The Cleveland Cavaliers squandered a big half-time lead in a loss to the Indiana Pacers in the NBA playoffs on Friday.

In January, the Cavaliers had a 34-12 lead at the end of the first quarter against the Pacers and lost the game 97-95.

They managed to do more of the same on Friday as they led 57-40 at the half against Indiana and lost 92-90.

"It was a tale of two halves," Cavs star LeBron James told a news conference. "We were more aggressive in the first half, we had tempo, they didn't, and they were more aggressive in the second half and they had tempo and we didn't."

James had a team-high 28 points to go with 12 rebounds and eight assists, but it was Bojan Bogdanovic's 30-point performance, 19 of which came in the second half, that led Indiana to a 2-1 series lead.

Elsewhere in the playoffs, the Washington Wizards extended their home playoff win streak to seven games with a 122-103 win over the Raptors to cut Toronto's series lead to 2-1. John Wall had 28 points, 14 assists and six rebounds and a ridiculous block in the lane on DeMar DeRozan.

Bradley Beal had 28 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals in the Wizards' win.

Milwaukee dominated Boston from the beginning as they led the Celtics 27-12 at the end of the first quarter and 58-35 at the half. They ultimately won 116-92. The Bucks have also cut the lead to 2-1 in favour of Boston.

FRIDAY'S RESULTS

Indiana Pacers 92-90 Cleveland Cavaliers
Washington Wizards 122-103 Toronto Raptors
Milwaukee Bucks 116-92 Boston Celtics

THUNDER AT JAZZ

The only playoff series currently knotted up, the Thunder are coming off a poor fourth-quarter performance from Carmelo Anthony and Paul George while the Jazz are riding the Donovan Mitchell wave.