NEW YORK: Pascal Siakam scored a playoff career-high 39 points, and the Indiana Pacers beat the New York Knicks 114-109 on Friday night for a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.

Myles Turner added 16 points and Tyrese Haliburton had 14 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds for the Pacers, who head home halfway to their second trip to the NBA Finals. They lost to the Lakers in 2000 in their only shot at the title.

Game 3 is Sunday in Indiana, though the Pacers might prefer to keep it right where it is. They have won six straight road games since falling at Milwaukee in Game 3 of the first round.

Siakam finished 15 for 23 from the field on a night nobody else on the high-scoring Pacers had more than five baskets.

“Special game,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “In the first half he was the guy that got us going and got us through some difficult stretches.”

Jalen Brunson had 36 points and 11 assists for the Knicks, who need a quick turnaround or their first appearance in the conference finals in 25 years will be a brief one. They defended much better after their crushing collapse in a 138-135 overtime loss in Game 1, but couldn’t find enough scoring to come back after a bad start to the fourth quarter.

Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns each had 20 points and seven rebounds for the Knicks, but Towns played just 28 minutes as coach Tom Thibodeau went longer with backup Mitchell Robinson, a much better defender who grabbed nine rebounds.

No team has lost the first two games at home and come back to win a series in the conference finals.

“Going into the fourth quarter it’s a tie ballgame. We’ve just got to make better plays, more winning plays,” Thibodeau said.

It was tied at 81 after three, before the Pacers opened the fourth with a 13-4 run to move ahead 94-85 on Siakam’s 3-pointer with 9:17 remaining. They would quickly push the margin back to around there every time the Knicks got any momentum, and it was 110-100 after another basket by Siakam with 2:45 to play.

The Knicks scored nine straight to make it 110-109 on Josh Hart’s basket with 14 seconds to go. Aaron Nesmith made two free throws for the Pacers, Brunson was well off on a 3-point attempt and Turner finished it out with two free throws.

The 50th playoff meeting between the rivals — the Pacers lead 28-22, all since 1993 — more closely resembled their defensive battles of the 1990s than the shootout of two nights earlier. The Knicks led that one by 14 with 2:45 to play before the Pacers caught them on Haliburton’s jumper as time expired and won it in OT.

This time, Indiana raced to a 19-9 lead, but the Knicks quickly caught them when Robinson and Deuce McBride entered and the game remained within a single-digit margin nearly the entire rest of the night.

ROME: The two players who Antonio Conte wanted more than any others secured Napoli its second Serie A title in three years on Friday.
Scott McTominay scored with an acrobatic bicycle kick before halftime and Romelu Lukaku doubled the lead with a solo goal after the break in the decisive 2-0 home win over Cagliari.
Conte became the first coach to win the Italian championship with three different teams.
“Everyone contributed to this — but the coach most of all,” Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo said. “Napoli needed him to get back on top. He’s phenomenal.”
Comparing it to his three Serie A titles won at Juventus and one at Inter Milan — not to mention a Premier League title at Chelsea — Conte said it was “the most unexpected, the most difficult, and the most stimulating in terms of the challenge.”
Conte also noted how he had to try and convince players to stay when he arrived last June.
Napoli needed only to do the same or better than defending champion Inter in the final round of matches, so Inter’s 2-0 win at 10-man Como wasn’t enough for the Nerazzurri.
Napoli finished Serie A one point ahead of Inter.
The southern squad’s fourth Serie A title overall capped an impressive turnaround after the Partenopei finished 10th during a dismal title defense last season.
“The one two years ago was one we were  for months, whereas this week we had so much anxiety, we couldn’t wait to get on the field and win this in front of our fans,” said winger Matteo Politano, who provided the cross for McTominay’s goal.
Diego Maradona led Napoli to its first two titles in 1987 and 1990. The 2023 team led by Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia clinched with five rounds to spare.
Inter was heading toward the title until McTominay went airborne to redirect a pass from Politano in the 42nd minute for his 12th goal this season after transferring from Manchester United.
“For me to come and experience this, it’s a dream,” McTominay said.
Lukaku, who was signed from Chelsea in August, controlled a long vertical pass and dribbled by two defenders before scoring in the 51st. It was his 14th goal along with his league-leading 10 assists.
Conte watched the match from the tribune after getting sent off last weekend. But he went down to the pitch at the final whistle and embraced Lukaku, with whom he also won Serie A at Inter in 2021.
McTominay dropped to the pitch in tears when the match finished. Minutes later he was honored as Serie A player of the season.
Napoli players held up signs that read “Again” featuring a “4” for the team’s fourth title.
Napoli fans began cheering and singing hours before kickoff at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and erupted in celebration at the final whistle — including at jumbo screens that were set up in several of the city’s central piazzas.
Cagliari was already sure of avoiding relegation but goalkeeper Alen Sherri was inspired at the start, denying Napoli on multiple occasions early on.
While Napoli won by 16 points two years ago under Luciano Spalletti, this season was a duel with Inter virtually all season. It was also unexpected after Napoli went through three coaches last season – Rudi Garcia, Walter Mazzarri and Francesco Calzona.
But Conte constructed the best defense in Serie A, and brought in Lukaku and McTominay to play alongside holdovers from the 2023 team like captain Di Lorenzo, goalkeeper Alex Meret and midfielder Stanislav Lobotka.
Di Lorenzo matched Maradona by captaining Napoli to two titles.
It also helped that Napoli did not play in Europe this season — keeping the team fresher for Serie A.
Inter rested its starters
Defender Stefan de Vrij scored 20 minutes in for Inter, redirecting a corner kick with a bouncing header.
Como was reduced to 10 men when goalkeeper Pepe Reina was sent off at the end of the first half for a foul on Mehdi Taremi. It was Reina’s final game before retiring.
Joaquín Correa added another for Inter after the break in almost the same moment that Lukaku scored for Napoli.
Inter, which is also preparing for the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain in eight days, rested most of its usual starters, including top strikers Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram.