Heat even series

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The coveted NBA championship, the one LeBron James needs to validate everything, was vanishing.

With 18,000 towel-waving fans roaring like the engines at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indiana Pacers had knocked the Miami Heat to the floor and to the edge of elimination.

James didn’t panic. He simply picked up his teammates and carried them to a win.

And this time, Dwyane Wade helped.

James scored 40 points with 19 rebounds and nine assists, and Wade added 30 points — 22 in the second half — as Miami rallied to even their semifinal series against Indiana with a 101-93 win on Sunday over the Pacers, who had the defending Eastern Conference champions down couldn’t keep them there.

“I felt like I had to do whatever it took to win,” said James, who played all but four minutes.

With All-Star forward Chris Bosh injured and back in Florida, the James-Wade tag team saved the Heat, who will host Game 5 on Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena.

“Me and ‘Bron had it going,” said Wade, who bounced back from the worst playoff game of his career — five points on 2-of-13 shooting — with one of his best, “We played off of each other very well. We both were aggressive at the same time. That’s beautiful basketball for the Miami Heat when we play that way.”

The Heat now head home back in control of the best-of-seven series, which is down to a best-of-three with two of the games on Miami’s home floor.

“It’s still going to be a dogfight,” James said.

Coyotes beat LA Kings 2-0, avoid West final sweep

LOS ANGELES — Shane Doan scored two goals, Mike Smith made 36 saves in his third playoff shutout, and the Phoenix Coyotes emphatically avoided playoff elimination with a 2-0 victory over the Los Angeles Kings in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals on Sunday.

Ray Whitney and Antoine Vermette had assists for the Coyotes, who escaped a series sweep by snapping the eighth-seeded Kings’ eight-game winning streak in front of long-suffering fans denied the chance to celebrate Los Angeles’ first berth in the Stanley Cup final since 1993.

Phoenix was better from the opening faceoff, dominating an opponent that had been on an 11-1 run through the postseason.

Game 5 is Tuesday night in Phoenix.

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