The Indiana Pacers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 129-109 to tie up its NBA playoff series with Oklahoma City ranked in two games with Denver in the series on Sunday.
Pascal Siakam scored 21 points, leading seven Pacers players as Indiana pushed Cleveland, the top seed in the Eastern Conference, to the seventh-quarter semifinal.
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Denver did not have such offensive fireworks, and Oklahoma City squeezed the Nuggets’ bid for a second-half comeback, winning the championship with a 92-87 victory in a game, both teams struggling to beat the shot.
In Cleveland, the Pacers had mastered the game and led the game with an 80-39 halftime lead when the Cavaliers announced that star Donovan Mitchell had suspicious of returning to the second half with a left ankle injury.
Mitchell scored 12 points in the first half with a back-to-back 40-point match, but apparently injured when testing his ankle before the second half.
Cleveland hopes his loss will be a physical blow to a team looking to withstand the knockout Cleveland team when they host Game 5 on Tuesday.
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Coach Kenny Atkinson said Mitchell will have an MRI scan on Monday and he "didn't know" whether Mitchell can play in Game 5.
Despite the dominance of the walker, the mood is insufficient.
Indiana reserve Bennedict Mathurin hit De'andre Hunter in the chest with 4:32 left in the first quarter.
Hunter fouled by a demarcated reaction, which scattered Mathurin, while Indiana's Myles Turner gained the technology to wader.
After the quarter-season, the Pacers piled up 38-23 in the second quarter, with a 17-0 scoring run to raise their lead to 78-37, leading the 80-39 half.
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Cleveland made only eight baskets in the first half, while the Pacers made an offensive show.
From the rim of Tyrese Haliburton, there was a Turner basket on the rim, which drove the Gainbridge Fieldhouse crowd into a frenzy.
The Pacers also targeted from the depths, with 12 of 15 3-pointers in the first half.
"It's a team that's better through adversity," Turner said of the Pacers' rebound from three losses in the game.
"We got punched in the last game and we had a response. The starter set the tone and the bench picked it up for the rest of the game."
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Turner and Obi Toppin scored 11 points for Indiana and Haliburton, respectively. Darius Garland led Cleveland with 21 points, but the Cavaliers gave up 22 turnovers, resulting in 35 Pacers scoring.
- Tired legs -
In Denver, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City with 25 points with six rebounds and six assists, but the Thunder only had 31-point connections of 87 shots in the field - a much better success rate than the Nuggets' 25-goal 80 goals.
The NBA's most valuable player Nikola Jokic scored 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for Denver, who shocked a frustrating start and took a 53-52 lead with Aaron Gordon's three-point shooting percentage in the middle of the third quarter.
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Jamal Murray and Christian Braun scored 17 points per point, while Gordon expanded the lead to eight points earlier in fourth place, with Gordon adding 15 points.
But less than 48 hours after the win in overtime in Game 3, the Nuggets failed to capitalize.
Oklahoma City regained Cason Wallace's 3-pointer with 8:35 and kept it until the end.
"We stopped and kept them at 18 points in the fourth quarter," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "They obviously were hot after halftime and jumped on us, but the defensive end was always for us...we got it back on track and we were able to get the W."
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Avoid falling to 3-1 holes, the Thunder host was in Game 5 on Tuesday.
"I think both teams have tired legs," said Nuggets coach David Adelman. "In a really disgusting basketball game, giving their team credibility, these guys made enough games to push their edge and win the game."
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