A flurry of six three-pointers from Haliburton helped Indiana wrap up a 4-1 series victory as the Cavaliers’ promising season fizzled out in disappointing fashion on their home court.
Haliburton’s scoring was backed by 21 points from Pascal Siakam while Aaron Nesmith contributed 13 points with 13 rebounds. Andrew Nembhard scored 18 points.
“We’re talking about eight more wins for an NBA championship,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said after guiding his team into the Eastern Conference finals for a second straight year.
“The league is wide open this year,” he added. “There are a lot of great teams but it’s wide open. We’ve just gotta keep believing. We’ve got a great group of guys who have committed to one another.
“We have a formula that works for us when we are really steadfast about sticking to it.”
Trailing 3-1 heading into Tuesday’s game five, Cleveland looked ready to keep the series alive after surging into a 19-point lead midway through the second quarter at the Rocket Arena.
But Haliburton sparked into life to drain five-of-five from three-point range in a 15-point second quarter to flip the script and slash Cleveland’s advantage to just four points at 56-52 heading into halftime.
The Pacers’ scoring onslaught continued into the third quarter with the visitors outscoring Cleveland 33-20 to open up a commanding 85-76 lead as the fourth quarter got under way.
Cleveland threatened to rally in the final frame after 16 points from Donovan Mitchell, who was clearly still troubled by the sore left ankle that had threatened to rule him out of the contest.
A Mitchell three-pointer closed the Indiana lead to one point at 98-97 with just over five minutes remaining.
But the Cavaliers’ failure to threaten from three-point range – they managed to convert just nine-of-35 attempts from beyond the arc – continued to be a problem and hopes of a comeback were snuffed out by the Pacers defense.
Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson lamented his team’s stalled playoff campaign which followed a dominant 64-win regular season.
“They were the better team, they deserved it and they played great,” Atkinson said of Indiana. “But the truth of the matter is we didn’t get to the level we wanted to get to.”
“We’re not pleased with that. We’re not celebrating the season. But I do think we made strides,” he added. “We took a jump – and now we’ve got to figure out this last piece, and how to get over this hump. We had some misfortune with injuries, but I still felt like we had enough. It’s disappointing.”
Fourth-seeds Indiana will now meet either the Boston Celtics or arch-rivals the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals, with the winner advancing to next month’s NBA Finals.
The Knicks lead the series with Boston 3-1 and can book a showdown with Indiana if they manage a victory over the Celtics on Wednesday.
Fourth-seeds Indiana will now meet either the Boston Celtics or arch-rivals the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals, with the winner advancing to next month’s NBA Finals.
The Knicks lead the series with Boston 3-1 and can book a showdown with Indiana if they manage a victory over the Celtics on Wednesday. (AFP)
