Donovan Mitchell scores 43 and Cavaliers beat the Pacers 126-104 to cut series deficit to 2-1

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Donovan Mitchell refused to let another fourth-quarter lead slip away from the Cleveland Cavaliers.

So with home fans on their feet, expecting their Indiana Pacers to cut what had been a 24-point deficit to single digits, Mitchell took the game into his own hands. He hit a 13-foot fadeaway, then a pull-up 3-pointer and finally found Max Strus for another 3 and the Cavaliers went on to a 126-104 victory Friday night.

“I couldn't let it happen again, and it wasn't just me,” Mitchell said after finishing with 43 points and nine rebounds to cut their semifinal series deficit to 2-1. “I know I scored, but like, we got stops, made plays. But for me, just trying to be the aggressor.”

The road team has won all three games, and the Pacers will have another chance to break that trend Sunday in Game 4.

But Cleveland was desperate to avoid falling into a 3-0 hole and used everything in its arsenal to hold on Friday.

NBA Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley and key backup De'Andre Hutner returned from injuries after missing Game 2. All-Star guard Darius Garland also returned from a toe injury that kept him out of four straight games.

The Cavs also reverted more to the regular-season form by making 14 3-pointers, holding a 56-37 rebounding edge, even using zone defense to slow down the high-flying Pacers.

But it was Mitchell's finishing punch that stood apart.

“The first one was a selfish shot, but he needed to be selfish there — you know what I'm saying,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “He just felt like ‘I need it, I need to score this one even if it's not the perfect shot.' And that's kind of feel of the moment."

Strus made four 3s and had 20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in a game the Cavs never trailed.

Bennedict Mathurin led the Pacers with 23 points. Pascal Siakam had 18 and Tyrese Haliburton finished with four points and five assists — his first career home loss in a postseason game he's appeared.

“This was a very poor effort at the beginning of the game, through so many parts of the game,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. "Clearly, I didn’t have these guys ready for this. Ty had a rough game. I have to do more to get him in better positions to have better shots.”

The most physical game of the three resulted in players routinely hitting the floor. Hunter turned into a hard shoulder after making a basket early in the second quarter, a collision that nearly knocked him down, and Mitchell took a nasty spill into the front-row seats.

Tempers also flared at times with the Pacers drawing five technical fouls. On the court, though, Cleveland controlled the game after breaking a 36-36 tie with a 25-4 run, which gave them a 66-45 halftime cushion.

Indiana closed to 104-93 early in the fourth before Mitchell and Strus led the game-sealing scoring flurry.

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Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen (31) takes the ball from Indiana Pacers center Thomas Bryant, second from left, and guard Bennedict Mathurin (00) during the second half of Game 3 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs in Indianapolis, Friday, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Indiana Pacers center Thomas Bryant (3) battles for the ball with Cleveland Cavaliers forward Dean Wade, top, and guard Ty Jerome (2) during the first half of Game 3 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs in Indianapolis, Friday, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton (0) and Cleveland Cavaliers center Evan Mobley (4) battle for the ball during the first half of Game 3 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs in Indianapolis, Friday, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland, left, and Indiana Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin, right, battle for a loose ball during the second half of Game 3 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs in Indianapolis, Friday, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Sam Merrill (5) and guard Donovan Mitchell (45) celebrate during the second half of Game 3 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs against the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis, Friday, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Over two dozen families from one of the few remaining Palestinian Bedouin villages in the central West Bank have packed up and fled their homes in recent days, saying harassment by Jewish settlers living in unauthorized outposts nearby has grown unbearable.

The village, Ras Ein el-Auja, was originally home to some 700 people from more than 100 families that have lived there for decades.

Twenty-six families already left on Thursday, scattering across the territory in search of safer ground, say rights groups. Several other families were packing up and leaving on Sunday.

“We have been suffering greatly from the settlers. Every day, they come on foot, or on tractors, or on horseback with their sheep into our homes. They enter people’s homes daily,” said Nayef Zayed, a resident, as neighbors took down sheep pens and tin structures.

Israel's military and the local settler governing body in the area did not respond to requests for comment.

Other residents pledged to stay put for the time being. That makes them some of the last Palestinians left in the area, said Sarit Michaeli, international director at B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group helping the residents.

She said that mounting settler violence has already emptied neighboring Palestinian hamlets in the dusty corridor of land stretching from Ramallah in the West to Jericho, along the Jordanian border, in the east.

The area is part of the 60% of the West Bank that has remained under full Israeli control under interim peace accords signed in the 1990s. Since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October 2023, over 2,000 Palestinians — at least 44 entire communities — have been expelled by settler violence in the area, B'Tselem says.

The turning point for the village came in December, when settlers put up an outpost about 50 meters (yards) from Palestinian homes on the northwestern flank of the village, said Michaeli and Sam Stein, an activist who has been living in the village for a month.

Settlers strolled easily through the village at night. Sheep and laundry went missing. International activists had to begin escorting children to school to keep them safe.

“The settlers attack us day and night, they have displaced us, they harass us in every way” said Eyad Isaac, another resident. “They intimidate the children and women.”

Michaeli said she’s witnessed settlers walk around the village at night, going into homes to film women and children and tampering with the village’s electricity.

The residents said they call the police frequently to ask for help — but it seldom arrives. Settlement expansion has been promoted by successive Israeli governments over nearly six decades. But Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, which has placed settler leaders in senior positions, has made it a top priority.

That growth has been accompanied by a spike in settler violence, much of it carried out by residents of unauthorized outposts. These outposts often begin with small farms or shepherding that are used to seize land, say Palestinians and anti-settlement activists. United Nations officials warn the trend is changing the map of the West Bank, entrenching Israeli presence in the area.

Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Their presence is viewed by most of the international community as illegal and a major obstacle to peace. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state.

For now, displaced families of the village have dispersed between other villages near the city of Jericho and near Hebron further south, said residents. Some sold their sheep and are trying to move into the cities.

Others are just dismantling their structures without knowing where to go.

"Where will we go? There’s nowhere. We’re scattered,” said Zayed, the resident, “People’s situation is bad. Very bad.”

An Israeli settler herds his flock near his outpost beside the Palestinian village of Ras Ein al-Auja in the West Bank, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

A Palestinian resident of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank burns trash, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian children play in the West Bank village of Ras Ein al-Auja, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)