NBA roundup: Nuggets, Pacers take Game 3 to reduce deficit in Conference semi-final series
The NBA champion Denver Nuggets roared back into their Western Conference semi-final series with Minnesota, defeating the Timberwolves 117-90 on Friday, while the Indiana Pacers clawed back a game against the New York Knicks.
Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray each scored 24 points for the Nuggets, who cut their series deficit to 2-1. Jokic also had 14 rebounds and nine assists.
Denver dispelled any notion that they were going to disappear quietly after being humbled by the young Timberwolves in games one and two in Denver.
The Pacers, who had lost the first two games of their Eastern Conference semi-final series in New York, avoided a 0-3 start with a 111-106 victory over the Knicks in Indianapolis.
Denver will try to tie the game on Sunday in Minneapolis, where Jokic stated that the Nuggets were determined to "play like a champion."
Murray, who scored only 25 points in the first two games and was fined $100,000 for letting his frustration boil over and throwing a heating pad onto the court in game two, made 11 of 21 shots and had three steals.
Michael Porter Jr. added 21 points, and all five Nuggets starters scored in double figures against a T'Woves team that coach Chris Finch described as "sluggish" and "slow".
Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with 19 points. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 14, but the Timberwolves did not play at the same pace that overwhelmed the Nuggets in Denver.
They trailed by as many as 34 points, disappointing fans at the Target Centre who had hoped to see the same kind of performance the Timberwolves had put on in Denver.
In Indianapolis, Haliburton scored 35 points, and Andrew Nembhard emerged as an unlikely hero, draining a three-pointer from deep with 17.8 seconds left to give the Pacers a 109-106 lead.
It was only his second basket of the night, but it turned the tide in a physical, back-and-forth battle in which the Pacers lost an early 12-point lead before rallying from nine down in the fourth quarter.
"I put (Nembhard) in kind of a bad situation, and he just made an unbelievable shot," said Haliburton, who passed to Nembhard with only four seconds left on the shot clock after being unable to get a shot off against a swarming Knicks defence.
Haliburton hit six of Indiana's twelve three-pointers. Indiana's Pascal Siakam scored 26 points and Myles Turner added 21 with 10 rebounds.
The Knicks, who were already missing Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson, and Bojan Bogdanovic, were also without OG Anunoby, who strained his hamstring in game two.
Knicks star Jalen Brunson, who was not confirmed to start until after pre-game warm-ups after injuring his right foot on Wednesday, got off to a slow start, but New York briefly pulled ahead in the second quarter, foreshadowing a third-quarter surge that saw them lead 90-85 entering the fourth period.
Donte DiVincenzo led the Knicks in scoring with 35 points, making seven of 11 three-pointers.
Brunson finished with 26 points and six assists, including the game-tying three-pointer with 42.4 seconds remaining.
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