The Indiana Pacers kept insisting this team was different.
Anyone who doubted them coming into the playoffs understands now.
On Friday Leonte Carroo Jersey , the one-year anniversary of a historic playoff collapse against Cleveland, Indiana flipped the script by rallying from a 17-point halftime deficit and held on for a 92-90 victory over the Cavaliers to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. They can take command of the series by winning Sunday on their home court.
”Last year’s team, I don’t know if we would have gone down 17, I don’t know if we would have overcome it,” forward Thaddeus Young said. ”But this team, we’ve been resilient all year. We’ve overcome adversity.”
And on Friday they did it against a Cavaliers team that was 39-0 in the regular season when leading after three quarters.
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 19 of his playoff career-high 30 points in the second half, finishing 7 of 9 on 3-pointers. Victor Oladipo added 18 points, six rebounds and seven assists.
Bogdanovic also spent most of the game defending LeBron James, who finished with 28 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists and six turnovers. He joined Michael Jordan as the only players in league history with 100 double-doubles in the postseason. Jordan had 109.
James almost single-handedly rallied his team twice from seven-point deficits in the final 3 1/2 minutes.
The three-time defending Eastern Conference champs were outscored 52-33 over the final 24 minutes.
”We were more aggressive in the first half. We had tempo, they didn’t,” James said. ”Then they were more aggressive in the second half, they had tempo, and we didn’t.”
Young is one of the few players still around from the record-breaking Cameron Meredith Jersey , 26-point collapse last year, which is one reason coach Nate McMillan has continually opted not to discuss it.
After the Pacers cut the 57-40 halftime deficit to 69-63 at the end of three, the Pacers continued to apply pressure and eventually Bogdanovic finally broke through with a four-point play that gave Indiana an 81-77 lead with 6:10 left. It was Indiana’s first lead since midway through the first quarter.
He was far from finished.
Bogdanovic knocked down another 3 to make it a seven-point game.
Then, after James countered with seven straight to tie the score, Bogdanovic scored on a layup and hit his final 3 before Young’s layup made it 91-84 with 53 seconds to go.
James and Kevin Love made back-to-back 3s to make it 91-90, and Cleveland got one more chance after Darren Collison missed the second free throw with 5 seconds left.
But J.R. Smith’s 38-foot heave came up short.
”It’s great to be on the other end,” Myles Turner said. ”You never want to get down that far and have to try and come back. To be down in that position is not ideal. The resiliency of this team, it’s unbelievable.”
TIP-INS
Cavaliers: Have lost five of seven to the Pacers and are 0-3 in Indianapolis this season. … Cleveland is 37-7 in the playoffs against Eastern Conference teams since James returned in 2015. … Love finished with 19 points and six rebounds despite playing with an injured left thumb. … George Hill scored nine points in the first quarter and finished with 13. … James has 12 straight double-doubles against the Pacers. He also played in his 221st career playoff game to move past Kobe Bryant for No. 6 on the career list.
Pacers: Have won only two of their last seven playoff games against the Cavs. … Indiana is now 12-3 in games decided by three or fewer points this season. … The Pacers have rallied from deficits of 15 or more points nine times. … Bogdanovic tied the Pacers’ playoff record for 3s made, which was done four other times.
TEMPERS FLARE
Indiana’s fans booed the refs loudly throughout the first half. Then they really got upset after watching Oladipo crash hard to the floor on the final play of the half.
No foul was called and Oladipo slapped the floor before getting up and complaining.
If that wasn’t enough to upset the crowd, Larry Nance Jr. walked over and started yelling at Oladipo. That’s when Young stepped in and tried to peacemaker.
Nobody was called for a technical foul.
HOW BAD WAS IT?
Whether the verbal jabs provided any fuel at halftime, the Cavs certainly weren’t the same in the second half, when they were 13 of 28 from the field, 5 of 22 on 3s and had 10 turnovers.
James scored 15 points over the final two quarters, while his teammates accounted for 18. Following the game, James was asked about getting more support from his teammates.
”What are you guys looking for? You think I’m going to throw my teammates under the bus?” James said before the reporter explained that’s not what he meant. ”I’m not about that. Guys have got to play better – including myself. I had six turnovers tonight. I was horrible in the third quarter. I couldn’t make a shot. If I make some better plays in the third quarter (it’s a different game).”
THEY SAID IT
Cavaliers: ”I’m confident Art Shell Jersey ,” coach Tyronn Lue said. ”I think if we play the way we did in the first half, we can definitely win. We’ve got to win come Sunday.”
Pacers: ”A lot of teams have been close with LeBron but he ends up winning,” McMillan said. ”So we’re not in this thing to be close.”
UP NEXT
Game 4 is Sunday at Indianapolis.
—
More NBA basketball: In a story Jan. 14 about the Immaculate Reception game in 1972, The Associated Press erroneously said in the publishable Editor’s Note at the end of the story that the touchdown came on the final play of the Raiders-Steelers game. There were 5 seconds left when Harris scored, it was not the final play.
A corrected version of the story is below:
AP Was There: Harris’ miracle TD gave Steelers playoff win
AP Was There: The Immaculate Reception led Steelers to playoff win over Raiders on Dec. 23, 1972
By HUBERT MIZELL
AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) – It may not happen again for a thousand Christmases the way it happened Saturday for Franco Harris and the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Oakland Raiders under the dark skies in Three Rivers Stadium.
Harris, the Steelers’ own black Italian Santa Claus, caught a fluttering Steeler pass that Oakland defender Jack Tatum had batted away and danced 42 yards for a touchdown to give Pittsburgh an incredible 13-7 National Football League playoff victory.
The last-gasp effort by Pittsburgh’s Central Division champions to leapfrog the Steelers into the American Conference finals came on fourth down play with five seconds left on the clock.
Oakland, king of the West Division, had seemingly been rescued after a miserable offensive afternoon when backup quarterback Kenny Stabler scrambled 30 yards to the goal with 1:13 remaining to give the Raiders a 7-6 edge.
When Pittsburgh lined up for its last shot at glory, the clock showed 51 seconds and the end zone was 80 yards away.
Quarterback Terry Bradshaw hoped to pass for quick gains, charging within range for a third Roy Gerela field goal that could win it.
The blond from Louisiana Tech rifled a nine-yard pass to Harris. An 11-yarder to John Fuqua pushed the ball to the Steeler 40, but the clock was down to 0:37.
And then: Incomplete. Incomplete. Incomplete. That led to fourth down and Oakland was 22 seconds away from bringing tears to the eyes of most of the 50.350 in the big circular stadium.
Bradshaw tried one last time, evading a rush by Oakland’s Tony Clines and Horace Jones. He threw up the middle toward Fuqua near the Raider 30.
Tatum slammed into Fuqua just as the ball arrived, sending the lootball sailing back toward the Pittsburgh goal. Harris Alec Ogletree Jersey , trailing the play, grabbed the ball and dashed toward the left sideline.
The left side began to open. Jimmy Warren, a veteran Oakland defensive back, had the last shot at the 230-pound rookie from Penn State , He missed and the Steeler faithful exploded from their seats.
Pittsburgh not only won, but sewed up the homefield advantage for the Dec. 31 steppingstone to Super Bowl VII against the winner of today’s other American Conference playoff between Cleveland and Miami.
”Fourth down, fourth down,” muttered John Madden, the losing coach from Oakland. ”It’s really unfair to lose like that. It wouldn’t happen that way again in a million years.”
Excited fans had to be hustled off the field by police as the Raiders protested that Tatum had not touched the ball, making it an illegal pass with two offensive men touching it in succession.
”He went up for the ball,” Tatum said later. ”I believe it bounced off Fuqua. He was in front of me and I just hit him, not the ball.”
Fred Swearingen, the referee, talked with Art McNally, NFL supervisor of officials Chris Ivory Jersey , in the press box by telephone. McNally had seen the replay on television.
After the discussion, the touchdown was allowed, although NFL officials later said the conversation between Swearingen and McNally had no actual bearing on the ruling.
The stadium almost cracked at the seams when the touchdown was signaled.
Finally authorities harnessed the bedlam so the final five seconds could be played.
All that happened was a kickoff return and one incomplete pass before time ran out for Oakland. Pittsburgh had waited 40 years to win even a division crown and now Chuck Noll, in his fourth season as the Steelers’ head coach, had them one step away from the Super Bowl.
For most of the game it seemed that Gerela’s field goals of 18 and 29 yards would stand up for a 6-0 victory in what had been a bitter battle of defenses.
Then came Stabler, a substitute near-hero. Then came Harris, the man who is half Italian, half black and all football player.
”I couldn’t even see what was happening because somebody rapped me,” said Bradshaw. ”But I’ll watch it all day Sunday on television reruns and enjoy it every time.”
Saturday’s first half was scoreless as the two man-handling defenses played to a standstill.
Noll passed up a shot at a 38-yard field goal and it appeared a crucial move when the Steelers ran short on a fourth-and-one situation.
Bradshaw came out firing in the second half, hitting five times for 55 yards as Pittsburgh moved 67 yards to the Oakland 11. The march stalled there and Gerela’s 18-yard field goal made it 3-0 with 9:52 left in the third quarter.
Oakland’s offense continually sputtered under No. 1 quarterback Daryle Lamonica and the onrushing Pittsburgh defense held him to 6-of-18 passing for 44 yards.
Stabler, the shaggy-haired former Alabama star, trotted onto the field with 11:2 to go in the game. He seemed to ignite Oakland a bit, but then fumbled when rapped by Steeler defensive end Dwight White at the Raider 35 with 5:50 on the clock.
Mike Wagner covered Stabler’s fumble and it led to Gerela’s three-pointer from 29 yards that made it 6-0 with 3:50 remaining. It seemed enough at Jacksonville Jaguars Elite Jerseys
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