Pacers nail dagger late to top Knicks
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 in indianapolis.
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, and 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 three 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 one 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.
The Knicks had already lost All-star Julius Randle and key contributors Bojan Bogdanovic and Mitchell Robinson to season-ending injuries.
haliburton instigated the comeback after indiana trailed 98-89 with 9:45 to play.
he completed a three-point play and then made back-toback layups, cutting the deficit to two. siakam tied the score at 99 with a 3-point play with 5:42 left and when DiVincenzo broke free on a fast break, haliburton helped jar the ball loose. siakam responded by making one of two free throws to give indiana a 100-99 lead at the 5:42 mark.
The teams traded the lead four more times, and brunson's 3 made it 106-all. Nembhard connected as the shot clock expired, the Pacers' defense got the stop it needed, and Aaron Nesmith closed it out with two free throws.
Nuggets respond
Jamal Murray rebounded from a rough start to the Western conference semifinals with 24 points to lead the visiting Nuggets to a 117-90 romp in Game 3 that made the Timberwolves the last team to lose in the NbA playoffs.
Nikola Jokic, the three-time league mVP, had 24 points, 14 rebounds and 9 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
Game 4 is in minneapolis on sunday night.