Pascal Siakam scored 21 points and Myles Turner and Obi Toppin each added 20, lifting the Indiana Pacers to a 129-109 rout of the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series on Sunday in Indianapolis.
The fourth-seeded Pacers hold a 3-1 lead over the top-seeded Cavaliers in the best-of-seven series. Indiana can punch its ticket to its second straight conference final with a victory in Game 5 on Tuesday in Cleveland.
“Staying focused,” Turner said on TNT. “Don’t believe the hype. Keep rollin’.”
To add injury to insult for the Cavaliers, Donovan Mitchell sat out the second half with a left ankle injury. The six-time All-Star finished with 12 points on 3-of-11 shooting from the floor.
“Left ankle injury. He’ll get an MRI tomorrow,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Obviously, he couldn’t go in the second half. We’ll see what the MRI says.”
Turner, Siakam and Toppin combined to make 25 of 37 shots from the floor and 7 of 10 from 3-point range for the Pacers, who rebounded from a 22-point loss in Game 3.
“We got punched in the mouth last game,” Turner said in the TNT interview after the game. “We had a hell of a response, the stars set the tone and the bench picked it up the rest of the game.”
Indiana outscored the Cavaliers by a 42-16 margin in the second quarter to take an 80-39 lead at halftime. The Pacers set a franchise-playoff record for points in a half and an NBA postseason record for assists in a half (25) in the play-by-play era (1998).
Ben Sheppard scored 14 points, T.J. McConnell added 13 and Aaron Nesmith had 12 for the Pacers.
Indiana shot a robust 52.7 percent from the floor and enjoyed a 58-32 advantage in points in the paint.
Darius Garland scored 21 points for the Cavaliers, who committed 22 turnovers.
“Complete domination by them,” Atkinson said. “It’s kind of the story in every facet. It wasn’t like tactics or anything. They dominated us in every facet of the game.”
Indiana’s Bennedict Mathurin was assessed a flagrant-2 foul and ejected with 4:32 left in the opening period after he ignited an altercation with De’Andre Hunter. The former hit the latter in the chest, prompting Hunter to shove Mathurin in response. Hunter and Turner were also assessed technical fouls.
The Pacers connected on five of their first six attempts from 3-point range to seize a 33-14 lead early in the first quarter.
Siakam drained a pair from beyond the arc and set up Toppin for an emphatic dunk as Indiana scored the first 10 points of the second quarter to boost its advantage to 48-23.
Turner sank a trio of 3-pointers during the final two minutes of the second quarter and Nesmith made a basket at the buzzer to stake Indiana to an 80-39 lead at halftime.
The outcome was not in doubt the rest of the way.
–Field Level Media
Comments