Chris Bosh awoke from a shooting slump and the Miami Heat moved within a victory of putting the Indiana Pacers into hibernation again.
LeBron James poured 32 points, Bosh added 25, and the Heat routed the visiting Pacers, 102-90 on Monday night for a commanding 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.
“We played the game we wanted to play from beginning to end,” Bosh said. “We dictated the tempo and we played our game from beginning to end.”
The two-time defending NBA Champions Heat can punch a ticket to their fourth consecutive Finals trip and eliminate the Pacers for third straight season on Wednesday night in game 5 at Indiana.
Dwyane Wade added 15 points for second-seeded Miami, which rolled to its third straight win after dropping the opener.
“We feel we’ve been playing good basketball the last three games and we want to continue that,” Wade said.
Bosh struggled through the first three games scoring just 27 points on a frosty 36 per cent field goal shooting. But the versatile All-Star big man found his stroke hitting 7-of-12 shots, including three from behind the arc.
Bosh netted 10 of his 17 first-half points in the opening quarter that helped spark the Heat to a 49-44 lead at the break.
The Heat broke open the game with a 31-20 third quarter led by James, who dropped in 14 points, including both his triples to open up a 80-64 cushion.
Miami pushed the lead to 23 on a layup by Udonis Haslem with 7:41 left to play. However, the Pacers kept fighting and pulled to within 99-90 on a Lance Stephenson layup with 1:31 left.
But James converted a three-point play with 1:22 and the Heat wrapped up its 10th consecutive home playoff win to the delight of the wildly-cheering sold-out crowd at American Airlines Arena.
Paul George tossed in 23 points David West had 20 with 12 rebounds for the Pacers, who had an opportunity to level the series going back home but played from behind all game.
