Heat fall behind but rally to secure vital win at home…
The Miami Heat went up 2-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers with a late rally in Game 3 at the AA Arena on Saturday night.
Despite being down by 15 early on in the game, the Heat found a way to overturn the deficit against their rivals and move to within two wins of another trip to the NBA Finals.
LeBron James had 26 points while Dwyane Wade added 23 as Miami finally ended a back-and-forth trend in this rivalry which has seen the two teams alternate wins and losses in 13 straight meetings.
Pacers coach Frank Vogel insisted that his players have a great deal of resiliency left and he believes that it is still very early in the series to be counting them out.
Paul George scored 17 points after being cleared for concussion and went 5-of-13 in his return, while Roy Hibbert and David West added 16 points and 13 points respectively.
Nevertheless, it was Ray Allen who made the telling difference as he scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, going 4 of 4 from three-point range and guide the Heat across the line as the Pacers couldn’t find a way to respond to their run.
While there is potentially still a great number of twists and turns to come in this series, the Heat will be confident of making the most of home court in Game 4 on Monday and it remains to be seen whether or not the Pacers can build on this performance and tighten things up on defense in the closing stages.
NBA Results:
Indiana Pacers 87-99 Miami Heat
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