Surging Sixers hold off Pacers

Willie Green scored 18 points while Andre Miller contributed 16 points, eight assists and five steals for the Sixers, who extended their winning streak to seven games and moved to within four games of Orlando for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Kyle Korver added 14 points off the bench for Philadelphia and Samuel Dalembert had 12 points and eight rebounds.

The Pacers, meanwhile, suffered their season-worst eighth consecutive loss.

Troy Murphy and Danny Granger each scored 18 points for Indiana and Mike Dunleavy and Ike Diogu each had 17.

Indiana was without the services of all-star forward Jermaine O’ Neal, who is out for at least a week with a sore left knee. On top of that, prior to the game Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle announced the suspension of guard Jamaal Tinsley for conduct detrimental to the team.

With the score tied at 84-84 with four minutes left in the game, Iguodala hit two from the line to put Philadelphia in front. Then, after an Orien Greene miss for Indiana, Iguodala outran the entire Pacers team and Miller found him for a breakaway dunk.

Miller then hit two free throws of his own to push the Sixers’ lead to 90-84 with just over two minutes to play. Granger nailed back-to-back threes to bring Indiana within 98-96 with 1.5 seconds remaining, but Korver calmly made both of his free throw attempts with nine-tenths of a second left on the clock to ice the game.

A 7-0 run late in the first quarter gave the Sixers a 25-16 advantage and Philadelphia carried a 30-24 lead into the second quarter, where the Pacers outscored Philly 28-19 to take a 52-49 lead into the locker room.

Indiana opened up a 60-51 advantage early in the third on back-to-back jumpers by Murphy, but the Sixers answered back with a 13-5 spurt and led 74-71 heading into the final quarter.

Game Notes

Korver has hit a season-high 38 straight free throws... Indiana had won the previous two meetings with Philadelphia this season.