Danny Granger scored 10 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter, and the Indiana Pacers defeated the San Antonio Spurs 114-112 on Friday night in the preseason finale for both teams.
Granger had 14 rebounds and six assists in the game played at Indiana University’s Assembly Hall.
Brandon Rush scored 17 points and Roy Hibbert had 16 points and three blocks for the Pacers (3-4).
Indianapolis native George Hill led San Antonio with 21 points, while Tim Duncan added 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Spurs (4-3).
The Pacers led 114-110 before Hill made a layup with 18 seconds left. Indiana turned it over to give San Antonio a chance to tie or win, but Keith Bogans missed an off-balance jumper as time expired.
The teams were even through the first 6 minutes of the third quarter, but Hibbert got the Pacers going when he went baseline and reverse dunked on Duncan to give the Pacers a 72-71 lead. He followed with a mid-range jumper and a layup to give Indiana a 78-75 lead and force a San Antonio timeout.
Hibbert came right out of the timeout with a layup to keep the momentum going. Dahntay Jones hit a baseline jumper with 1 second left in the third quarter to give Indiana a 92-82 lead.
The Spurs got hot early in the fourth quarter and cut Indiana’s lead to 96-94 before Granger made a 3-pointer and a layup to push the lead out again and San Antonio never regained the lead.
NOTES: Indiana had only 10 active players because of injuries. Gs Travis Diener, Mike Dunleavy, T.J. Ford and Luther Head and F Tyler Hansbrough all sat out. … The Spurs had no one on the injury report. … The Pacers announced earlier Friday that Mel Daniels, the longtime director of player personnel, was no longer with the team. … Indiana University coach Tom Crean attended the game.
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