Turner, Siakam power Pacers to 140-112 victory over Jazz

INDIANPOLIS (AP) — Myles Turner had 26 points, seven rebounds and six blocked shots, and the Indiana Pacers beat the Utah Jazz 140-112 on Friday night for their third straight victory.

Pascal Siakam scored 22 points and Bennedict Mathurin had 20, going 12 for 16 from the free throw line.

Collin Sexton had 27 points and Johnny Juzang had 17 for Utah.

Turner had four blocks in the decisive third quarter. Siakam had a season-best four blocks and Indiana registered a season-best 17 — two short of the franchise record set in 1979 at Washington.

Takeaways

Jazz: The league's worst team provided a glimmer of hope by beating the Pacers at their own game — for a half. They were quicker, made 10 3s and even grabbed 11 offensive rebounds in the first two quarters. But the short-handed roster eventually ran out of gas.

Pacers: Indiana overcame a poor first half by digging down and finding a way to win. The Pacers will need to be cleaner and more efficient in the playoffs, but they're inching closer to getting home-court advantage in the first round for the first time since 2014.

Key moment

Indiana scored nine straight to turn an 87-83 deficit into a 92-87 lead late in the third quarter, six coming after Keyonte George's technical foul at the 3:07 mark. The Pacers never trailed again.

Key stat

The Pacers offset a poor free-throw shooting night (26 of 38) by making 67.4% from the field and scoring 83 points in the second half.

Up next

Utah closes out the Eastern Conference portion of its schedule Sunday in Atlanta. Indiana visits Denver on Sunday, its second-to-last road game of the regular season.

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