Cleveland, OH – Gerald Green led a balanced attack with 20 points and six rebounds as the Indiana Pacers got back on track with a 111-90 triumph over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena.
After following a rare home setback to Los Angeles Lakers with a loss on the road to a woeful 76ers squad, Indiana avoided its third straight defeat by dominating the middle quarters by a 60-38 margin on Monday.
Tyler Hansbrough, starting for injured David West, tallied 18 points and 11 rebounds. Paul George scored 14 and Roy Hibbert manned the paint with 12 points, nine rebounds and five blocks in the victory.
Cleveland, losers of five of six and just 1-3 since Kyrie Irving went out with a shoulder injury, shot just 38 percent from the field in the drubbing.
C.J. Miles was 4-of-8 from beyond the arc en route to a game-high 21 points off the bench and Tristan Thompson followed with 20 points and 11 boards.
"We just didn't come out with enough fight. That's not acceptable, especially at home," Thompson said.
It didn't take the Pacers long to turn a closely contested first quarter into a blowout by halftime.
Aided by some sharp 3-point shooting from Green, the Pacers turned a four- point edge, 45-41, into a 15-point halftime lead by closing out the last 4 1/2 minutes of the quarter on a 15-4 run.
Green got the surge going with his second and third 3-pointers of the period and added an emphatic alley-oop slam shortly after to increase the margin to 15.
"(We) got a big lift...by Gerald Green, coming in there and getting a second opportunity after being out of the rotation for a while," Pacers head coach Frank Vogel said.
Indiana's 60-45 advantage at the break only expanded from there, as a three- point play from Hansbrough capped an 8-0 spurt to bring the margin to 23 points prior to the midway point in the third.
After shooting just 7-for-21 in the second, the Cavs struggled for six field goals on the same amount of attempts in the third, as their deficit mounted to 87-62 on a trey from Jeff Pendergraph in the closing minute of the quarter.
The Pacers led by as many as 28 points in the final frame.
Game Notes
West was out with a sprained lower back ... The Cavs have lost five straight and 11 of the last 12 to Indiana ... Cleveland fell to 5-13 on the season in games played without Irving ... The Pacers shot 8-for-22 from 3-point range ... Thompson was 9-for-16 from the field and Miles shot 8-for-16.
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