NBA Roundup: With James on bench, Pacers roll past Cavs 123-109

INDIANAPOLIS — When LeBron James took a seat Wednesday night (Thursday in Manila), the Indiana Pacers took a step forward.

 

With the four-time MVP resting from the Cavaliers lineup, the Pacers got their offense on track, their defense in sync and proved they could finally close out a game. Paul George scored 29 points, CJ Miles added 21 and Indiana made 16 3-pointers to pull away from Cleveland 123-109.

 

"Even without LeBron, they still have two All-Stars out there," Solomon Hill said after scoring a season-high 15 points. "They're going to shoot the ball, execute their plays, and it's a team we could see in the playoffs. (Every win) is a building block."

 

This one certainly helped.

 

By winning their third in a row, the Pacers stayed a half-game ahead of eighth-place Detroit in the conference standings and pulled three games ahead of idle Chicago, which is trying to move out of the No. 9 slot and into one of the final two playoff spots.

 

Without James, the Cavs didn't look like the best team in the conference.

 

One night after making 18 3-pointers, they were a dreadful 8 of 29 beyond the arc and were outscored in the paint, on second-chance points and even on fast breaks.

 

Kyrie Irving led the Cavs with 26 points and six assists, while Kevin Love had 23 points and five rebounds.

 

The numbers didn't matter to coach Tyronn Lue.

 

Cleveland is more concerned with making sure James is at full strength for another deep playoff run by limiting his minutes, and Lue resisted the temptation of playing James on the second night of back-to-back games just to get a little closer to clinching No. 1 seed.

 

"We still have momentum," Lue said after Cleveland's four-game winning streak ended. "We have the best player in the world on our team. He didn't play tonight, and I thought our guys came out and offensively I thought we did some great things against a great defensive team. ... Defensively, we took a step back."

 

Charlotte bounced back from consecutive losses to the Eastern Conference's top teams by beating the Knicks 111-97 in New York.

 

Kemba Walker scored 34 points, Al Jefferson had 24 for the Hornets, who lost to Cleveland and Toronto before getting back on track against the Knicks, who lost for the fifth time in six games.

 

Washington remained at least mathematically alive in the Eastern Conference playoff hunt with a 121-103 win at home against the Nets. The Wizards are 3 1/2 games behind Detroit for the final postseason berth.

 

Detroit had a 108-104 win over the Magic in Orlando, with Reggie Jackson scoring 24 points, and the Celtics beat the Pelicans 104-97.

 

In Dallas, JJ Barea scored 27 points as the Mavericks edged the Rockets 88-86 to keep a slim cushion over Utah and Houston in the race for the last two Western Conference playoff spots.

 

The Mavericks' fifth straight victory — one shy of a season best — put Dallas (40-38) a game ahead of Utah and two up on Houston with four games remaining for all three teams.

 

Dirk Nowitzki was limited to seven points on eight shots, but had a crucial strip of James Harden on a drive in the final seconds with the Mavericks clinging to a one-point lead.

 

Harden scored 26 points for the Rockets, who are in danger of missing the postseason a year after reaching the West finals.

 

The Trail Blazers clinched a playoff berth with a 120-115 win over the Thunder, with Al-Farouq Aminu scoring 27 points and C.J. McCollum contributing 26.

 

Portland (43-37) won for the fifth time in six games and became the first team in NBA history to earn a playoff berth while returning a roster that had two or fewer players with 1,000 or more minutes from the previous season (Damian Lillard, Chris Kaman).

 

The Clippers beat the Lakers 91-81, spoiling the penultimate home game of Kobe Bryant's career.

 

The loss was the Lakers' 62nd of the season, setting a franchise low for the 16-time NBA champions. Bryant scored 17 points for the Lakers, who have a three-game road trip before the third-leading scorer in league history wraps up his 20-year career next week.