpredictably ripped the net on both. All swishes.

"I knew he was going to make 'em," Vogel would say later.

This may seem like the hindsight talking, but Vogel, who has watched Mahinmi put in the work to improve his shooting, also had to have caught how the center coolly waved at an official to acknowledge he was being fouled by Pau Gasol so that he could walk back to the line after he had already blown two straight. Mahinmi may be able to pull off some bold fashion choices as the co-owner of the French Deal clothing line, but that single moment might have been more brave than wearing white after Labor Day.

"I know I can shoot free throws," Mahinmi said, "so he fouled me, I'm going to step to the line and stick to my routine and shoot it.

"That's what I expected. I'm a basketball player and if you want to be in there late down the stretch," Mahinmi continued, "if somebody's going to foul you, you've got to take your time and make them pay. It's a simple game."

After the win, as his free-throw percentage skyrocketed four percentage points, Mahinmi entertained the largest crowd of reporters around his locker this season. He could've folded in the clutch, flashing wide eyes yet experiencing a tight stomach, but Mahinmi displayed the conviction that the Pacers have in him.

"Coach did a good job of not buying into this whole 'Let's get Ian out of the game!' " West said. "If coach reacts to what they're doing, then he sorts of buys into the idea of (not) trusting Ian to make free throws. He didn't. He kept him in there. He just trusts him. He trusts him."

Call Star reporter Candace Buckner at (317) 444-6121. Follow her on Twitter: @CandaceDBuckner.