Pacers douse favourites Heat to snatch lead in playoffs
INDIANAPOLIS: Indiana Pacers showed more balance, toughness and togetherness than Miami Heat, throttling their opponents 94-75 on Thursday to take a 2-1 series lead in the NBA Eastern Conference semi–finals.
Roy Hibbert had 19 points and 18 rebounds, George Hill scored 20 and Danny Granger 17 for the Pacers, who were often overlooked during the regular season and given little chance to upset the reigning East champions.
Miami’s Lebron James scored 22 points – 16 in the first half before wearing down – and Mario Chalmers added 25 for the visitors.
However, Dwyane Wade scored only 5 points on 2–of–13 shooting for Heat, already missing forward Chris Bosh because of a strained abdominal muscle and not expected to return for this series.
Indiana outscored Miami 51-32 in the second half, when the Pacers could do no wrong.
They made big shots, challenged everything Miami tossed in the air and didn’t back down from a Heat team that had appeared certain to make an easy run to the NBA finals after top–seeded Chicago lost Derrick Rose and were eliminated in the first round.
The Pacers, though, are proving to be a higher hurdle than expected.
Indiana broke the game open with a 17-3 run in the third quarter, doing it with an inside–outside attack that had Heat wondering what was coming next. Pacers pushed their lead to 69-55 after three quarters and then held off one brief run by Heat in the fourth quarter.
In San Antonio, Tony Parker scored 22 points on his 30th birthday, leading San Antonio over fading Los Angeles Clippers 105-88 and to a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference semi–finals.
Veteran Tim Duncan had 18 points for San Antonio, who have won 16 straight games and will travel to L.A. for Game 3 on today.
Clippers star Chris Paul responded to his awful Game 1 with only a slightly better encore, scoring just 10 points.
Blake Griffin led Los Angeles with 20 points. His plan to manage his ailing knee so he would have enough steam for the fourth quarter proved moot, as both teams emptied their benches with another Spurs blowout assured. – AP