‘He put his head down and attacked the basket. It was an aggressive move by Thaddeus’

Thaddeus Young’s short jump shot with one second left on the clock lifted the Indiana Pacers to a 107-105 win over the Washington Wizards on Monday.
“I just made a play, that was the biggest thing,” Young said of his jumper from 10 feet. “My teammates put me in a position to make that play by having a lot of guys on the court that could space the court out.”
Washington’s Bradley Beal missed a potential game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer in front of a crowd of 18,100 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse arena.
Paul George led the Pacers with 27 points and teammate Jeff Teague added 23. Myles Turner fouled out with 20 points and eight rebounds.
“They switched out and denied Paul,” Pacers coach Nate McMillan said.
“Thaddeus did what he was supposed to do and come to the ball. With four seconds to go you want to attack the basket. It was the right thing instead of just settling for the hero long jump shot.
“He put his head down and attacked the basket. It was an aggressive move by Thaddeus.”
Beal, who hit both two free throws to narrow the Pacers’ lead to 105-103 with 50 seconds left, had tied the score by hitting a jumper with 15 seconds left.
Marcin Gortat tallied 21 points and 13 rebounds for the Wizards (12-15). Teammate John Wall delivered 19 points.
Washington erased a deficit by scoring the first nine points of the fourth quarter to tie it 88-88.
George’s basket made it 90-88 and halted the Wizards’ run.
Elsewhere, Dennis Schroder and Paul Millsap combined to score 61 points in leading the Atlanta Hawks to a 110-108 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Schroder scored 31 points on 10 of 16 shooting to go along with eight assists. Millsap poured in 30 points, 11 rebounds and hit three of five from beyond the arc.
Thabo Sefolosha added 15 points as the Hawks raised their record to 14-14.
Oklahoma City was led by Russell Westbrook, who had a game high 46 points. He also racked up 11 rebounds and seven assists.
In Chicago, Rajon Rondo narrowly missed a triple-double with 10 points, 14 assists and eight rebounds, and the Chicago Bulls rolled to a 113-82 win over the Detroit Pistons.

Players, media added to All-Star Game voting process
The voting process for the National Basketball Association’s All-Star Game has been expanded to include current players and members of the media, the NBA announced on Monday.
 Since the 1974-75 season, the starters for the mid-season exhibition were selected by fans only but that vote will be reduced to 50 % for the 2017 All-Star Game, while players and the media will account for 25 % each.
Voting for the three frontcourt players and two starting guards in each conference will begin on Sunday, when the NBA will feature five Christmas Day match-ups, and concludes on January 16.
 Fans can submit one ballot per day through NBA.com, the league’s mobile app, Twitter, Facebook and Google Search, as well as via Sina Weibo and Tencent Microblogs in China. The 2017 All-Star Game will be staged in New Orleans on February 19.

RESULTS
Pacers                107 Wizards                105
Hawks                110 Thunder               108
Timberwolves 115 Suns                       108
Bulls                   113 Pistons                     82
Nuggets            117 Mavericks             107