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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Jalen Rose is still hot, and so are the
Indiana Pacers.
Coming off consecutive games of 32 and a career-high 35 points,
Rose led six Pacers in double figures Saturday night, scoring 22 in
a 113-99 victory over the Charlotte Hornets.
|  | | Jalen Rose, whose 22 points led a balanced Pacer attack, shoots over Charlotte's David Wesley. |
"It's a team game," Rose said. "Anytime you have several guys
that come to play, that are able to put the ball in the basket and
are able to play both ends of the floor, it makes everyone else's
job that much easier. It makes you want to go out and contribute."
The Pacers led by as many as 23 points in the first half.
Derrick Coleman, who had 28 points and 10 rebounds for the Hornets,
led a rally that cut the lead to 11 in the third quarter. A basket
by Reggie Miller and a 3-pointer by Mark Jackson helped Indiana
pull away to a 19-point lead before a final run by Charlotte in the
closing minutes.
"I try to figure out what I'm going to have to do to have the
advantage against the guy that's guarding me," Rose said. "I knew
today it was going to be Anthony Mason, so I felt that basically I
could find shots. It was just a matter of which ones I was going to
take, and if they were going to go in or not."
Miller finished with 20 points, Travis Best came off the bench
for 18, Rik Smits added 16 points and 12 rebounds, Jackson finished
with 12 and Sam Perkins had 10. Elden Campbell had 21 points and
Eddie Jones 14 for the Hornets. Mason had 8 points.
"They got out on the break and are a good transition team,"
Mason said. "We know we have to get back, but we just didn't.
We're not playing well right now. ... This was typical Pacers
basketball -- they hit their shots."
A 3-pointer by Miller gave Indiana its first lead at 15-14, then
after David Wesley gave Charlotte its final lead, Miller had seven
points during an 18-2 run that put the Pacers in control. Indiana
took a 35-23 lead after one quarter and, with reserves playing most
of the second period, widened the lead to 64-41 late in the
quarter.
"We've been more aggressive, and things are going our way right
now," Indiana coach Larry Bird said. "We've been on a roll, we're
playing harder, and when we play hard good things happen."
Coleman was the only consistent scorer for the Hornets, hitting
6-of-9 shots in the second quarter. His basket and free throw cut
Indiana's lead to 64-44, starting a 10-2 run in the closing minutes
before halftime.
Two free throws by Campbell pulled Charlotte to 66-48 with four
seconds to go, then Coleman stole the inbounds pass, retreated
behind the 3-point line and scored at the buzzer to cut Indiana's
lead to 66-51 at the break.
"They go into halftime feeling like they have the opportunity
to win the game, as opposed to thinking we were going to blow them
away," Rose said. "We felt they were going to make a run.
Fortunately, they didn't make a huge run."
The Hornets are 9-27 this season when they do not reach 100
points.
"We just didn't have enough production to overcome them,"
Charlotte coach Paul Silas said. "There's nothing wrong with our
defense, but they way they shoot makes our defense look bad. When
you are not scoring well, it looks like everything isn't falling
into place, and when you do shoot well, everything falls into
place."
Charlotte shot 42 percent to the Pacers' 53 percent.
"We had the shots, they just weren't falling," Silas said.
Game notes
The game was Silas' 100th as Hornets coach (57-43). He
previously coached three years with the Clippers. ... Mason had 10
rebounds to pass Alonzo Mourning for second in Charlotte career
rebounding with 2,181. ... The Pacers are 33-5 when scoring at
least 100 points. ... The Pacers' Dale Davis missed his fourth
straight game with a pulled left hamstring. ... Indiana, which had
an NBA-season high 32 turnovers in a loss at Charlotte in November,
had 12 errors to six for the Hornets. ... A 3-pointer by Perkins
late in the second quarter put him over 15,000 points for his
15-year career. He now has 15,008... Coupled with Milwaukee's loss
to New Jersey, the Eastern Conference-leading Pacers moved within
one game of clinching a playoff spot..
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Charlotte Clubhouse
Indiana Clubhouse
RECAPS
New Jersey 92
Milwaukee 90
Indiana 113
Charlotte 99
Washington 101
Chicago 88
Miami 92
Cleveland 90
Boston 104
Dallas 99
San Antonio 102
Denver 82
Portland 97
Seattle 96
Sacramento 104
LA Clippers 83
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