The Indiana Pacers exploded in the second half en route to a 91-77 victory over Miami on Saturday to force a deciding seventh game in their NBA Eastern Conference final series.
Paul George led the Pacers with 28 points, while Roy Hibbert added 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, as Indiana held off the reigning NBA champions Heat in the fourth quarter to knot the series at three games apiece.
The Pacers still face a tough task if they want to deny the Heat a return to the NBA finals, with Miami having the luxury of hosting Game 7 today.
The winners of the series will face Western Conference champions San Antonio in the NBA championship series, starting on Thursday.
The Spurs will be well-rested against either opponent, thanks to their four-game sweep of Memphis in the Western Conference finals.
“This is where you have to compartmentalize in the playoffs and focus on the main thing,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after his team failed to wrap up the series. “We work all season long for Game 7, home court. Regardless of how you get to that point — play well, don’t play well, win a game, lose a game — it all builds up to this. It’s an incredible opportunity for a professional athlete to be part of a game seven, and that’s why our guys are looking forward to this, even after a disappointing loss.”
The Pacers led by as many as 17 points in the third quarter. Miami whittled the deficit to four midway through the fourth and were down 77-68 when Heat superstar LeBron James drove to the rim guarded by Hibbert.
James double-clutched, but Hibbert rose straight up to defend the basket, drawing an offensive foul from James who hit him with an elbow.
James, who immediately ran down the court, and Heat assistant coach David Fizdale both received technical fouls in the wake of the play, which James thought was a blown call by officials.
George Hill made both free throws for Indiana to stretch the lead back to 11, and Miami never got within double-digits from there.
“The momentum could have shifted right there if he got an easy dunk,” Hibbert said of the play.
Just as the Heat used a strong third quarter to win Game 5, the Pacers — trailing by one at halftime — came out firing in the third.
“Total domination by the Pacers in the third,” Miami’s NBA Most Valuable Player James said of a period that Indiana opened with a 14-3 scoring run, highlighted by Hibbert’s drive past Miami center J/oel Anthony for a one-handed dunk.
“I think we just did a tremendous effort of recognizing that the last game, our third quarter was really what let us down,” Hibbert said. “We tried to take advantage of that and come out aggressive.”
Even though they trailed at halftime, Indiana coach Frank Vogel said he thought his team had the better of the Heat.
“I felt like we were out-playing them, but we were just leaving a lot of plays out there,” Vogel said. “We had to complete those plays, continue the things that were working for us. We believe in our defensive plan. We’ve got to limit our turnovers, we’ve got to finish at the rim. If we do those things, we can take control of the game.”
“We knew, in Game 5, they came out and seized control of the game in the third quarter, and I felt like we could do the same,” Vogel said.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set