Tyrese Haliburton scored 26 points, including the go-ahead layup with 1.4 seconds remaining in overtime, and the Indiana Pacers rallied for a 119-118 win over the Milwaukee Bucks to clinch their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series on Tuesday in Indianapolis.
Haliburton jumped onto the scorers’ table and raised his arms toward the crowd to celebrate the wild comeback, which gave Indiana a 4-1 win in the best-of-seven series. The fourth-seeded Pacers advanced to the East’s semifinals, where they will face the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.
Indiana trailed 118-111 with 40 seconds remaining in overtime. They closed the game on an 8-0 run behind a 3-pointer by Andrew Nembhard, a three-point play by Haliburton and finally a driving layup in which Haliburton blew past Giannis Antetokounmpo for the decisive basket.
Antetokounmpo tallied a triple-double with 30 points, 20 rebounds and 13 assists for the Bucks, who played their first game without injured guard Damian Lillard (Achilles). Gary Trent Jr. scored 33 points, including 12 points in overtime. Trent made eight 3-pointers, but his turnover with 10.8 seconds left in OT set up Haliburton’s winning hoop.
Celtics 120, Magic 89
Jayson Tatum scored a game-high 35 points to help Boston clinch its Eastern Conference first-round playoff series with a Game 5 victory over visiting Orlando.
Tatum was 10 of 16 from the field and made all 11 of his free-throw attempts while adding eight rebounds and 10 assists as the Celtics wrapped up their first-round series in five games for the second year in a row. Jaylen Brown added 23 points for the Celtics, who outscored the Magic 73-40 in the second half.
The Magic lost their sixth consecutive first-round series — dating back to 2010-11 — despite 25 points from Franz Wagner. Paolo Banchero collected 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
Nuggets 131, Clippers 115
Jamal Murray scored 24 of his game-high 43 points in the second half, and host Denver pushed Los Angeles to the brink of elimination with a win in Game 5 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series.
Denver has won the past two games to take a 3-2 lead in the first-round matchup. Game 6 is Thursday night in Los Angeles. Murray scored 11 points in a momentum-turning third quarter and added 13 more in the fourth. Nikola Jokic had 13 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds — his third triple-double of the series — for the Nuggets, who never trailed.
Los Angeles’ James Harden was held to 11 points on 3-for-9 shooting but Kawhi Leonard had 20 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds and Ivica Zubac added 27 points. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 18 points, Kris Dunn had 15 and Norman Powell put up 12 for the Clippers.
Pistons 106, Knicks 103
Cade Cunningham scored 24 points, Ausar Thompson added 22 and each made a clutch shot in the final two minutes to help visiting Detroit avoid elimination in the first round of the playoffs with a gritty victory over New York in Game 5.
The Pistons sent the series back to Detroit for Game 6 on Thursday. Tobias Harris added 17 points and Dennis Schroder contributed 14 off the bench for the Pistons, who shot 42.4 percent. Malik Beasley finished with 10 points while Jalen Duren added nine points and 14 rebounds.
OG Anunoby scored 19 points to lead the Knicks, who still haven’t clinched a series on their home court for the first time since beating the Indiana Pacers in Game 6 of the 1999 Eastern Conference finals. Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges finished with 17 apiece, but Jalen Brunson was held to 16 on 4-of-16 shooting.
