INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Pascal Siakam had 28 points and 11 rebounds, Aaron Nesmith scored 16 points and the Indiana Pacers beat the Brooklyn Nets 121-100 yesterday.
All-Star Tyrese Haliburton finished with 14 points and seven rebounds for the Pacers, overcoming a six-for-18 shooting night, and his backup T J McConnell finished with 13 points. McConnell has scored in double figures 10 times in his past 17 games.
Cam Thomas had 22 points and eight rebounds for the Nets, who were outscored 82-42 in the paint in the teams’ first meeting of the season. Brooklyn shot 43 per cent from the field, committed 21 turnovers and fell to 1-4 on its six-game road trip.
Indiana trailed 30-25 at the end of the first quarter and led just 59-57 at halftime before blowing the game open in the second half, leading by 27 in the fourth quarter. The victory was the Pacers’ seventh of the season by a margin of at least 20 points.
Cam Johnson scored 14 points for the Nets, Dennis Schroder and 13 points and five assists, and Dorian Finney-Smith finished with 12 points. Brooklyn, in 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings, had gone 6-1 in its previous seven visits to Indiana.
The sixth-place Pacers shot 48 per cent from the floor and carried an 86-78 lead into the fourth quarter despite making only four of 26 three-point attempts to that point. Indiana won the rebounding battle 59-48 and prevailed for the third time in its past four games.
