Haliburton, Pacers beats Bucks in OT for series lead

INDIANAPOLIS >> Tyrese Haliburton completed a threepoint play with 1.6 seconds left, capping his first postseason triple-double in his first home playoff game to give the Indiana Pacers a 121-118 overtime victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night.

Indiana leads the best-ofseven series 2-1, with Game 4 on Sunday in Indianapolis. Two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo again sat out for Milwaukee because of a strained left calf.

Haliburton had 18 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds. Myles Turner added 29 points and nine rebounds, both playoff career highs, to help give Indiana its first back-to-back postseason wins since taking three straight in the 2014 Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Pacers also have their first lead in the playoffs since Game 3 of a firstround matchup against Cleveland in 2018. Indiana hasn't won a series since reaching the 2014 Eastern Conference finals.

Milwaukee's Khris Middleton banked in a 3-pointer with 1.4 seconds to force overtime and had a chance to force a second overtime, but his 3 bounced off the side of the rim as the buzzer sounded.

Middleton finished with a playoff-career high 42 points and had 10 rebounds and five assists after missing practice Thursday because of a sprained right ankle. Damian Lillard added 28 points and eight assists, most coming after he hurt his left Achilles late in the first quarter. MAVERICKS 101, CLIPPERS 90 >> Luka Doncic had 22 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists, and the suddenly defensive-minded Mavericks took a chippy victory over the Los Angeles Clippers for a 2-1 lead in the first-round series.

The Mavs rode the same defense that gave them home-court advantage with a Game 2 victory in LA, and won in Dallas three years after losing all three firstround games on their floor in a seven-game s loss to the Clippers. Game 4 is Sunday in Dallas.

Rookie Dereck Lively II scored all 13 of his points in the first half and Daniel Gafford, his tag-team partner as a dunker and rim protector, had an emphatic block of a dunk attempt by Paul George early in the fourth quarter while Dallas was taking control for good in a game with five technical fouls, a flagrant foul and two ejections.

James Harden scored 21 points for the Clippers, but just seven after halftime, while fellow stars George and Kawhi Leonard had little impact. Normal Powell also had 21.