INDIANAPOLIS — Paul George scored 21 points, Myles Turner added 15 and the Indiana Pacers beat the Toronto Raptors 101-83 on Friday night to force a Game 7 of their series.
It will be played Sunday in Toronto and the winner will advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Indiana scored 18 straight points in the second half to pull away from the second-seeded Raptors, who haven’t won a postseason series since the first round in 2001.
DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph each had 15 points for the Raptors.
Kyle Lowry (4 of 14) and DeMar DeRozan (3 of 13) struggled again, and now the Raptors will head home and hear again about their troubled playoff problems: a Game 7 loss at home to Brooklyn in 2014, then Washington’s four-game sweep last season and no series victories in a seven-game series.
HEAT 97, HORNETS 90: Dwyane Wade scored 10 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter, and Miami forced its first-round series to a seventh game with a victory at Charlotte, North Carolina.
Luol Deng was 9 of 14 from the field and finished with 21 points, and Goran Dragic added 14 points and seven rebounds for the Heat, who will be home Sunday for Game 7.
NOTES
WARRIORS: Stephen Curry is rehabbing his injured right knee about three times a day, spending four to five hours at the practice facility to try to get back on the court as soon as possible.
Curry said he considers himself fortunate he didn’t seriously damage the knee structurally when he slipped on a wet spot – “an unfortunate slip” – right before halftime in Sunday’s Game 4 win at Houston, noting “that could have been 10 times worse.”
LAKERS: Los Angeles reached an agreement with Golden State assistant Luke Walton to become its head coach, five days after firing Byron Scott.
Walton, 36, a former Lakers forward, will join the team after the Warriors’ playoff run. He returns to become the 26th head coach in franchise history.
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