Pacers ride record half to 3-1 lead over Cavs
INDIANAPOLIS—The Indiana Pacers spent two days looking for solutions against top-seeded Cleveland.
On Sunday, they delivered an emphatic answer.
Pascal Siakam scored 21 points, Myles Turner and Obi Toppin each scored 20 and the Pacers tied an NBA playoff record with a 41-point halftime lead before blowing out the Cavs 129-109 to take a 3-1 series lead.
The No. 4-seeded Pacers can close it out on Tuesday in Cleveland, where they’ve already won twice.
“We haven’t done anything yet,” coach Rick Carlisle said after earning his 33rd playoff win with Indiana, passing Larry Bird for the most in the franchise’s NBA history. “We’re going to keep approaching this like we have everything to prove. We know people don’t believe in us, so we’re just going to stay in the fight and keep fighting.”
The Pacers certainly showed some resolve two days after an embarrassing 22-point loss on their home court.
This time, the towel-waving home crowd helped spur Indiana, right from the start of a physical, sometimes chippy game.
Indiana jumped to an 80-39 lead at halftime and led by 44 points. The 41-point lead matched the margin Cleveland set in Game 2 of the 2017 Eastern Conference finals against Boston, according to Sportradar.
And Indiana did it mostly without Bennedict Mathurin, one of its top playoff scorers, who was ejected just seven and a half minutes into the game for a flagrant foul.
For the Pacers, it was a redeeming moment in front of a towel-waving home crowd just two days after an embarrassing 22-point loss on its home court. The Cavs dominated the glass, held two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton to four points and five assists and fought harder than Indiana.
“We felt the last game, they set the tone from a physical standpoint,” Haliburton said after finishing with 11 points, five rebounds and five assists. “Today, we came out and set the tone from the jump, really just rode that wave.”
Indeed, the Pacers left no doubt about who would be the aggressor.
“Complete domination by them,” coach Kenny Atkinson said briefly, before explaining that at least the Cavs have two of the final three games on their home court. “They dominated us in every facet of the game.”
Aaron Nesmith’s buzzer-beating midrange jumper put the Pacers in another exclusive club—the 10th team in playoff history and second this week to score 80 points in the first half of a playoff game. Oklahoma City scored 87 points in Game 2 against Denver.
