Warriors Lose To Pacers Off Last-Second Steal
OAKLAND (CBS / AP) -- George Hill scored on a three-point play with 1.8 seconds remaining and the Indiana Pacers held off a late charge by Golden State to beat the Warriors 94-91 on Friday night.
Hill stole the ball from Monta Ellis, who had beaten the Pacers exactly one year and one day ago with a last-second shot, then raced the length of the floor for a layup. Hill was fouled by Stephen Curry and made the free throw for the final margin.
Golden State called a quick timeout and got the ball to Curry coming out of the break, but his 29-footer at the buzzer bounced off the back of the rim.
Danny Granger had 26 points, and Roy Hibbert added 10 points and a career-high 16 rebounds for Indiana, which has won four of five. The Pacers (10-4) are off to their best start since opening the 2003-04 season 13-1.
Ellis finished with 25 points and six assists, while Curry had 12 points in his first game in more than two weeks for Golden State.
Indiana had dropped four straight games on the road at Oracle Arena before Hill's late heroics. Hill, who also blocked a 3-point attempt by Ellis at the end of the first quarter, finished with 14 points.
David West added 18 points and seven rebounds for the Pacers.
It was a nice bounceback win for Indiana, which blew a 14-point lead and was held to eight points in a 92-88 loss to Sacramento on Wednesday.
This one almost slipped through the Pacers' hands, too.
Ellis scored six consecutive points to tie it at 91 after the Warriors had trailed by four earlier in the quarter. Darren Collison then missed a long 3-point attempt for Indiana with 25.8 seconds left, giving Golden State a chance to pull out the win.
Ellis sat out near midcourt letting the clock wind down then went to drive past Hill before the Pacers' backup guard knocked the ball out of his hands and sped away for the winning score.
Dorrel Wright added 18 points and five rebounds for the Warriors (5-10), who have dropped nine of 12.
Granger went into the night averaging 30.5 points over his previous eight games against Golden State and picked up where he left off in the first of two matchups with the Warriors this season.
Indiana's leading scorer, Granger made five of his first seven shots and had 12 points and two assists in the first quarter when the Pacers repeatedly set up shop inside the paint.
Hill added five points and also blocked Ellis' long range shot at the buzzer to keep Indiana's lead at 27-23.
Curry, who played with a heavily taped ankle, showed obvious rust after not playing for 16 days and missed his first four shots before knocking down a pair of long jumpers as part of a 13-4 surge -- while four Golden State starters were on the bench.
Wright followed by scoring the Warriors' final seven points in the period, including a tying 3-pointer with 53 seconds left.
The two teams traded leads for much of the third quarter until Golden State's big came up big again and outscored Indiana 8-2 over the final 1:27 to give the Warriors a 69-67 lead heading into the fourth.
The Pacers tried to pull away and led by four with 2 minutes remaining but let it slip away before Hill's big play.
Notes: The crowd of 17,621 was the lowest at Oracle Arena this season. ... Warriors C Andres Biedrins had one block to tie George Johnson for seventh-most (507) in franchise history.
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