Hours earlier than Friday night time’s tip-off, a tailored entice sport if there ever was one for the street weary Celtics, Joe Mazzulla pinpointed the one best hazard in going through the lottery-bound Pacers.
Tempo.
A younger and aggressive bunch, the Pacers lead the NBA in fast-break factors. They push opponents via their pace and athleticism, traits greatest captured by all-star guard Tyrese Haliburton, whose return from harm coincided with the C’s return from a six-game street journey Friday.
So earlier than they let the Pacers rev their engines, the Celtics beat them at their very own sport.
Jayson Tatum poured in 34 factors and the Celtics doubled Indiana in fast-break factors over a 120-95 win at TD Garden. Jaylen Brown added 27 factors and 7 rebounds, whereas Derrick White had 22 factors and 9 assists. Boston outscored the Pacers by 20 within the second half.
Playing his first house sport in three weeks, Rob Williams thwarted Indiana within the half-court with three blocks and three steals, each workforce highs. He additionally tallied 4 factors and eight boards, whereas the Celtics’ perimeter defenders labored to carry Indiana to fifteen.4% from 3-point vary.
“When you know you have a guy like that,” Mazzulla mentioned of Williams, “it obviously jolts you with a joy, I guess you could say, to be more aggressive.”
Haliburton completed with 20 factors and 9 assists. Pacers middle Myles Turner recorded 20 factors and 6 rebounds. No Indiana participant hit a number of 3-pointers, whereas the Celtics shot 42.9% thanks largely to White’s 5-of-9 exhibiting.
Boston (51-23) stood its floor because the No. 2 seed within the Eastern Conference and has now received six of its final eight.
Early on, the Pacers (33-41) paved a runway to the basket and recorded 60% of their first-quarter photographs contained in the paint. Meanwhile, the Celtics cashed 5 3-pointers, together with a stretch of 4 straight that helped open the sport. After Indiana’s Isaiah Jackson flushed a game-tying dunk with 5.9 seconds left within the quarter, Tatum beat the buzzer with a scooping, left-handed layup to push Boston again up 34-32.
But the Celtics (51-32) couldn’t draw back from the pesky Pacers simply but, nor hold them away from the rim. Backup level guard T.J. McConnell sank three straight layups halfway via the second quarter, every trimming Boston’s lead down to 2. After McConnell’s third basket, Buddy Hield (8 factors, 8 rebounds) transformed a lazy Jaylen Brown cross on the following possession right into a fast-break dunk and tied the sport at 6:39 remaining.
Breaking from their timeout, the Celtics pieced collectively a 12-4 run constructed on sturdier protection and inside-out offense. That stretch impressed Indiana to name time at 3:11 left within the quarter, a maneuver that succeeded in slowing Boston down. The Celtics scored three factors via halftime and led 60-55.
Rested and returning to the ground, Tatum and Brown spurred separate runs within the third quarter that each one however knocked Indiana out. The first, a 14-2 intestine punch, noticed Tatum and Brown each join on lengthy 3-pointers.
“I think they are both finding a great balance of being dominant players and being team players,” Mazzulla mentioned of his stars.
Next, the Celtics ripped off a 10-2 run because of a pair of 3-point performs from Brown. White sparked the latter on a cross-court dump-off to the low block, the place Brown spun and lifted via contact for an and-1 that drew the night time’s loudest roar. The Celtics’ largest lead reached 29 within the fourth quarter.
Grant Williams led Boston’s bench with 12 factors and 6 rebounds.
Mazzulla pulled his starters halfway via the fourth, able to roll the Celtics into their closing eight video games of the common season beginning with a go to from the Spurs on Sunday.
Source: www.bostonherald.com