The Indiana Pacers and Atlanta Hawks played Game 3 of their eastern conference playoff series on Thursday and the NBA playoff standings has the Hawks up 2-1 in the series after the matchup and it ended 98-85 at Philips Arena and that came after Atlanta took the first game and Indy bounced back with a blowout in the second matchup and now Game 4 will be coming on Saturday and that will be a 2 pm ET tip off on TNT.
Lance Stephenson had 21 points and George added 13 rebounds in the game, while David West also had a good matchup, but the Pacers couldn't get it done again. The Hawks outscored the Pacers in the fourth quarter and the Hawks got 22 points from Jeff Teague and Paul Millsap had 11 rebounds, while Teague added 10 assists and he had another great game and has been the MVP so far of the series. Stephenson added three steals in the game and now the eighth seed has the chance to beat the number one seed. Game 4 will be in Atlanta on Saturday and at one point when the game was close, Teague put up a three and the officials missed him stepping out of bounds and now the Hawks have the advantage in the series.
The Pacers had the chance to pull close at the end of the game, but they turned over the ball multiple times and the team also broke down on defense, allowing Kyle Korver to push the lead with an open three after leaving him open in the corner when they got aggressive with Jeff Teague. The team has a 14 point lead with a minute left to go an Indiana couldn't get back into things. The Hawks had a chance to win the first game at home by virtue of just being at home, but the convincing way they played must have Pacers fans freaking out, because Indy is not looking like the team they were in the first half of the season.
The second game saw Indy bounce back in a big way after the stunning loss in Game 1 and that saw a big game from Paul George, who scored 27 points with 10 rebounds and six assists. The Pacers were 46-13 at one point and the team went 10-13 the rest of the way and now they are in danger of going down 3-1 in the series. The Hawks played well at the end and they won seven of 10 games at the end of the season, including a win against the Pacers in Indiana and now the Hawks have the chance to send the number one seed home early.