Tyrese Haliburton produced his sixth consecutive double-double and the Indiana Pacers turned a fourth-quarter rally into a 115-102 victory over the Houston Rockets on Tuesday in Indianapolis.
Haliburton paired 28 points with 15 assists to help send the Rockets to their eighth consecutive road loss. Houston erased a 17-point, third-quarter deficit by bridging the final two periods with a 15-0 run, but after the Rockets seized a 96-95 lead, the Pacers responded with a 13-0 surge capped by a Haliburton 3-pointer. Haliburton finished 5 for 8 from behind the arc.
Pascal Siakam scored 18 points and Aaron Nesmith tallied 16 for Indiana, which shot 51.5 percent and hit 17 3s. Myles Turner finished with 16 points, hit four 3-pointers and blocked four shots.
Alperen Sengun tallied a team-high 25 points for Houston while grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out seven assists. Amen Thompson (13 points, 12 rebounds) and Tari Eason (16 points, 14 rebounds) added double-doubles for the Rockets, who posted a 58-35 rebounding margin.
The Rockets trailed 90-73 in the third quarter before Houston closed that period with a 10-0 run and extended the push with Sengun’s layup and Eason’s 3-pointer to start the fourth. Ben Sheppard stalled that rally with a 3-pointer for the Pacers, but Thompson supplied the Rockets their first lead since early in the second quarter with his steal and reverse layup with 8:45 to play.
But Nesmith answered with a three-point play for the Pacers and followed a Turner 3-pointer with a layup to push the lead to 103-96. The Rockets missed 13 consecutive shots in the fourth quarter, enabling the Pacers to reclaim control down the stretch.
With Turner in early foul trouble, Thomas Bryant tallied 10 first-quarter points on 4-for-4 shooting. Haliburton and Obi Toppin (13 points off the bench) drilled consecutive 3s as the Pacers erased an early six-point deficit.
The Pacers turned a 10-0 run in the second quarter into a 53-42 lead and, when the Rockets closed within 58-56, Haliburton exploded.
Haliburton had a hand in the Pacers’ final nine points of the period, assisting on Siakam’s dunk before hitting a layup, a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws. Indiana led 67-57 at the intermission.
–Field Level Media
