CLEVELAND — LeBron James scored 46 points and added 12 rebounds as the Cleveland Cavaliers bounced back from a poor performance in the opener by holding off the Indiana Pacers 100-97 on Wednesday night to even their Eastern Conference series at one game apiece.

Dazzling from the start, James scored his team’s first 16 points and had 29 at halftime, dominating the way he has in so many previous postseasons.

But in a season in which nothing has been easy for the Cavs, Cleveland was lucky that Indiana’s Victor Oladipo missed a wide-open 3-pointer that would have tied it with 27 seconds left.

Kevin Love scored 15 points, but Cleveland’s All-Star center injured his left hand, the same one he broke earlier this season, with 3:43 left. Love’s status could affect the remainder of this series – and perhaps Cleveland’s season.

Kyle Korver added 12 points, all on 3s, and made several hustling plays for the Cavs.

Oladipo scored 22 points despite early foul trouble, and Myles Turner had 18 for the Pacers, who shocked the Cavs with an overpowering win in Game 1.

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Indiana clawed back from an 18-point deficit and was within 95-92 when Oladipo, who scored 32 in the opener, somehow got free but missed a 3-pointer.

Game 3 is Friday night in Indianapolis.

TUESDAY’S LATE GAME

PELICANS 111, TRAIL BLAZERS 102: Jrue Holiday scored a career playoff-high 33 points as the Pelicans took a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series with their second straight road win.

The series shifts to New Orleans on Thursday.

Holiday struggled at times with injuries after coming to the Pelicans in 2013. Then in early 2016, he took a leave of absence when doctors discovered that his wife, former U.S. national soccer team player Lauren Holiday, had a brain tumor while she was pregnant with the couple’s first child.

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“He’s been through some tough times, the first year he’s injured, he’s on minute restrictions through the greater part of the season, and then everybody’s familiar with the situation with his wife and what they had to go through there,” Coach Alvin Gentry said. “Everybody’s healthy and in a good place now so I think mentally he’s in a good place.”

“My family’s the most important thing to me, and with them being OK I can come back to the team freely and be able to help them out now,” Holiday said. “It’s been fun. I feel like my teammates and the organization definitely helped me out coming back from things with my family, and even the injuries, with being able to play and being able to perform at the peak I’m performing.”

NOTES

SPURS: The wife of San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich has died. She was 67.

The Spurs confirmed Erin Popovich’s death but didn’t provide further details. According to media reports, she had been ill for an extended period.

“We mourn the loss of Erin,” General Manager RC Buford said in a team statement. “She was a strong, wonderful, kind, intelligent woman who provided love, support and humor to all of us.”

The team did not say whether Popovich will coach Game 3 of the first-round series Thursday night against Golden State, which leads 2-0.


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