By CLIFF BRUNT AP Sports Writer INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Welcome to the spotlight, Indiana Pacers. While the Dwight Howard contract saga in Orlando, the emergence of Jeremy Lin in New York and team success in Chicago and Miami grabbed attention in the Eastern Conference, Indiana quietly became one of the best teams in the league. The Pacers needed something bigger than just being steady to awaken the basketball world, and they got the signature win they have sought since the All-Star break, beating the Miami Heat 105-90 on Monday night. "Our guys had a determination that they weren't going to be denied tonight," Indiana coach Frank Vogel said. "We're competing at a high level. We're looking forward to making a serious run at the end of the season and be one of the hottest teams going into the playoffs." Danny Granger scored 25 points, Darren Collison scored 20, and Paul George added 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Pacers, who have won four of five. "It's a confidence builder, showing that if we play the right way, believe in each other, play team defense, that we can be one heck of a team," Pacers guard George Hill said. "Anytime that you get a win like this, you have to build off of it." LeBron James had 24 points and nine rebounds, and Dwyane Wade had 24 points and six assists for Miami. The Heat, coming off a 103-87 loss at Oklahoma City on Sunday night, lost by double digits in back-to-back games for the first time this season. "Sometimes, you go through these spells in an NBA season and it's a struggle," Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. Miami committed 17 turnovers. "Some of the turnovers you can live with," James said. "We're attacking, and guys are trying to make a winning play. But some of the ones where you're just careless, you don't like those turnovers. I know I had a few careless ones tonight." Miami (35-13) lost for the fourth time in eight games overall and is running out of time to catch Chicago (40-10) for the best record in the East. The Heat were outrebounded 49-33 and scored just four fast break points. The Heat refused to make a big deal about the losses. "We're fine," forward Chris Bosh said. "We're not even going to remember this a month from now, two months from now. We'll be playing our best basketball. All we can do is learn from our experiences right now and just try to get back on time and everything will take care of itself." The Heat had won the previous three meetings this season, but the Pacers played with confidence throughout. Indiana led by double digits for most of the fourth quarter, and Pacers fans stood and showed their appreciation during the final minute. The Pacers closed the first half out in style. First, Indiana center Roy Hibbert dunked on James with a minute left in the half, then George hit a half-court shot at the buzzer to give the Pacers a 49-46 lead at the break. "I knew that the time was closing," George said. "I just wanted to put it up there and I just got lucky with a prayer. That was a big shot. You go in with momentum off that shot alone. It was very fortunate that I knocked that down." A two-handed breakaway jam by Collison early in the third pushed Indiana's lead to 53-46 and forced Miami to call a timeout. George hit a 3-pointer to push the lead to double digits for the first time. The Pacers held Miami scoreless for the first 3 minutes of the second half. James scored and was fouled, missed the free throw, tracked down the rebound and made a jumper to cut Indiana's lead to 59-55. Wade followed with a 3-pointer, and suddenly, Indiana's 10-point lead was down to one. But the Pacers responded quickly. Hibbert stuffed James, and Granger hit a jumper at the other end to give Indiana a 67-60 lead and force another Miami timeout. Granger's 3-pointer gave Indiana a 71-60 lead. The Pacers held Miami to 6-for-19 shooting in the third quarter to lead 78-65 at the end of the period. James rested at the start of the fourth quarter, leaving Wade and Bosh to try to close the gap. But two 3s by Indiana's Leandro Barbosa early in the period helped the Pacers maintain some distance. A three-point play by Barbosa gave the Pacers an 87-73 edge. Barbosa scored nine points in 98 seconds and forced the Heat to put James back into the game. Indiana remained comfortably ahead the rest of the way. Granger was fouled on a 3-point attempt and made all three free throws to push Indiana's lead to 99-87 with 4:30 to play. "We're trusting each other a lot more, we're holding each other more accountable, we're actually out there having fun," Hill said. "I think in earlier games we weren't trusting each other, playing selfish basketball, wasn't playing solid defense, and anytime you do that you're going to lose against a great team like Miami. We showed them that we can be a great team also, and we're going to try to be a better team on the court by communicating and playing together." ROCKETS 113, KINGS 106, OT HOUSTON (AP) -- Patrick Patterson scored a career-high 24 points and Earl Boykins hit four free throws for Houston late in overtime to lead the Rockets to a 113-106 win over the Sacramento Kings on Monday night. Boykins, who was signed by Houston earlier in the day, finished with 10 points in his first action of the season. Houston built a 107-102 lead in overtime behind four points from Chandler Parsons. Tyreke Evans got Sacramento within three with a layup with 29 seconds left. Boykins hit two free throws with 21 seconds left and two more 7 seconds later to secure the win. DeMarcus Cousins scored a career-high 38 points and had 14 rebounds, and Marcus Thornton added 27 points for the Kings, who lost their fifth straight road game. They are an NBA-worst 4-22 on the road this season. NUGGETS 108, BULLS 91 CHICAGO (AP) -- Ty Lawson tied a season high with 27 points, Arron Afflalo added 22 and the Denver Nuggets shot 50 percent Monday night to beat the Chicago Bulls 108-91. Denver, playing its third game in four nights as part of a seven-game road swing, got its first win three games into the trip. Al Harrington added 17 points and Andre Miller chipped in with 12 points and 10 assists for the Nuggets, who are scrapping for a playoff spot in the West. C.J. Watson and John Lucas III scored 17 points each for the Bulls. Chicago star Derrick Rose sat out his seventh straight game with a groin injury and the Bulls seemed to be out of sync most of the night, especially on defense. CELTICS 102, BOBCATS 95 CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Paul Pierce scored a season-high 36 points and Boston moved into a first-place tie with Philadelphia 76ers in the Atlantic Division. Pierce shot 10 of 20 from the field, made 15 of 18 free throws and added 10 rebounds and four assists. Pierce has scored 20 or more points in five of the past six games and is averaging 22.3 points per game during March. Kevin Garnett had 24 points for the Celtics. Gerald Henderson had 21 points for the Bobcats (7-40), who have lost six of their past seven and remain the only team in the NBA with fewer than 10 wins. Charlotte got 59 points from its bench, including 18 from Byron Mullens and 16 from Derrick Brown. The Celtics have the same record (27-22) as the 76ers with 17 games remaining in the regular season. KNICKS 89, BUCKS 80 NEW YORK (AP) -- Carmelo Anthony scored 28 points, delivering his highest total in two months without the injured Amare Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin, and the New York Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks 89-80 on Monday night to increase their lead for the final Eastern Conference playoff berth. Shortly after learning Stoudemire was lost indefinitely with a bulging disk in his back, the Knicks opened a 2 1/2-game lead over the Bucks and prevented Milwaukee from winning the season series and clinching the tiebreaker if they finish with the same record. Baron Davis scored 13 points in his first start in place of Lin, who has a sore right knee. Tyson Chandler also had 13 and Iman Shumpert 11. Mike Dunleavy scored 26 points for the Bucks. JAZZ 105, NETS 84 NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Paul Millsap had 24 points and 13 rebounds and the Utah Jazz shook off the weariness from their four-overtime loss 24 hours earlier. Al Jefferson added 19 points and eight rebounds as the Jazz won for the seventh time in eight games and kept a hold on one of the last playoff spots in the Western Conference. Alec Burks added 15 points for the Jazz, who used an 18-4 fourth-quarter run to lock up the game after New Jersey cut a 21-point deficit to three. Gerald Green led the Nets with 20 points. Deron Williams added 17 points and 11 assists against his former teammates on 7 of 21 shooting. Rookie Jordan Williams added a career-high 13 points. PISTONS 79, WIZARDS 77 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rodney Stuckey scored half of his 24 points in the fourth quarter, including the winning 20-foot jumper with 0.2 seconds left, and Detroit ended a five-game losing streak by erasing a 13-point deficit. Detroit managed to win despite being held below 80 points for the third game in a row; that last happened to the Pistons in December 2003. Greg Monroe, who played home games on the Wizards' court while at Georgetown, had 10 points and 10 rebounds, including a putback off a miss by Tayshaun Prince with 23 seconds remaining to put Detroit ahead 76-75. After Detroit's Ben Wallace made one free throw, Washington's Nene tied it at 77 on a hook shot with 5.8 seconds to go. That left enough time for Stuckey to get up court and pull up for the decisive shot that capped a comeback against the no-lead-is-safe Wizards. Stuckey missed the past three games with a sore big left toe. Jordan Crawford led Washington with 20 points, and John Wall had 14 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. But Wall also went scoreless in the fourth quarter. MAGIC 117, RAPTORS 101 TORONTO (AP) -- Ryan Anderson made a career-best eight 3-pointers and finished with 28 points. Dwight Howard had 23 points and 10 rebounds and Jameer Nelson scored 18 points for the Magic. Orlando came in leading the NBA in 3-pointers and hit 15 of 34 from beyond the arc in this one, two shy of its season high. Orlando made 17 3-pointers twice this season, first at New York on Jan. 16 and also against Miami on Feb. 8.