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May 30, 2013

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Pacers douse Heat to even series

ROY Hibbert had 23 points and 12 rebounds as the Indiana Pacers charged back late to beat the Miami Heat 99-92 on Tuesday and level the Eastern Conference finals at 2-2.

LeBron James led the Heat with 24 points before fouling out with 56 seconds to go. Mario Chalmers had 20 points on a night the defending National Basketball Association champions failed to take command of the series.

The Heat will host Game 5.

"We're not going anywhere. We're going back down to Miami to go out there and fight again," Hibbert said.

Lance Stephenson added 20 points for the Pacers, who started fast and spent the rest of the night trying to fend off Miami's continual comebacks.

But with Indiana leading 81-72 early in the fourth, Miami answered with a 14-2 run that gave the Heat an 86-83 lead.

Indiana leveled the score with Paul George's three-point play and erased the lead by closing the game on a 16-6 run. Indiana was desperate - and it showed.

Bodies crashed to the ground all night. An angry George uncharacteristically smacked the floor after being called for a foul in the third quarter, leading to a technical foul on coach Frank Vogel. And the defense did a far better job against James and his high-scoring teammates. James finished 8 of 18 from the field.

"They keyed in on me," James said. "I was able to get it going a little bit in the second half, but played most of it in foul trouble."

The Pacers did not get rattled.

When Miami used a 9-0 run to take a 60-54 lead early in the third quarter, Indiana answered immediately with a 10-0 run to regain the lead. When James committed an offensive foul with 2 seconds left in the third quarter, his first turnover since the end of Game 2, the Pacers got a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Stephenson to make it 77-70.

Even as the Heat rallied in the fourth, charging back from an 72-81 deficit to take an 86-83 lead, the Pacers answered. George tied the score on a three-point play on which James committed his fourth foul.



 

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