Pacers prevail despite Westbrook’s 54

Russell Westbrook scored a careerhigh 54 points Sunday night, but the Pacers fended off his late charge for a critical 116104 victory over the Thunder in Indianapolis.

C. J. Miles matched his season high with 30 points to lead Indiana ( 3743) to its fifth straight win and into a tie with the Nets for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East. The Nets own the tiebreaker, with both teams having two games to play.

The Thunder ( 4337) lost for the fifth time in six games despite a near tripledouble from Westbrook, who had nine rebounds and eight assists. Oklahoma City is tied with New Orleans for the No. 8 seed in the West.

Celtics 117, Cavaliers 78

In Boston, Isaiah Thomas scored 17 points and the Celtics moved closer to a playoff berth with a 11778 rout of the Cavaliers, who played without LeBron James and three other starters.

The runaway was made possible by coach David Blatt’s decision to rest James, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving and J. R. Smith since the Cavaliers already had clinched the No. 2 postseason spot in the Eastern Conference. Blatt said all four would play Monday night against Detroit.

The Celtics outscored the Cavaliers 349 in the second quarter to take a 5531 lead and stayed ahead by between 18 and 41 points the rest of the way as their magic number for reaching the postseason dropped to one.

If the Celtics remain in seventh place in the East, they would face the Cavaliers in the first round.

In Washington, John Wall had no trouble finding his rhythm after resting for two games, producing 24 points and nine assists to lead the Wizards to their highest win total in more than 30 years by beating a secondstring group of Hawks.

Washington improved to 4634, its first time topping 45 victories since 197879. The Wizards closed their regularseason home schedule at 2912 after going 2219 last season.

Atlanta already has clinched the East’s No. 1 seed and won a clubrecord 60 games, so coach Mike Budenholzer rested starters Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver, Al Horford and DeMarre Carroll.

Wizards 108, Hawks 99