Indiana Pacers roll over Detroit Pistons, 122-103
DETROIT — Pascal Siakam had 25 points and eight rebounds, Tyrese Haliburton added 20 points and nine assists, and the Indiana Pacers routed the short-handed Detroit Pistons 122-103 on Wednesday night.
“This was a great team performance,” Haliburton said. “We did a great job of getting out and running in the second half, and we knew that would get our shots to fall.”
Aaron Nesmith added 14 points as the Pacers swept the four-game season series from the Pistons. Isaiah Jackson, playing 25 miles south of his hometown, had 10 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
“Isaiah Jackson should be the poster person for every young player that is developing and supposed to be staying ready,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “Myles (Turner) was dealing with a little bit of a bug, so we knew Isaiah was going to get some extra minutes at home, and he changed the game when he got in there.”
The game was the first on Indiana’s five-game road trip.
“This is a great start to the trip, but this is only the beginning,” Carlisle said.
Cade Cunningham had 23 points, 10 assists and six rebounds for Detroit, which lost its fourth straight.
The Pistons played without starting forwards Ausur Thompson (blood clots) and Isaiah Stewart (hamstring), who were each ruled out for the season on Wednesday. Tosan Evbuomwan made his first NBA start and Stanley Umude made his second before leaving with an ankle injury.
“There’s no excuse — I don’t care about the talent level,” Pistons coach Monty Williams said. “I’ve spent my entire NBA career overcoming. That’s just what it is. No player in this league has accomplished anything without overcoming.”
Indiana led 54-52 with 1:27 left in the first half, but went on a 33-9 run to take a 26-point lead late in the third quarter.
“I think we especially struggled in the third quarter, and it has been the third quarter for a few games for us,” Cunningham said. “We have to come out, our first group, and be better in the second half.”
The makeshift Pistons lineup struggled to defend the highest-scoring offense in the league, and couldn’t make up for it on the other end. Detroit went 5 for 23 on 3-pointers, including 1 for 9 from the starters.
The Pacers led 98-78 going into the fourth and quickly emptied the bench. Haliburton didn’t play in the fourth, Myles Turner played 48 seconds and Siakam played 1:09.
Chimeze Metu made his Pistons debut in the second quarter, extending the franchise record to 29 players used in a season. The 2020-21 Houston Rockets hold the NBA record of 30.
“You don’t know what it is like to go through a season like that unless you’ve been through it,” Carlisle said of Williams. “Monty is a great friend and universally respected in our profession. That team has gotten light years better, even if it isn’t showing up yet in the win column.”
HEAT 107, CAVALIERS 104
CLEVELAND — Terry Rozier scored nine points in the final 1:24, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 14.5 seconds on the clock, lifting the Miami Heat to a 107-104 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.
Rozier converted a 4-point play before sinking a 26 footer that gave Miami a 105-102 lead. After Georges Niang made a layup for the Cavaliers, Rozier followed with two free throws with 2.8 seconds remaining.
Darius Garland had a chance to force overtime, but his off-balance, 3-point attempt was off the mark and Cleveland lost its third straight home game.
“This is why we went after Terry,” in a trade with Charlotte on Jan. 23 Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We wanted to have another guy who can make something happen late in games. He’s always been that kind of player in big moments with Charlotte and of course with Boston.”
Jimmy Butler scored 30 points and Youngstown, Ohio native Rozier finished with 24, helping Miami pull within one-half game of Philadelphia for the sixth and final automatic playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. Nikola Jovic added 14 points.
“Terry put on a show, man, with half the arena there to see him tonight,” Butler said. “Basketball is supposed to be fun and him doing it somewhat at his crib, in front of his people, was something.”
Jarrett Allen had 25 points and 20 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who remained third in the East. Garland scored 20 points, Caris Levert added 16 points and 12 assists, and Niang had 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter.
KINGS 123, RAPTORS 89
TORONTO — Domantas Sabonis had 13 points, 17 rebounds and 10 assists for his 24th triple-double of the season, De’aaron Fox scored 20 points and Sacramento routed short-handed Toronto, extending Toronto’s season-worst losing streak to eight.
Sabonis has recorded at least a double-double in 51 consecutive games.
Malik Monk scored 17 points and Harrison Barnes added 16 as the Kings won their second straight and fourth of five. Chris
Duarte scored 14 points and Keegan Murray had 10 for the Kings, whose biggest lead was 38 points.
Gary Trent Jr. scored 18 points and Ochai Agbaji and Jordan Nwora each had 13 for the Raptors, who are 1-9 in March.
CELTICS 122, BUCKS 119
BOSTON — Jayson Tatum scored 31 points on Wednesday night to help the Boston Celtics win their seventh game in a row, taking advantage of the absence of two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo to beat the Milwaukee Bucks 122-119.
Payton Pritchard added 19 points and six rebounds off the bench for Boston, scoring 10 points in the second quarter -- as many as Milwaukee had as a team. He also grabbed four rebounds in the second, including an offensive board he took away from Brook Lopez, a player a full foot taller.
Derrick White had 23 points and eight assists, while Jaylen Brown finished with 21 points and eight boards for Boston.
Damian Lillard scored 32, including a 3-pointer in the final second. Bobby Portis had 24 points and 15 rebounds for the Bucks, who had won two in a row.
Although the game was a matchup of Eastern Conference division leaders, the Celtics hold an 11-game edge over the second-seeded Bucks in the race for home-court advantage. Any other juice in the potential playoff preview was lost when Antetokounmpo was ruled out for the second straight game with a left hamstring problem.
It was 10-all when the Celtics scored 13 of the next 15 points to open an 11-point lead. The Bucks cut it to two before the end of the first quarter, but Boston used a 21-8 run -- with 10 points coming from Pritchard -- to make it an 18-point lead in the second.
Likely irked by a “too small” gesture from Milwaukee’s Patrick Beverley, Pritchard also had the most assists (three) and rebounds (four) in the quarter, including one board that he swiped from Lopez. Frustrated, the 7-foot-1 center pushed him away in disgust.
Pritchard celebrated by flexing his muscles and slapping hands with Kristaps Porzingis; Tatum waved his arms to encourage the crowd, which rose to give the 6-1 point guard a standing ovation.
Boston led by as many as 21 points but the Bucks didn’t get within single digits until the final minutes, when they scored 10 straight points -- eight of them, including back-to-back long 3-pointers, from Portis -- to turn a 13-point lead into a one-possession game.
But Portis missed a 3, Tatum hit a pair of free throws and then the Celtics star drove for a layup to make it 114-107 with 1:38 to play.
Antetokounmpo also missed the Bucks’ 140-129 home victory over Phoenix on Sunday. He has missed five games this season; Milwaukee is 3-2 without him.
The Greek star, 29, ranks third in the NBA in scoring (30.8), sixth in rebounding (11.2) and 15th in assists (6.4) this season.
THUNDER 119, JAZZ 107
OKLAHOMA CITY — Chet Holmgren scored 35 points and tied a career high with 14 rebounds and Oklahoma City beat Utah.
Shai Gilgeous-alexander scored 20 of his 31 points in the second half for the Thunder, who have the best record in the Western Conference at 48-20.
Alexander became the 13th player in NBA history to score 30 points or more in 50 games.
Collin Sexton had 25 points for Utah, which played without injured players Lauri Markkanen and Jordan Clarkson — two of the team’s top three scorers.