The Indiana Pacers fought back from a 19-point, second-quarter deficit to eliminate the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers from the NBA playoffs and reach the Eastern Conference Finals for a second straight year.
Tyrese Haliburton, who struggled in Games 3 and 4, posted 31 points, six rebounds and eight assists to lead the Pacers to a 114-105 win and secure the series 4-1.
“I’m certainly very excited for our fans, our ownership, our city,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle told reporters after the game. “Winning a closeout game on the road is extremely difficult.
“We were down 19 and Ty’s run of shot-making in the second quarter got us back into it.
“We just had a lot of guys that played extremely hard and we just said: ‘Hey, let’s hang in this thing, try to wear them down and see if we can outlast them,’ and essentially that’s what happened.”
The Cavaliers, who lost all three home games in this series, will again be kicking themselves at giving up a big lead as they did in Games 1 and 2 in Cleveland.
The Cavs have been plagued by injuries this series, with Darius Garland missing the first two games and star guard Donovan Mitchell sitting the second half of Game 4.
Both were back for Tuesday’s Game 5, but it made little difference. Garland was a non-factor, scoring 11 points on 4-of-16 shooting – including 0-of-6 from three – while Mitchell posted a game-high 35 points on an inefficient 8-of-25 shooting night.
Mitchell did a lot of his damage from the free throw line; his 21 attempts from the charity stripe were one fewer than the entire Pacers team.
When asked about Cleveland’s injuries impacting the series, Carlisle recalled someone recently telling him that “the winning team writes the script.”
“I have to give our guys credit, they earned this,” Carlisle said. “This (Cleveland) is one of the best teams in the league, injuries, dings or no dings. They had a great year. I’m sorry their season had to end like this. They kind of had the perfect season, and we then came along and we’re hot at the right time.
“We’re talking about eight more wins for an NBA championship,” Carlisle added. “The league is wide open this year, there are a lot of great teams, but it’s wide open. We’ve just got to keep believing, we’ve got a great group of guys who have committed to one another.”
While the Pacers get ready to face either the New York Knicks or the Boston Celtics for another shot at reaching the NBA Finals, the Cavs will be left to rue a lost season in which they emerged as the East’s best team over 82 games.
It is only the fourth time in NBA history that a team with at least 64 wins in the regular season failed to advance past the second round, per ESPN.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Mitchell said after the defeat. “Didn’t want to believe it. Don’t want to believe it. Still don’t want to believe it.
“I love playing in that f**king arena, man. That energy, that crowd. We were 0-3 at home, let the city down. This place is special. This place is really special and we didn’t get it done.
“Especially at home, that’s what hurts.”
The Knicks and Celtics play Game 5 in Massachusetts on Wednesday, with New York holding a 3-1 series lead and Boston missing star Jayson Tatum due to a torn Achilles tendon.
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