James’ 46 restores order in Cleveland

LeBron James scored 46 points and added 12 rebounds as the Cleveland Cavaliers bounced back from a poor performance in the opener by holding off the Indiana Pacers 100-97 on Wednesday night to even their Eastern Conference series at one game apiece.

Dazzling from the start, James scored the game’s first 16 points and had 29 at halftime, dominating the way he has in so many previous postseasons. But in a season in which nothing has been easy for the Cavaliers, Cleveland was lucky that Indiana’s Victor Oladipo missed a wide-open threepointer that would have tied it with 27 seconds left.

Kevin Love scored 15, but the All-Star center injured his left hand, the same one he broke this season, with 3:43 left. Love’s status could affect the remainder of this series — and perhaps Cleveland’s season. Game 3 is Friday in Indianapolis.

Utah 102, at Thunder 95: Rookie Donovan Mitchell scored 13 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter to help the Jazz tie their Western Conference playoff series at one win each. Derrick Favors had 20 points and 16 rebounds for the Jazz, both career-playoff bests, and Ricky Rubio had 22 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in the first playoff win of his seven-year career.

Russell Westbrook had 19 points, 13 assists and nine rebounds for the Thunder. Paul George, who scored 36 points in Game 1, finished with 18 on six-for-21 shooting. Carmelo Anthony scored 17 points but made just six of 18 shots. Game 3 will be Saturday in Utah.

at Houston 102, Minnesota 82: Chris Paul had 27 points and Gerald Green came off the bench to score 21 as Houston used a huge second quarter to cruise to a 2-0 lead in the first-round playoff series.

The series moves to Minnesota for Game 3 on Saturday.