Pacers eliminate Cavaliers to advance to Eastern Conference finals
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CLEVELAND (AP) — Tyrese Haliburton scored 31 points, Pascal Siakam added 21 and the Indiana Pacers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight year with a 114-105 victory over Cleveland on Tuesday night, eliminating the top-seeded Cavaliers in five games.
Donovan Mitchell, who missed the second half of Sunday’s game due to a sprained left ankle, led Cleveland with 35 points. Evan Mobley added 24 points and 11 rebounds.
The Cavs swept their first-round series against Miami, but were unable to match up against the up-tempo Pacers. It was the second straight series Indiana won in five games.
“The winning team writes the script. I have to give our guys credit, they earned this,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said. “This was one of the best teams in the league. I’m sorry their season had to end like this. They had the perfect season, and we came along and were hot at the right time.
“We were not favored in one game. The lowest point spread was 5 1/2. That was something that fueled our guys, too.”
The fourth-seeded Pacers will now await the winner of the matchup between the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks. New York has a 3-1 advantage in the series with Game 5 on Wednesday night in Boston.
The Celtics swept the Pacers last year in the East finals. Indiana had not been to the conference finals in consecutive seasons since 2013-14.
Indiana rallied from a 19-point deficit in the first half and took control after halftime as it won all three games at Cleveland’s Rocket Arena.
It was the first time since a 2005 first-round series against Boston that the Pacers won three road games in a playoff series.
The Cavs dropped three home games in a postseason series for the first time.
Cleveland stormed out to a 44-25 lead with 8:10 remaining in the second quarter before Indiana rallied. Haliburton had five of his six 3-pointers in the period as the Pacers got within 56-52 at halftime.
Indiana then shot 14 of 22 from the field in the third quarter — including four 3-pointers — to go up 85-76 going into the final 12 minutes.
It seized control with a 17-2 run over a five-minute span in the third when Siakam had eight points and Haliburton five. That was part of a 29-8 spurt that saw the Pacers take a 12-point lead late in the third.
Cleveland was just 7 of 26 from the field in the quarter.
Mitchell’s 3-pointer got the Cavs within 106-103 with 1:27 remaining, but Indiana closed it out by scoring eight of the final 10 points.
“This first half was not good or fun,” Carlisle said. “We got things back on course in the second quarter and then we just kept working the game and wearing them down.”
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