How Pacers, Tyrese Haliburton threw away Game 1 vs. Celtics with uncharacteristic turnovers

The Indiana Pacers shot the ball better than the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. They dished eight more assists than Boston and got 17 more bench points and a slightly higher offensive rebound percentage. They had a five-point lead with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter, and they had a three-point lead plus possession of the ball with 10 seconds left. Despite all of this, they have found themselves down 1-0 in the series following a 133-128 overtime loss at TD Garden on Tuesday.

“A lot of things had to go wrong for us and right for them,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle told reporters. “They did. And so we gotta own it. And we gotta get ready for Thursday.”

Carlisle blamed himself for the outcome, pointing specifically to his decision not to call timeout with 10 seconds left in regulation. “This loss is totally on me,” Carlisle said. The Celtics had taken their foul to give, and would have had to put a Pacer on the free-throw line if they weren’t able to force a turnover on this inbounds play:

“We should’ve just taken the timeout, advanced the ball and found a way to get it in and made a free throw or two and ended the game,” Carlisle said. “But it didn’t happen, and we made some other mistakes.”

Indiana had 21 turnovers, which means the team coughed up the ball up on 19.8% of its offensive possessions. In the fourth quarter, that turnover rate was 27.3%. Seventeen seconds before the botched inbounds pass (which led to Jaylen Brown’s game-tying 3-pointer), Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton committed an unforced turnover, losing the ball as he crossed halfcourt in transition. Later, down by one point in overtime, Haliburton lost it out of bounds again. In his view, his sloppiness is why they lost, not Carlisle’s choice not to advance the ball.

“That’s not on him,” Haliburton told reporters. “Us as players, we gotta do a better job. I had two bad turnovers that I feel like cost us the game, one in the fourth and one in overtime. I know, I understand he’s protecting us, protecting me as well, but I’ll…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/how-pacers-tyrese-haliburton-threw-away-game-1-vs-celtics-with-uncharacteristic-turnovers/

Author : James Herbert

Publish date : 2024-05-22 05:32:08

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