It’s protected to say the Indiana Pacers didn’t take Friday’s sport frivolously. The Pacers managed the sport from begin to end and scored at will to beat Boston 123-114 at TD Backyard. It’s by no means straightforward taking part in the identical opponent twice in three days, and Boston came upon the laborious approach after cruising to victory two nights in the past.
The Pacers had Andrew Nembhard again after he missed Friday’s sport and he proved to be a distinction maker. Along with Nembhard, Tyrese Haliburton damage the C’s all evening ending with 31 factors, however it was his skill to get into the paint comfortable and both making a shot or discovering a teammate. The Pacers scored 66 factors within the paint.
Every time Boston went on a run, Indiana did an amazing job of answering with a run of its personal. A 13-0 run halfway by way of the ultimate quarter sealed the sport for Indiana.
The Pacers opened the sport scoring its first three photographs, whereas the Celtics missed their first three photographs to provide Indy an early 6-0 lead. Sam Hauser bought Boston on the board with a straightaway three, his first in two weeks.
Indiana made six of its first seven photographs with each starter scoring apart from Bennedict Mathurin. Joe Mazzulla was pressured to name his first timeout together with his crew trailing 12-5.
16 of Indiana’s first 18 factors had been all within the paint as Boston struggled early to include Indy’s perimeter gamers.
Jordan Walsh joined Payton Pritchard as the primary two guys off the bench with beneath six minutes left within the opening quarter.
Boston, behind Jaylen Brown’s 5 straight factors, reduce the result in 4 (21-17) which led to Rick Carlisle to name a timeout as Boston began to search out its rhythm on offense.
After a Sam Hauser three to chop it to 2, Payton Pritchard drilled a 3 on the next possession to provide Boston its first lead of the sport (23-22) with three minutes left within the first. After the three, Carlisle took his second timeout.
Indy fired again with a 5-0 run, however that run was halted by one other Pritchard three with 1:18 left. For a two-for-one alternative, Jaylen banged a step again three over Pascal Siakam to retake the lead 29-27. The three was Brown’s twelfth level of the sport to go together with three assists and two rebounds.
After a sluggish begin, Boston took a two-point lead into the second quarter.
Within the second quarter, Tatum was on the lookout for his shot and attending to the free throw line. Tatum visited the charity stripe twice within the first two and a half minutes to get going offensively. Nevertheless, back-to-back Thomas Bryant dunks gave the Pacers a four-point lead (because of an 8-3 run to start out the quarter) which led to a Mazzulla timeout.
Boston bought into the bonus early with 7:27 left within the half.
Within the first quarter, the Pacers had been dominating the paint, however it was back-to-back threes from Haliburton and Jarace Walker that gave Indy a six-point lead halfway by way of the quarter.
Pritchard then scored eight factors in a row, sadly the Pacers offense continued to hit baskets after every PP basket and with 3:40 remaining within the half, Boston trailed 57-49.
Regardless of Tatum being aggressive early within the quarter, he didn’t make his first discipline purpose till 2:11 left within the second quarter. Earlier than the made basket, Tatum was 0-for-7 from the sphere (0-6 from three).
Boston, with out Jrue Vacation, struggled within the first half to include Andrew Nembhard who completed the half with 14 factors.
Regardless of it being a nasty half defensively, Payton Pritchard drilled a 3 proper earlier than the buzzer sounded to make it a 65-58 halftime deficit. The three moved Pritchard forward of Avery Bradley for ninth place in all time three-pointers made in Celtics historical past based on Celtics.com’s Taylor Snow.
Credit score to Indiana for its first half capturing. The Pacers shot 58.1% from the ground and 35.7% from three, in comparison with Boston’s 52.4% from the sphere and 37% from past the arc. Boston allowed Indiana to attain 36 of their 65 factors within the paint.
Pritchard led the Celtics within the first half scoring with 19 factors (13 factors within the second quarter) with Brown proper behind with 18 on 8-of-10 capturing.
It was a very good begin from Boston to start the third quarter, particularly for Jaylen Brown who scored back-to-back and-1s for a fast six factors to chop the Pacers result in three (76-73) with 8:19 remaining.
The Celtics continued to struggled to maintain Indy out of the paint. The Pacers repeatedly exploited the Celtics sport plan once they switched within the half courtroom.
For each run Boston goes on, Indiana discovered a method to reply with a run of its personal. Indiana continued to get into the paint, and with Porzingis on the market was no rim defending massive for Boston. The Pacers scored 46 of their 89 factors from the paint.
When the group was beginning to get stressed, Jayson Tatum blocked Myles Turner on the rim which led to a Derrick White layup to make it 89-83 resulting in a Pacers timeout.
Indiana went into the fourth quarter main 98-91. Tatum scored 12 factors within the third, whereas Indiana continued to dominate paint scoring with over half of their factors (50) coming in close to the ring.
The fourth quarter was sloppy for each groups because the Pacers and Celtics saved making a gift of the ball with unenforced turnovers. Nevertheless, Indiana prolonged its result in 11, 105-94 with 9:04 left.
With 8:23 left Al Horford hit his first three-pointer of the sport (his 650th in Inexperienced and White) to make it a five-point sport, 105-100.
Tatum capped off a 9-0 run after a Tatum and-1 to make it 105-103.
Similar to each run Boston went on, Indiana responded with its personal run. Indiana’s Ben Sheppard hit a 3 after which a layup for a fast 7-0 to make it 112-103. Then a Turner dunk primarily put the sport to mattress pushing the lead again to 11.
Indiana went on a 13-0 go up 118-103 and the air primarily left Boston.
The Celtics will look to bounce again on New Yr’s Eve once they tackle the Toronto Raptors at 3 p.m.
