The Sports Inquirer

With a season on the brink of implosion and in front of a raucous road crowd, the Indiana Pacers defeated the Atlanta Hawks, 91-88, on Saturday afternoon at Philips Arena, to tie the best-of-seven first-round series at two games each.

Paul George notched his fourth-consecutive double-double of the series, scoring a team-high 24 points along with 10 rebounds, the only player on either team to grab double-digit boards. David West (18) and George Hill (15) also had double-digit points for Indiana.

Paul Millsap had another strong contest for the Hawks, scoring a game-high and career playoff-high 29 points while grabbing seven rebounds. Kyle Korver had 15 points and a playoff career-high and team-high nine rebounds while Jeff Teague’s seven assists were also a team-high while scoring 14 points.

Atlanta held an 85-81 lead with 3:58 left in the contest before the Pacers began their comeback. Luis Scola hit a mid-range jumper to cut the lead down to two before George and West hit consecutive three-pointers on the Pacers’ subsequent possessions to give the road team the lead, 89-85 with 1:33 left in the ball game.

Korver was fouled on a three-pointer attempt on the Hawks’ next possession and converted three free throw attempts, bringing them within one point of tying. Hill scored the final points of the game with less than a minute left on a layup.

The Hawks had the ball, down three points and seven seconds on the clock. After the inbound pass, the Pacers smothered Korver and forced Pero Antic to take an off-balance three-pointer at the buzzer which missed.

The teams will return to action at Indiana on Monday.

“It was a solid win for our guys, its one of those games where you have to do whatever it takes to win,” Pacers’ head coach Frank Vogel said.

“Our group competed tonight and put themselves in a position to win,” Atlanta head coach Mike Budenholzer said postgame. “Our execution wasn’t where it needed to be and we’ll all work on that and look to improve as we execute down the stretch.”

Indiana had a strong start to the contest, starting with an 8-0 run through the first several minutes of the first quarter. However, the Hawks responded with an 11-2 run of their own, culminating with a corner three-pointer by Kyle Korver with 6:51 left in the quarter. Lance Stephenson picked up two early fouls during this time frame and made matters even worse for Indiana by picking up a technical foul while on the bench. The Pacers responded with a 7- run to end the first quarter and take a 29-22 lead into the break. Millsap had a team-high 12 points in the quarter for the Hawks while Evan Turner’s seven points off the bench paced Indiana.

Atlanta managed to tie the game at 35 by starting the second quarter on a 13-6 run with seven of the points coming from Shelvin Mack off the bench. The Hawks outscored the Pacers 26-13 in the second quarter overall. Millsap had a game-high 18 points in the first half while Teague had eight points. Turner had a team-high 11 points off the bench for the Pacers.

Indiana took a 56-54 lead with 5:21 left in the third quarter on consecutive three-pointers by George and George Hill. The Pacers carried the strong play throughout the quarter and held a 66-65 lead heading into the final 12 minutes of the contest.

Notes:

-Atlanta made all 17 free-throw attempts and had the first perfect free-throw shooting performance in franchise playoff history.

-The Hawks made 11 three-pointers, extending their franchise postseason record of games with at least 10 triples to four contests.