INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Myles Turner and Bennedict Mathurin each scored 26 points and Mathurin’s short, go-ahead basket with 29.1 seconds left helped the Indiana Pacers close out a rally from 21 points down to beat the Chicago Bulls 116-110 on Tuesday night.
Indiana snapped a season-worst seven-game losing streak to stay ahead of 10th-place Chicago in the Eastern Conference. The Pacers played again without injured point guard Tyrese Haliburton and this time without his replacement, Andrew Nembhard, who was sick.
T.J. McConnell had 20 points and 10 assists for the Pacers, who have won 11 games this season in which they’ve trailed by double digits.
DeMar DeRozan scored 33 points to lead the Bulls and Nikola Vucevic added 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Chicago’s three-game winning streak came to an end and Vucevic’s streak of 11 consecutive double-doubles also ended.
It was a physical and sometimes ugly game, one Chicago dominated early as it built a 20-5 lead in the first six minutes and extended the margin to 62-41 late in the first half.
But the Bulls, playing on the second night of a back-to-back, wore down in the second half as the Pacers became the aggressors.
Indiana cut the deficit to 87-80 after three quarters and continued charging through the fourth, finally taking their first lead of the game, 102-100, on McConnell’s reverse layup with 4:27 to go.
The teams traded leads or were tied six times afterward — until Mathurin’s 3-footer broke a 110-110 tie. Indiana forced turnovers on each of the Bulls’ next two possessions and made four straight free throws to close it out.
TIP-INS
Bulls: Zach LaVine had 14 points and Derrick Jones Jr. had 10. … DeRozan finished with five rebounds and three assists. … Chicago had 16 turnovers, compared with six for Indiana. … The Bulls had won the previous four games in this series.
Pacers: Buddy Hield had 19 points, five rebounds, four assists, four steals and four 3-pointers. … Turner had eight rebounds while McConnell had three steals. … Indiana was 10 of 37 on 3s. … Haliburton could return as early as Friday from the sprained left knee and sprained left elbow that contributed to the Pacers’ skid.
MR. 3,000
Following a four-game trip, the Pacers honored longtime radio play-by-play announcer Mark Boyle for calling his 3,000th game Saturday at Phoenix.
UP NEXT
Bulls: Make their second stop on a three-game trip Thursday at Charlotte.
Pacers: At Orlando on Wednesday night to complete a back-to-back.
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