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NBA: Playoffs-Indiana Pacers at Boston Celtics
As the lower-seed road team in the playoffs, you only get so many chances to steal a win. As the higher-seeded, heavy favorite team at home, you play with fire when you give away an early game in the series.
Indiana was up by 5 with 1:43 left in regulation in the TD Garden, and they were still up 3 with 10 seconds to go when they botched an inbounds play, giving Boston one more chance to tie the game. The Pacers didn’t foul and Jalen Brown didn’t miss.
In overtime, Jayson Tatum took over scoring 10 points, both hitting 3s and getting into the paint and drawing fouls.
Boston came from behind — but it feels more like an escape — and got the win, 133-128 in OT.
The Celtics lead the series 1-0 with Game 2 in Boston on Thursday.
That is going to feel like an exceedingly long 48 hours for the Pacers.
“This loss is totally on me,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “With 10 seconds in regulation, we should have just taken the timeout, advance the ball and found a way to get it in and made a free throw or two and ended the game.”
Boston players sounded like they were exhaling more than celebrating.
“Would you be?” Brown said. “We almost dropped a game on our home floor. We need to come out and be better in Game 2.”
“We keep talking about protecting homecourt. And it’s whatever it takes,” Al Horford said.
It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win.
It started out pretty. The Celtics race out to 12-0 lead after the opening tip — including a successful Boston challenge — and early on the Celtics were getting whatever they wanted against the Pacers defense.
However, as the game settled in, Boston was happy to run with the Pacers in a free-flowing, wide-open game — and that’s exactly what the Pacers want. The Celtics were content to move the ball around on the perimeter and shoot a lot of 3s, but that plays into the Pacers’ hands. Indiana’s pick-and-roll also gave Boston fits all game long — the Celtics switched but didn’t want to put two on the ball and they may have to.
Myles Turner was hot and scored 18 points in the first half, Tyrese Haliburton hit three 3-pointers, Obi Toppin had…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/jaylen-brown-forces-ot-where-041846685.html
Author : NBC Sports
Publish date : 2024-05-22 04:18:46
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