Danny Granger drops 5 treys to help the Indiana Pacers run riot over the Orlando Magic 97-74 in Game 3
On Wednesday night at the Amway Center, the Indiana Pacers ran riot over the Orlando Magic with a score line of 97-74, clinching Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead in the first round series.
After losing Game 1, the Pacers got back to being themselves, coming back to snatch home court advantage back from Orlando. Danny Granger led the Pacers charge with a game high of 26 points with 15 of them coming from beyond the arc, helping Indiana get back to back wins.
This inspiring performance came after a lack of offensive showing in finishing stages of game 1 which the Pacers lost. Since then; Granger has been on song with his offence.
"That (Game 1) loss really woke us up. It showed us what Orlando is capable of, and we knew we had to really play in this series to win. We have been executing, especially on the defensive end. Our offense comes and goes, but defensively we've been there the whole series." Granger said after the game.
Indiana, were extremely dominant while cleaning up the glass, out rebounding the Magic 46-33 in the game, Roy Hibbert being the best contributor in that aspect with 10 rebounds. Along with those boards, he also racked up 18 points in the contest.
Three other players for the Pacers side finished the game with double digit marks in scoring. George Hill had 15 points; Paul George posted 12 while Darren Collison came off the bench to rack up 10 points in the contest.
For Magic, Glen Davis was the leading scorer with 22 points; Jameer Nelson contributed 10 points while J.J. Redick came off the bench to score 13 points. It was an off night for veteran Jason Richardson who was pivotal in the Game 1 victory. He managed only 5 points.
Another player who was off on the night was Ryan Anderson but credit has to be given to the Pacers defence who held him scoreless for the first three quarters. Anderson finished the game with 7 points with all of them coming late in the fourth quarter.
Indiana got off and running in the game as they held a 21-10 lead with 4:41 to go in the first quarter, in that span Granger hit two three pointers to lead the Pacers charge. However the Magic were able to cut the lead down to single digits as the scores were 23-14, after the opening period.
In the second quarter, Magic tried to rally their way back into the game and were successful in their pursuit but were only able to cut it down 3 first at the 7:05 mark and then at the 6:09 mark. Hibbert put an end to that rally by tipping in a missed shot from David West.
But Davis was carrying the Magic scoring on his shoulder. He added 6 more points to their tally and was able to cut the lead down to 2 points at the 3:23 mark. At the half way stage, the lead was again extended, this time to 6 points with the score being 44-38.
Pacers started the third period, much the same way they started the first, opening up with a 6-0 run to push the advantage back to double figures. This put a damper to the Orlando spirit as they were never able to cut the lead any further then 9 points for the remaining portion.
This was the third time in three games of the series that Indiana held an upper hand in the third quarter, this time out scoring the Magic by 15 points in the frame to take a 21 point lead into the fourth.
In the fourth quarter, offensive dominance continued on for the Pacers, starting the period off on a three pointer, courtesy to Leandro Barbosa and wrapping things up with a pull up jumper from Lance Stephenson to close out the proceedings. This resulted in a 23 point thrashing for the Magic.
Game 4 is scheduled to take place at the same venue on Saturday night.
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