With their season on the line, the Indiana Pacers turned to Paul George … and he delivered. George scored 21 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter as Indiana defeated the Miami Heat 93-90 in game five of the Eastern Conference Finals.
He shot 15-of-28 from the floor and came just two points shy of his playoff career high. He also recorded six rebounds and six steals.
“I really just came out firing,” George said in his postgame press conference on nba.com. “My teammates found me, and I got hot.”
George teamed up with power forward David West to score Indiana’s final 36 points. West finished with 19 points and nine rebounds.
Center Roy Hibbert returned to form, posting his second double-double of the series with 10 points and 13 rebounds.
In the contest, both teams overcame double-digit deficits. The Heat held a 45-35 advantage early in the third quarter before the Pacers went on a tear and opened up an 11-point lead (77-66) early in the fourth. Miami surged back to tie the game at 81 but never retook the lead.
For the game, the Heat connected on 15 of their 31 3-point attempts.
“We overcame one heck of a shooting performance by the Heat,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said in his postgame press conference on nba.com.
Miami forward Rashard Lewis was hot, making six-of-nine from beyond the arc for 18 points. Shooting guard Dwyane Wade also posted 18 points and accrued eight rebounds and seven assists.
Small forward LeBron James, who battled foul trouble, recorded just seven points in 24 minutes. This marks the 10th time in his career that he scored less than 10 points and the first time since the 2011 NBA Finals, according to ESPN.
Miami, which hold a 3-2 advantage in the series, will look to become the first team since the Boston Celtics in the 80’s to capture four straight conference titles on Friday night in game six.