The Pacers are moving on.
Indiana toppled the Cavaliers 114-105 on Tuesday night in Cleveland to send the Pacers to their second consecutive Eastern Conference Finals.
The series-clinching win came after a late-game push by the Cavaliers, Eastern Conference No. 1 seed, that narrowed the gap to just three in the final two minutes.
The Pacers will now play the waiting game while Boston and the Knicks finish out their series, with Game 5 on Wednesday.
“I have to give our guys credit, they earned this,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “This was one of the best teams in the league. I’m sorry their season had to end like this. They had the perfect season, and we came along and were hot at the right time.”
The victory is the first domino to fall in setting up a potential Pacers-Knicks rematch in the conference finals, something that has not happened in 25 years.
Should the Knicks and Pacers square off in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Knicks would hold home-court advantage with Games 1 and 2 taking place at Madison Square Garden.
The Pacers had been swept by the Celtics in last year’s conference finals on Boston’s way to an NBA title.
Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton finished the night with a team-high 31 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field to propel underdog Indiana into the Eastern Conference finals.
“We were not favored in one game,” Carlisle said. “The lowest point spread was 5½. That was something that fueled our guys, too.”
Donovan Mitchell, who ended the night with 35 points, knocked down a 3-pointer with 1:27 left on the clock to pull the Cavaliers within three.
Nevertheless, the Cavaliers couldn’t take advantage of the momentum as Andrew Nembhard responded with a basket of his own and was fouled and moments later, Haliburton hit a pair of free throws to extend the Pacers’ lead to 110-103.
Myles Turner’s 3 with 23.1 left on the clock sealed the victory for Indiana.
The Cavs dropped three home games in a postseason series for the first time.
“I love playing in this arena, man. We’re 0-3 at home. We let the city down,” Mitchell said. “This place is special. What hurts is that we didn’t get it done at home.”
The Pacers had to overcome a 19-point deficit in the first half and pulled away in the third quarter.
“We didn’t panic after that rough start to the first quarter,” Haliburton said. “We talked about how we knew that they were going to throw a haymaker there. But I thought we weathered the storm the right way and got going from there.”
Pascal Siakam put up 21 points, eight rebounds and five assists in Indiana’s win, while the Pacers shot 50 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from 3-point range.
Evan Mobley recorded 24 points in the series-ending loss for the Cavaliers, while they shot 38.9 percent from the field as a team.
— with AP
