By Field Level Media
Share this story

Pascal Siakam scored 21 points and Myles Turner and Obi Toppin each added 20, lifting the Indiana Pacers to a 129-109 rout of the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series on Sunday in Indianapolis.

The fourth-seeded Pacers hold a 3-1 lead over the top-seeded Cavaliers in the best-of-seven series. Indiana can punch its ticket to its second straight conference final with a victory in Game 5 on Tuesday in Cleveland.

ADVERTISING

“Staying focused,” Turner said on TNT. “Don’t believe the hype. Keep rollin’.”

To add injury to insult for the Cavaliers, Donovan Mitchell sat out the second half with a left ankle injury. The six-time All-Star finished with 12 points on 3-of-11 shooting from the floor.

“Left ankle injury. He’ll get an MRI tomorrow,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Obviously, he couldn’t go in the second half. We’ll see what the MRI says.”

Turner, Siakam and Toppin combined to make 25 of 37 shots from the floor and 7 of 10 from 3-point range for the Pacers, who rebounded from a 22-point loss in Game 3.

“We got punched in the mouth last game,” Turner said in the TNT interview after the game. “We had a hell of a response, the stars set the tone and the bench picked it up the rest of the game.”

Indiana outscored the Cavaliers by a 42-16 margin in the second quarter to take an 80-39 lead at halftime. The Pacers set a franchise-playoff record for points in a half and an NBA postseason record for assists in a half (25) in the play-by-play era (1998).

Ben Sheppard scored 14 points, T.J. McConnell added 13 and Aaron Nesmith had 12 for the Pacers.

Indiana shot a robust 52.7 percent from the floor and enjoyed a 58-32 advantage in points in the paint.

Darius Garland scored 21 points for the Cavaliers, who committed 22 turnovers.

“Complete domination by them,” Atkinson said. “It’s kind of the story in every facet. It wasn’t like tactics or anything. They dominated us in every facet of the game.”

Indiana’s Bennedict Mathurin was assessed a flagrant-2 foul and ejected with 4:32 left in the opening period after he ignited an altercation with De’Andre Hunter. The former hit the latter in the chest, prompting Hunter to shove Mathurin in response. Hunter and Turner were also assessed technical fouls.

The Pacers connected on five of their first six attempts from 3-point range to seize a 33-14 lead early in the first quarter.

Siakam drained a pair from beyond the arc and set up Toppin for an emphatic dunk as Indiana scored the first 10 points of the second quarter to boost its advantage to 48-23.

Turner sank a trio of 3-pointers during the final two minutes of the second quarter and Nesmith made a basket at the buzzer to stake Indiana to an 80-39 lead at halftime.

The outcome was not in doubt the rest of the way.

Thunder rally in 4th, tie series with Nuggets at 2-2

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 25 points as the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder rallied from eight down in the fourth quarter to beat the Denver Nuggets 92-87 in Game 4 on Sunday to even the Western Conference semifinal series.

Oklahoma City regained home-court advantage in the best-of-seven series and will host Game 5 on Tuesday night.

Despite 27 points and 13 rebounds from Nikola Jokic, Denver missed an opportunity to put a stranglehold on the series. Christian Braun and Jamal Murray had 17 points each and Aaron Gordon finished with 15 points and 16 rebounds for the Nuggets.

“This isn’t a funeral,” Murray said. “It’s 2-2. It’s a three-game series.”

Aaron Wiggins and Cason Wallace scored 11 each, Alex Caruso and Jalen Williams scored 10 apiece, Isaiah Hartenstein had 14 rebounds and Chet Holmgren grabbed 13 boards for the Thunder.

“Kind of lost our way defensively, especially in the third, but did a great job of course-correcting to start the fourth,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault. “That group to start the fourth was huge to give us a lead, and then the defense down the stretch was really, really good.”

Oklahoma City trailed 71-63 early in the fourth, but hit a trio of 3-pointers during a 14-3 run that gave them a 77-73 lead. Denver missed eight straight shots before Murray hit a 19-foot fadeaway jumper with 6:17 left.

Down 84-80, Jokic missed a pair of free throws and Williams and Gilgeous-Alexander made layups to stretch the advantage to 88-81. Jokic cut it to five with 1:25 left and the Nuggets had a chance to make it a one-possession game, but Michael Porter Jr. missed an 11-footer.

Murray airballed a 3-pointer with 23 seconds left and the Thunder closed it out.

“Give their team credit,” said Nuggets interim coach David Adelman. “In a disgusting basketball game, they did enough to win.”

Oklahoma City led 17-8 to match the lowest combined score in the opening period of a playoff game. Portland (14) and Utah (11) did it May 20, 1999, and Detroit and Toronto also managed just 25 points on April 21, 2002.

Both teams were 3-for-22 from 3-point range in the first half. Denver found its offense in the third quarter, hitting seven of its 11 shots from deep and turning a six-point halftime deficit into a 69-63 lead heading into the fourth.

The Nuggets outscored Oklahoma City 61-40 after falling behind 23-8 early in the second quarter.

Celtics’ confidence remains high as they prepare for Game 4

The Boston Celtics insisted they weren’t concerned by dropping the first two games of their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the New York Knicks.

They stuck to the story despite those two setbacks coming at home. Even the fact they swept the four regular-season meetings and nearly all observers projected New York to be the team down 0-2 didn’t cause a lot of distress.

Blowing 20-point leads in both Games 1 and 2? Painful, of course, but not devastating enough to wave the white flag.

But their performance improved mightily in the third game of the matchup, and now Boston has a chance to even the series at 2-2 when it plays tonight at New York.

“You’ve got to beat us four times. That’s what it comes down to,” said Celtics star Jaylen Brown.

“Not twice, not once, not three. You’ve got to win four games, so there’s a lot of basketball to be played.”

The one Boston win came in superlative fashion. The Celtics led by as many as 31 points and regained their 3-point shooting touch. After being a combined 25 of 100 from behind the arc in the defeats, Boston connected on 20 of 40 in the 115-93 rout.

Jayson Tatum and NBA Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard each made five. Pritchard scored 23 points after averaging just 11 over the first two games.

“Who cares what the outside world is saying,” Pritchard said in reference to some of the chatter about Boston’s propensity for firing away from outside. “‘We shoot too many 3s.’ Everybody’s all saying that, but if you believe in your shot and you’re able to hit it, then take it confidently.”

Tatum added 22 points in a contest in which five Boston players tallied 15 or more.

The Knicks are facing their first adversity of the series after being walloped at home. New York never led and was down 71-46 at halftime.