Bojan Bogdanovic led a balanced Indiana offense with 23 points and the Indiana Pacers on Saturday defeated the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers 105-90 on Saturday.
Bogdanovic scored more than 20 points for the fifth game out of six as the Pacers won for the fifth straight time.
Cory Joseph came off the bench to finish with 10 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists. Domantas Sabonis did not score in the first half, but finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds, also off the bench
Reserve Jordan Clarkson led Cleveland with 18 points.
A day after seeing his first action after missing the previous 50 games, Cleveland's Kevin Love did not play.
The Pacers dodged a bullet when Myles Turner suffered a right knee injury early in the third period when he blocked a dunk attempt by Marquese Chriss. Turner left the game in serious pain, received treatment and returned with 4:29 left in the quarter.
The return of the league's leading shot-blocker sparked the Pacers and denied the Cavs a chance to cut the deficit to single digits. With the Pacers leading 68-57, Turner blocked Ante Zizic's dunk attempt, and Darren Collison's 18-foot jumper and Sabonis' layup put Indiana back up by 15.
The Pacers avenged a 92-91 home loss in December to the Cavaliers when Larry Nance Jr.'s tip-in snapped Indiana's seven-game win streak
Indiana led for all but 12 seconds of Saturday's game. A 3-pointer by Chriss put Cleveland up 5-4. Turner's 3-pointer gave the Pacers the lead for good at the 10:02 mark and ignited a 16-4 run that gave the Pacers a 20-9 lead.
Even though the Pacers led by as many as 17 points in the first half and shot 59 percent, the Cavs trailed by only 12 at intermission because of their 3-point shooting. Cleveland shot only 37.5 percent (16 of 41) from the field but did make 7 of 19 from beyond the arc.
Turner had the hot hand for Indiana in the first quarter, scoring 12 points, including connecting on two 3-pointers before seeing a string of seven straight made attempts from beyond the arc end when his shot from 28 feet was off the mark with under two minutes left in the period.
--Field Level Media
Cleveland | Indiana | |
Jordan Clarkson 18 | Scoring | Bojan Bogdanovic 23 |
Jordan Clarkson 6 | Assists | Cory Joseph 10 |
Larry Nance Jr. 10 | Rebounds | Domantas Sabonis 10 |
Larry Nance Jr. 1 | Free Throws Made | Bojan Bogdanovic 2 |
Marquese Chriss 1 | Steals | Thaddeus Young 2 |
Larry Nance Jr. 2 | Blocks | Myles Turner 3 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Cleveland | 90 | 44.3 | 16-36 | 4-9 | 23 | 30 | 2 | 3 | 13 |
Indiana | 105 | 53.6 | 9-26 | 6-10 | 31 | 43 | 5 | 8 | 10 |