During the Wednesday night NBA slate, Buddy Hield scored 27 points as the Indiana Pacers rallied from a 24-point deficit after the first quarter to defeat the Chicago Bulls 117-113.
With 22 games left, Hield hit his 230th 3 of the season, breaking Reggie Miller’s franchise record.
“It’s the new NBA. You shoot 3s and I shoot 3s at a high level,” said Hield, the NBA leader. “Passing a legend like Reggie in Indiana is a testament to hard work and my teammates finding me in the right spots.”
With 7.1 seconds remaining, Tyrese Haliburton hit a 9-footer for a 113-112 Pacers lead, Myles Turner added two free throws, and Hield closed it with a pair of foul shots.
“The pattern in a lot of NBA games is you get hit in the face and then you fight back,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “Fighting back is a tough way to consistently win in this league.”
NBA SCORES & NEWS: Buddy Hield, Indiana Pacers & Chicago Bulls Updates
The Pacers have put themselves into a first quarter deficit of at least double figures in the 24 games this season. They did so again in this one, trailing 39-15 through the end of the opening period.
“We don’t want to be coming back all the time,” Hield said. “It’s annoying.”
Before this game, the Pacers had lost 16 of 18 games. They used a balanced scoring effort to break that recent trend entering the NBA All-Star break. Nesmith scored 21 points, while Turner chipped in 17, Haliburton had 16, and Bennedict Mathurin dropped in 14.
“We were dangerously close in the first quarter to being booed by the greatest fans in the NBA,” Carlisle said. “We responded.”
NBA SCORES & NEWS: Buddy Hield, Indiana Pacers & Chicago Bulls Updates
Zach LaVine led the Bulls with 35 points, including 12 in the first quarter. The Pacers rallied back by outscoring Chicago in the remaining quarters by a 92-74 margin, including a 40-point third-quarter scoring output.
“This has happened a lot to us,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “We compete pretty hard, but what happens is the game gets ratcheted up — physically, mentally, emotionally. You’ve got to be able to come down on both ends of the floor and be incredibly detailed and focused. You have to execute.”
NBA SCORES & NEWS: Buddy Hield, Indiana Pacers & Chicago Bulls Updates
As the Bulls fell to their fifth straight loss, Coby White scored 25 points and Nikola Vucevic added 19, but finishing with seven rebounds ended his NBA-best streak of double-doubles after nine games.
“The game is not won in the first five minutes,” Donovan said. “You’ve got to play your way through.”
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