The Indiana Pacers do not lose two straight games often, but they lost their second straight Wednesday night when the Miami Heat, buoyed by another frenzied home crowd, evened their best-of-seven-game Eastern Conference semifinal series at 2-2.
The victory was Miami's 18th straight at home and second in a row over the Pacers, who lost two straight games only three times during the regular season. The series returns to Indiana for Game 5 on Saturday.
"By a show of hands, anybody here think it'd be 2-2 now?" Miami's Lamar Odom said to reporters after the game. No one raised a hand.
PHOTO: EPA
Odom led the Heat with 22 points. Caron Butler added 21 and Dwyane Wade chipped in with 20. Jermaine O'Neal had 37 for Indiana and Ron Artest added 28. They made 26 of Indiana's 33 field goals.
"Defensively we've regressed," Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said. "We've allowed them to catch a real wave of momentum offensively. It's not going to be easy to take that away."
The game, before 20,128, was marred by a scuffle with 2 minutes 9 seconds left when the Heat's Eddie Jones, driving for a layup, was grabbed from behind by Jamaal Tinsley.
Just over a minute later, Artest was ejected for tackling Wade as he drove to the basket.
The Heat turned the game into a near laugher by outscoring Indiana in the second half, 47-32.
Miami put the game away without center Brian Grant, who was in the locker room getting a dislocated right pinkie popped back into place.
Grant said he intended to play Saturday no matter how his finger feels. "About the only thing that could keep me out is a broken leg, and my legs are fine," he said.
Almost lost in the Heat's second-half flurry was that the Pacers set an impressive tempo in the first quarter, sprinting to a 33-26 lead behind O'Neal's 14 points and Artest's 10.
The Heat, once down by nine, cut its deficit to 31-26 on a 3-pointer by the backup point guard Rafer Alston with four seconds left in the first quarter. But the Pacers backup guard Anthony Johnson raced downcourt for a layup at the buzzer.
Alston's 3-pointer early in the second quarter signaled a turnaround for the Heat. It launched a 10-point run that put Miami ahead for the first time, 38-37. The Heat would not lead again in the quarter, but the score was tied seven times. O'Neal had 26 points by halftime.
With the score 51-51, Artest took over with a short jumper. Wade tied it with two free throws with 11.6 seconds left, but Austin Croshere, scoreless at that point, gave the Pacers a 56-53 halftime lead with a 3-pointer two-tenths of a second from intermission.
The Heat came out so unfazed in the second half that they had a 76-69 lead by the end of the third quarter. Miami quickly expanded its lead to 10 points into the fourth. Again it was Odom, not considered a strong outside shooter, who made Indiana squirm, this time with a 3-pointer.
Alston soon widened the lead to 11 with a 3-pointer. After Grant left, the Pacers used a Croshere dunk to make it a four-point game, but that was as close as they would get.
Detroit Pistons coach Larry Brown was fined US$7,500 Wednesday by the NBA for criticizing officials.
On Monday, Brown said referees tried to antagonize Pistons forward Rasheed Wallace, who was limited to 22 minutes in a Game 3 loss against the New Jersey Nets because of foul trouble.
"It's just not right, it's not fair," Brown said. "I just think they disrespect the kid in general, that's the bottom line. They can fine me or whatever they want. I'm just telling you a fact."
The Eastern Conference semifinal series between Detroit and New Jersey is tied 2-2. Game 5 is Friday at Detroit.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier