Hornets snap 14-year playoff drought
Pacers tied up series with Raptors
CHARLOTTE, N.C. >> Jeremy Lin scored 18 points, Kemba Walker had 17 and the Charlotte Hornets beat the Miami Heat 96-80 on Saturday night to snap a 12game playoff losing streak and earn their first postseason victory in 14 years.
Rookie Frank Kaminsky, who got the starting nod, scored eight of his 15 points during an 18-0 run in the third quarter that broke open a 53-all game.
The Heat lead the series 2-1, with Game 4 set for Monday night.
Marvin Williams, a non-factor in the first two games, had 12 points and 14 rebounds for the Hornets.
Luol Deng scored 19 points on five 3-pointers, and Dwyane Wade added 17 for Miami. Hassan Whiteside had 13 points and 18 rebounds but battled foul trouble.
Miami, which shot 58 percent from the field in the first two games, was limited to 34 percent shooting.
The Hornets outscored the Heat 52-28 in the paint and had four turnovers to Miami’s 15.
Looking to combat the Heat’s height advantage on the perimeter, Hornets coach Steve Clifford moved Williams to small forward — in place of the injured Nicolas Batum — and inserted Kaminsky and Al Jefferson into the starting lineup. It didn’t help early on. Miami started off Game 3 similar to the previous two, with Deng hitting four 3-point attempts in the first six minutes for an early 2015 lead.
But Charlotte withstood the early Heat assault and took the lead near the end of the first quarter behind eight points from Lin, who found his way to the basket repeatedly and drew a second foul on Whiteside.
Charlotte opened a 4944 halftime lead after Miami cooled off significantly, shooting just 36.6 percent from the field. That was a remarkable turnaround from Game 2, when Miami shot 74.4 percent from the field in the opening half and scored 73 points.
Kaminsky gave the Hornets a spark in the third quarter with 11 points, including two spin moves against Wade and a turnaround jumper over Joe Johnson. Lin followed with a 3-pointer from the right wing to push the lead to 14, raising the fans clad in black “Enter the swarm” Tshirts and white Hornets headbands off their seats.
The Hornets would push the lead to 24 in the fourth quarter with Lin scoring and creating off the fast break.
Charlotte was 31-10 at home in the regular season. PACERS 100, RAPTORS 83 >> The Indiana Pacers changed lineups, moved the ball and forced turnovers.
By doing all that differently, they looked like a different team.
George Hill and Ian Mahinmi each scored 22 points, Paul George added 19 and the Pacers bounced back from an embarrassing home loss two days earlier to rout the Toronto Raptors 100-83 on Saturday and even the first-round playoff series at 2-2.
“This is how I wanted us to respond to the Game 3 loss,” George said. “I thought we were very attentive and focused on evening this series up.”
The turnaround from 48 hours earlier was remarkable.
Indiana found the passion and energy it was missing Thursday, defended aggressively and won the rebounding battle for the first time in the best-of-seven series.
Hill missed only two shots, both 3-pointers. Mahinmi had a career-high scoring total, while his 10 rebounds and five assists were both playoff career bests.
The Pacers forced as many turnovers in the first 20 minutes as they had in all of Game 3, and they made five of their first seven 3s — more than enough to help pull away on a night that a large, loud Raptors crowd infiltrated the Pacers’ home arena.
Now, Indiana will head back to Toronto seeking a similar performance in Game 5 on Tuesday.
While Jonas Valanciunas led the Raptors with 16 points, he finished with a series-low six rebounds. Kyle Lowry and DeMarre Carroll each scored 12.
Lowry fouled out with 4:41 to play and DeMar DeRozan continued to struggle, finished with eight points and failing to attempt a free throw for the second time in this week and the third time all season. The two All-Star guards were a combined 8 of 27 from the field and 0 for 7 on 3s.
“We’ve got to learn from tonight and we’ve got to get better,” Lowry said. “That’s the one thing we’ve done all year is we’ve always come back and gotten better.”