Pacers seal playoff spot with OT win

Heat fall to 8th in East after loss

Darren Collison nailed a couple of clutch late three-pointers as the Indiana Pacers clinched a postseason spot on Sunday with a 113-107 overtime win over the Miami Heat.

Victor Oladipo tallied 23 points and five assists for the Pacers who earned their seventh playoff appearance in the last eight seasons.

Collison sank the go-ahead three-pointer with 2:49 left in overtime to give Indiana a 101-100 lead. He finished with 12 points as the Pacers scored 11 unanswered points to seal the victory.

Thaddeus Young had 22 points, nine rebounds and five steals, and Bojan Bogdanovic added 18 points and eight rebounds in the win.

Tyler Johnson finished with 19 points, James Johnson had 15 points and nine rebounds, and Bam Adebayo added 14 points for the Heat, who won two of the four-game season series.

After losing for the 11th time in their last 12 road games, the Heat fell to No.8 in the Eastern Conference.

The Pacers’ win and the Heat’s loss had a domino effect on the postseason race as the Philadelphia 76ers clinched even though they didn’t play Sunday.

The Sixers last made the playoffs in the 2011-12 season, which was shortened to 66 games by a lockout.

Elsewhere, LeBron James scored 37 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and passed out a game-high eight assists to lead the Cavaliers over the Brooklyn Nets 121-114.

Kevin Love added 20 points and 15 rebounds for the Cavaliers.

Jordan Clarkson added 18 points for Cleveland while George Hill had 17 and Rodney Hood netted 16 off the bench.

Also, the Milwaukee Bucks gave their NBA playoff push another boost, fighting off a furious fourth-quarter rally from the San Antonio Spurs to hold on for a 106-103 win.

Giannis Antetokounmpo returned from missing one game to score 25 points for the Bucks, who almost blew a 15-point lead with eight minutes to go.

The Spurs stormed back to get within three points, with less than a minute left on the clock, but couldn’t get any closer in front of a crowd of 18,700 in Milwaukee.

The Bucks are in seventh spot in the East with nine games remaining in the regular season.