The Indiana Pacers overcame the first-quarter ejection of guard Bennedict Mathurin to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 129-109 and go 3-1 up in their NBA Eastern Conference semi-final series.
A win for the Pacers over the top seeds in game five in Cleveland on Wednesday (00:00 BST) will see them reach a second straight conference final.
Mathurin left the game with four minutes and 32 seconds left in the opening period after a punch to the chest of De’Andre Hunter.
At that stage, the Pacers led 22-10 and they were 38-23 at the end of the quarter before outscoring their rivals 42-16 in the second to hold a 80-39 advantage
The total was a Pacers franchise play-off record for points in a half.
Pascal Siakam scored 21 points for the Pacers while Myles Turner and Obi Toppin each added 20 as they bounced back from a heavy 126-104 loss in game three.
“This is a group that plays better through adversity,” said Turner. “We got punched in the mouth last game, we had a hell of a response. The starters set the tone and the bench picked it up the rest of the game.”
The Cavaliers were without six-time All Star Donovan Mitchell in the second half after he suffered an ankle injury – the 28-year-old will have an MRI scan on Monday to see if he can play on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, Oklahoma City Thunder edged the Denver Nuggets 92-87 to level their Western Conference series at 2-2.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 25 points with six rebounds and six assists to lead Oklahoma City, while NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic scored 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for Denver.
The game tipped off approximately 38 hours after Denver’s overtime win in game three and both sides showed signs of fatigue with Nuggets coach David Adelman describing Sunday’s encounter as a “really disgusting basketball game”.
He added: “Give their team credit, those guys made plays, made enough plays to push them over the edge and win the game.”
The Nuggets overcame a poor start to lead 53-52 midway through the third quarter and led by eight points early in the fourth.
But the visitors regained the lead thanks to a Cason Wallace three-pointer with 8:35 to play and held on until the end.
The Thunder host game five on Wednesday (02:30 BST).
