Candace Buckner

LOS ANGELES – The Indiana Pacers will view their Wednesday night matchup with the Clippers, ending as a 102-100 loss, as one that slipped away.

The reasons are plenty.

Indiana's second unit outplayed the Clippers for the second time in a week, providing such solid play that the starters – not even close to underperforming during this game – only played whole for the final 34.9 seconds of the tightly contested fourth quarter.

The Pacers even led 89-83 with 7:23 remaining in the game on the road, against a Clippers team that has won eight of its last 10.

Also, as Clippers forward Blake Griffin played like an MVP candidate with 31 points and 16 rebounds and center DeAndre Jordan ripped down 23 rebounds to go along with 15 points, the Pacers did not produce jaw-dropping stats but felt the impact from strong contributions like Lavoy Allen's 12 points and 14 rebounds off the bench and David West (17, 10), who finished with his first double-double of the season.

Yet, these details still didn't produce a win.

"When we compete as hard as we competed, I thought we competed our tails off," Pacers coach Frank Vogel said after his team fell to 8-18 on the season. "I thought we played a great basketball game. You want to see those guys in the locker room celebrating right now, not with their heads down after a loss. We wanted this one very bad and played like it, just fell short."

Those shortcomings led several Pacers to express the same refrain: not enough clutch moments.

Indiana lost that six-point lead in a matter of possessions. Then, while down 99-98, the Pacers got a dream matchup as the entire left side of the floor opened for a one-on-one between Rodney Stuckey and Clippers guard JJ Redick. Stuckey backed down Redick then turned and shot the 10-foot jumper. The ball teasingly rolled around the rim but spilled out with 18.9 seconds remaining.

"We want to win, I never look at it like a silver lining thing," said CJ Miles who along with West led the Pacers with 17 points. "We were a couple plays away."

West echoed: "We weren't able to make enough plays down the stretch to give ourselves a chance."

True to identity, the Pacers wanted to play a physical game – the first three team fouls of the game all made the Clippers earn free throws. Also, near the close of the second quarter, Vogel even assigned rookie Damjan Rudež to intentionally foul Jordan, a 44-percent free throw shooter. Furthermore, the combined nine fouls from West and Roy Hibbert created 18 free throw attempts for Griffin and Jordan. So, these plays led to the Clippers taking 45 free throws.

"They let us play sometimes, and tonight I feel like they let the bigs play a lot," Jordan said of the officiating. "When it's games like that, you know you can be physical because the other team wants to be physical. It's a fun game to play in."

However, the Pacers may disagree about the amusement of this game.

Though the teams matched aggression, specifically Jordan who had to be ragged and rough to grab so many rebounds, the Clippers were only penalized for 15 personal fouls compared to the Pacers' 30

Not even two minutes into the third quarter, Hibbert picked up a fourth foul by going straight up to defend a Griffin drive to the rim. Though Griffin appeared to create the contact, the whistle came a beat later and sent Hibbert to the bench where he sat for nearly the entire second half.

When asked about the difference in team fouls, West first looked down at a reporter's recording device, then answered while making intense eye contact.

"We don't call fouls on ourselves," he said. "We got some tough calls down the stretch. They got in good position."

"Just came up short."

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