San Antonio Spurs guard Danny Green (right) and Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade both chase a loose ball during their NBA game in Miami on Tuesday, (USA TODAY Sports)

DPA/Los Angeles

The Brooklyn Nets are coming together at the right time and their play-off push is moving forward.
Brook Lopez had 24 points with 11 rebounds, and the surging Nets held off the visiting Indiana Pacers 111-106 Tuesday for their season-high fourth straight win.
The victory gives the Nets (33-40) a one-half game lead over idle Boston (33-41) for the eighth and final spot in the East Conference play-off scramble.
It also moves them 1.5 games ahead of the Pacers (32-42) and the tiebreaker, after taking two of three in the season series.  
“This game was huge, it meant a lot to us and to them,” said Nets guard Deron Williams after an 11-point, eight-assist outing. “It’s just a mentality, a sense of urgency, realising we have a chance to make the play-offs. We’re just trying to make a push.”
Joe Johnson netted 21 points, including five straight down the stretch, while Alan Anderson added 20 off the bench for Brooklyn, winners in eight of its last 10 outings.
“We just played together for 48 minutes,” Anderson said. “We know Brook has been hot the last couple of weeks but we’re still sharing the ball. We’re trying to find the open man. When the ball is moving like that it’s fun.”
George Hill scored 28 points for the fading Pacers, losers for the eighth time in 10 games.
“We’ve just got to bring it more and take away the loss and how bad it feels,” Hill said. “It feels like we’re kind of giving the season away one game at a time so we’ve got to forget about it now and focus on tomorrow.”
The contest was a marked by a game of runs in the first half. After falling behind by seven out of the gate, the Nets regrouped and led 33-15 after one.  
Sparked by their reserves, the Pacers erased a 19-point second-quarter deficit and grabbed a brief 52-50 margin before trailing 57-54 at the half behind 20 Lopez points.
The Nets carried an 84-79 advantage into the final frame and stretched it to 100-90 on an Anderson jumper with 4:37 to go.
The Pacers drew to within 103-100 on a Hill lay-up with 2:09 remaining but Johnson countered with a jumper.
After Indiana’s Roy Hibbert missed a wide-open three-pointer, Johnson raced down court eyeing a jumper but found two defenders in his face.  Wisely, he sent a pass over to Lopez and got it back in the right corner for the game-sealing triple, opening up a 108-100 cushion with 15.4 ticks to go.
“That’s what Joe does,” Nets coach Lionel Hollins said. “Those kinds of plays once you start doing them, becomes contagious. That’s the way we’d like to be, where everybody is just sharing the ball. It’s the Brooklyn Nets scoring and not just an individual.”

Elsewhere
*Golden State Warriors 110, LA Clippers 106: MVP frontrunner Stephen Curry scored 27 points, Klay Thompson added 22 of his 25 in the second half, and the league-best Warriors (61-13) rallied from 17 down to beat the Clippers for their 10th straight win. Ahead 106-104, Curry sank two free throws with 11.6 seconds left, and Thompson the followed with both of his to seal the road victory. Blake Griffin had 40 points and 12 rebounds, while Chris Paul added 27 with nine assists for the Clippers (49-27), whose six-game success ended.
*Detroit Pistons 105, Atlanta Hawks 95: Andre Drummond had 22 points and 13 rebounds, Reggie Jackson added 12 with 11 assists, and the Pistons (29-45) clipped the visiting Hawks for their fifth victory in the last six games. Swiss Thabo Sefolosha netted 19 points and Al Horford had 16 for Atlanta (56-19), which already clinched the top play-off seed in the East.
*San Antonio Spurs 95, Miami Heat 81: Kawhi Leonard had 22 points with nine rebounds, Frenchman Tony Parker netted 16, and the visiting Spurs beat the Heat for their seventh win in the last eight games. Tim Duncan had 12 points with 11 rebounds for San Antonio (48-26), currently sixth in the West play-off picture and just 2.5 games behind Memphis for the second-best record in the conference. Slovenian Goran Dragic had 19 points and Dwayne Wade added 15 for Miami (34-40), which stayed in the seventh play-off spot in the East, but just one-half game ahead of Brooklyn.