LOS ANGELES: Tyrese Haliburton scored 31 points as the Indiana Pacers came from behind to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 114-105 and send the top seeds tumbling out of the NBA playoffs on Tuesday.
A flurry of six three-pointers from Haliburton helped Indiana wrap up a 4-1 series victory as the Cavaliers’ promising season fizzled out in disappointing fashion on their home court.
Haliburton’s scoring was backed by 21 points from Pascal Siakam while Aaron Nesmith contributed 13 points with 13 rebounds. Andrew Nembhard scored 18 points.
“We’re talking about eight more wins for an NBA championship,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said after guiding his team into the Eastern Conference finals for a second straight year.
“The league is wide open this year. There are a lot of great teams but it’s wide open. We’ve just gotta keep believing. We’ve got a great group of guys who have committed to one another.
“We have a formula that works for us when we are really steadfast about sticking to it.”
Trailing 3-1 heading into Tuesday’s game five, Cleveland looked ready to keep the series alive after surging into a 19-point lead midway through the second quarter at the Rocket Arena.
But Haliburton sparked into life to drain five-of-five from three-point range in a 15-point second quarter to flip the script and slash Cleveland’s advantage to just four points at 56-52 heading into halftime.
The Pacers’ scoring onslaught continued into the third quarter with the visitors outscoring Cleveland 33-20 to open up a commanding 85-76 lead as the fourth quarter got under way.
Cleveland threatened to rally in the final frame after 16 points from Donovan Mitchell, who was clearly still troubled by the sore left ankle that had threatened to rule him out of the contest.
Mitchell, who finished with 35 points, six rebounds and eight assists, closed the Indiana lead to one point at 98-97 with just over five minutes remaining after nailing a three-pointer.
But the Cavaliers’ failure to threaten from three-point range — they managed to convert just nine-of-35 attempts from beyond the arc — continued to be a problem and hopes of a comeback were snuffed out by the Pacers defense.
Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson lamented his team’s stalled playoff campaign which followed a dominant 64-win regular season.
“They were the better team, they deserved it and they played great,” Atkinson said of Indiana. “But the truth of the matter is we didn’t get to the level we wanted to get to.
“We’re not pleased with that. We’re not celebrating the season. But I do think we made strides. We took a jump — and now we’ve got to figure out this last piece, and how to get over this hump.
“We had some misfortune with injuries, but I still felt like we had enough. It’s disappointing.”
Fourth-seeds Indiana will now meet either the Boston Celtics or arch-rivals the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals, with the winner advancing to next month’s NBA Finals.
The Knicks lead the series with Boston 3-1 and can book a showdown with Indiana if they manage a victory over the Celtics on Wednesday.

NEW YORK: Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson were reinstated by baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred on Tuesday, making both eligible for the sport’s Hall of Fame after their careers were tarnished by sports gambling scandals.

Rose’s permanent ban was lifted eight months after his death and came a day before the Cincinnati Reds will honor baseball’s career hits leader with Pete Rose Night.

Manfred announced Tuesday that he was changing the league’s policy on permanent ineligibility, saying bans would expire at death. MLB said 17 individuals had their status changed by the decision, including all eight banned members of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox, former Philadelphia Phillies president Williams D. Cox and former New York Giants outfielder Benny Kauff.

Under the Hall of Fame’s current rules, the earliest Rose or Jackson could be inducted would be in 2028.

Rose agreed with then-Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti to a permanent ban on Aug. 23, 1989, following an investigation commissioned by Major League Baseball concluded Rose repeatedly bet on the Reds as a player and manager of the team from 1985-87, a violation of a long-standing MLB rule.

Rose first applied for reinstatement in September 1997, but Commissioner Bud Selig never ruled on the request. Manfred in 2015 rejected a petition for reinstatement, saying “Rose has not presented credible evidence of a reconfigured life.”

Rose died Sept. 30 at age 83, and a new petition was filed Jan. 8 by Jeffrey Lenkov, a lawyer who represented Rose. Lenkov and Rose’s daughter Fawn had met with Manfred on Dec. 17.

Rose’s supporters have included US President Donald Trump, who has said he intends to pardon Rose posthumously. Manfred discussed Rose with Trump when the pair met in April, but he hasn’t disclosed specifics of their conversation.

In a letter to Lenkov, Manfred wrote, “In my view, a determination must be made regarding how the phrase ‘permanently ineligible’ should be interpreted in light of the purposes and policies behind Rule 21, which are to: (1) protect the game from individuals who pose a risk to the integrity of the sport by prohibiting the participation of such individuals; and (2) create a deterrent effect that reduces the likelihood of future violations by others.

“In my view, once an individual has passed away, the purposes of Rule 21 have been served.”

Marcus Giamatti, son of the former commissioner who signed the agreement banning Rose, said in a statement he was “incredibly disappointed” in Manfred’s decision.

“I am also disappointed that my family was not consulted prior to this decision,” he said. “The Commissioner’s decision makes this a very dark day for baseball, the country and the fans.

“My father’s mission by banning Rose was to uphold the integrity of the game. Therefore, reinstating Rose in this manner puts that integrity, Rule 21 and everything that my father fought to uphold in peril.”

A 17-time All-Star during a playing career from 1963-86, Rose holds record for hits (4,256), games (3,562), at-bats (14,053), plate appearances (15,890) and singles (3,215). He was the 1963 NL Rookie of the Year, 1973 MVP and 1975 World Series MVP. A three-time NL batting champion, he broke the prior hits record of 4,191 set by Ty Cobb from 1905-28.

Jackson was a .356 career hitter who was among the eight Black Sox banned for throwing the 1919 World Series. He died in 1951, but he remains one of baseball’s most recognizable names in part for his depiction by Ray Liotta in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams.

What else needs to happen for Rose or Jackson to reach the Hall of Fame?

Under a rule adopted by the Hall’s board of directors in 1991, anyone on the permanently ineligible list can’t be considered for election to the Hall. Jackson was twice considered on ballots by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, but received just 0.9 percent in 1936 and 1 percent of a nominating vote in 1940.

Rose’s reinstatement occurred too late for him to be considered for the BBWAA ballot. If not on the permanently banned list, Rose would have been eligible on the ballots each from 1992 through 2006. He was written in on 41 votes in 1992 and on 243 of 7,232 ballots (3.4 percent) over the 15 years, votes that were not counted.

Without the ban, both players are eligible for the Hall’s Classic Baseball Era, which next meets to consider players in December 2027 and considers those whose greatest contributions to the sport were before 1980.

A 10-person historical overview committee selects the eight ballot candidates with the approval of the Hall’s board and the ballot is considered by 16 members at the winter meetings, with a 75 percent or higher vote needed. The committee members include Hall of Fame members, team executives and media/historians.

Hall of Fame Chairman of the Board Jane Forbes Clark confirmed in a statement that players affected by Manfred’s ruling Tuesday would be considered.

“The National Baseball Hall of Fame has always maintained that anyone removed from Baseball’s permanently ineligible list will become eligible for Hall of Fame consideration,” she said. “Major League Baseball’s decision to remove deceased individuals from the permanently ineligible list will allow for the Hall of Fame candidacy of such individuals to now be considered.”

Among the players in the 2028 class eligible for the BBWAA ballot are Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina.

Did Trump help get Rose reinstated?

Trump has said he would pardon Rose, but it’s not clear what a presidential pardon for Rose would entail.

Rose entered guilty pleas on April 20, 1990, to two counts of filing false tax returns, admitting he failed to report $354,968 during a four-year period. Rose was sentenced on July 19, 1990, by US District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel in Cincinnati to five months in prison. He also was fined $50,000 and ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service as a gym teacher’s assistant with inner-city youths in Cincinnati as part of a one-year probation period. The first three months of the probation were to be spent at the halfway house. Rose repaid the Internal Revenue Service $366,042.