NBA Playoffs | Second-round results | Friday
Pacers 111, Knicks 106 New York leads series 2-1
INDIANAPOLIS — Andrew Nembhard made a 31-foot, tiebreaking 3-pointer with 16 seconds left, Tyrese Haliburton scored 35 points and the Indiana Pacers rallied in the fourth quarter to beat the banged-up and shorthanded New York Knicks 111-106 on Friday night in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The Knicks still lead the bestof-seven series 2-1 with Game 4 set for Sunday in Indianapolis. New York led by nine with 9:45 remaining and was in position to take a commanding 3-0 lead, but with Jalen Brunson slowed by a right foot injury, the Knicks couldn’t hold on.
Nembhard scored only five points — all in the final minute — while Haliburton finished with his second straight playoff career high. Pascal Siakam added 26 points and seven rebounds while Myles Turner had 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Donte DiVincenzo led the Knicks with 35 points, going 7 of 11 on 3-pointers. Brunson had 26 points and six rebounds, including a tying 3 with 42 seconds left, but he barely hit the rim on another 3-point try with 13 seconds to go.
Alec Burks, who came in having played 1 minute in the postseason, scored 14 points in 21 minutes for the Knicks, who played without starting forward OG Anunoby.
It’s unclear whether Anunoby can recover from his injured left hamstring to play Sunday, although he traveled with the team to Indianapolis.
Nuggets 117, Timberwolves 90 Minnesota leads series 2-1
MINNEAPOLIS — Jamal Murray rebounded from a rough start to the Western Conference semifinals with 24 points to lead the Denver Nuggets on a 117-90 romp in Game 3 on Friday night that made the Minnesota Timberwolves the last team in the NBA to lose this postseason.
Nikola Jokic, the three-time league MVP, had 24 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists, Michael Porter Jr. scored 21 points and the Nuggets cut the Timberwolves’ series lead to 2-1 on the strength of their 14-for-29 shooting from 3-point range.
Anthony Edwards had a quiet 19 points to lead the Wolves, who went just 10 for 32 from deep even with a 4-for-5 effort from Karl-Anthony Towns. They failed to get Towns (14 points) enough shots, fumbled the ball too often in desperate attempts to drive to the basket and simply played slower than they did in the first two games in Denver, falling behind by as many as 34 points down the stretch.
Game 4 is in Minneapolis on Sunday night.
The Nuggets became the 30th team in the history of the NBA playoffs to lose the first two games at home in a best-of-seven series, according to Sportradar research. Five of them have rallied to win, most recently the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round in 2021.
This was the step forward Denver badly needed, breaking the 100-point barrier for the first time in three games against Minnesota’s NBA-best defense.
Murray, who totaled just 25 points on 9-for-32 shooting with a minus-38 rating over the first two games and drew a $100,000 fine from the NBA for chucking a heat pack onto the floor from the bench, was roundly booed every time he touched the ball. The stone-faced point guard hardly glanced at the crowd, using a mix of spot-up jumpers and fadeaways to lead the attack, clearly with more spring in his step after three days to rest the strained left calf muscle that has hampered him over the last few weeks.