• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Pacers cruise past Hornets

Apr 4, 2015 - 5:38 AM Indianapolis, IN (SportsNetwork.com) - Rodney Stuckey had 15 points and the Indiana Pacers routed the Charlotte Hornets 93-74 on Friday night.

Indiana is 1 1/2 games behind Miami for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Heat are idle.

C.J. Watson netted 13 points, C.J. Miles added 12 and George Hill dished out 10 assists for the Pacers, who had dropped nine of their last 11 games coming in.

"The guys were just hungry for a win, came in with a lot of desperation and got the win," Pacers coach Frank Vogel said.

Gerald Henderson supplied 12 points and seven rebounds, while Marvin Williams provided 10 points and eight boards for Charlotte, which has lost five of its last seven contests.

"It's not really the effort that you can give in the position that we are in," said Henderson. "Things got tough for us and we couldn't get ourselves out of it."

The Hornets fell two games behind Miami for the eighth seed.

Charlotte led 25-22 following a quarter of play, but tallied just 22 points over the next two frames while being outscored by 26 points.

Indiana seized control of the contest with an 11-0 run during the middle stages of the second. Stuckey netted five points during the surge, which was capped on a pair of Miles free throws for a 43-33 advantage at the 4:03 mark.

Lavoy Allen's jumper in the waning moments of the first half staked Indiana to a 49-38 margin at the break.

The hosts closed the third on a 15-3 swing to extend the cushion to 70-47 heading into the fourth, where they cruised to the easy victory, upping the spread to as many as 28.

Game Notes

Vogel notched his 200th career win ... Indiana won the season series with Charlotte 3-1 ... The Pacers were 8-of-16 from beyond the arc ... The Hornets shot just 35 percent (28-of-80) from the floor and were just 4-of-18 from long distance.