(Basketball news) The Indiana Pacers stunned the Los Angeles Lakers as they beat them 116-115 with a buzzer beat shot from Rookie Andrew Nembhard. For the Pacers, Tyrese Haliburton scored 24 points as he had 14 assists while rookie Bennedict Mathurin added 23 points, Buddy Hield had 15 points. The Indiana Pacers rallied from a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter for a stunning comeback. For the Lakers, Anthony Davis had 25 points and 13 rebounds while James had 21 points and seven rebounds, while Russell Westbrook scored 17 of his 24 points in the second half. With this result, the Pacers improved their record to 12-8 and moved to 4th in the Eastern Conference standings.
”I think you stay calm (because) you work in the gym for those types of moments. You’ve just got to bring your confidence, and when it comes, you’ve just got to step up for the team in that way. I think it was a great team win. We had a lot of contributions from a lot of guys, and it was just my turn to step up in that moment.
Nembhard
”To be able to hang in, keep your sights on the rim and let it go over a 6-9, 6-10 player is special. When you have success like tonight, when you overcome some odds to find a way, it’s just a joyous moment for everybody to appreciate.”
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle
”I wish we would have been a lot more aggressive, continued playing with pace, and also being organized and continuing to move the ball, and that falls on me.”
Lakers coach Darvin Ham
The Boston Celtics are in top form this season as they thrashed the Charlotte Hornets 140-105. For the Celtics, Marcus Smart had a career-high 15 assists and added 22 points as Jayson Tatum scored 35 points while Malcolm Brogdon had 21 points, Derrick White scored 15 points and Blake Griffin scored a season-high nine points for Boston. For the Hornets, Jalen McDaniels scored 24 points and Kelly Oubre Jr. had 22 points. With this result the Celtics have now their 13th match in 14 games as they improved their record to 17-4 and are by far the best team in the league, on the other hand, Hornets lost for the 12th time in 15 games.
”He’s always brought it defensively, I have full trust in him diagnosing where the matchup is, where the advantage is, and what we can do to exploit that. And he’s doing a great job anticipating that once he gets the ball.”
Celtics interim coach Joe Mazzulla
”This is a treat. For any NBA player, it’s a treat playing on an NBA team like this. For me and Blake, we’ve been in situations where a team is not winning, where the team is really struggling and there’s chaos. So definitely I try to encourage the guys to be appreciative of what they have here.”
,Brogdon
The other results were:
76ers 104 – 101 Hawks
Wizards 142 – 127 Timberwolves
Nets 109 – 102 Magic
Raptors 100 – 88 Cavs
Pelicans 105 – 101 Thunder
Jazz 107 – 114 Bulls
Nuggets 129 – 113 Rockets
Kings 117 – 122 Suns
Also read: NBA: Celtics continued their winning streak while Warriors win
