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It was chaotic and intense, it went to overtime but the Boston Celtics escaped at home with a Game 1 win in the Eastern Conference Finals — and the Indiana Pacers let a prime chance to steal a game on the road slip through their fingers.
It’s a loss the Pacers will regret – you only get so many chances to win on the road in the playoffs.
Here are the five big takeaways from Game 1 — that don’t involve Jaylen Brown hitting corner 3s.
Jrue Holiday was Boston’s best player
Jaylen Brown hit the big shot that forced overtime. Jayson Tatum led the team in scoring.
Jrue Holiday was the best Celtic on the court and they don’t win Game 1 without him. Don’t take my word for it.
“Shoutout to Jrue. He’s the reason why we won this game…” Jaylen Brown said. “That was special from Jrue Holiday.”
On offense, he attacked Tyrese Haliburton on his way to a season-high 28 points on 10-of-16 shooting, adding eight assists and seven rebounds. However, his defense on Halibuton, particularly in overtime, was even more critical.
“[Holiday] is the best defender in the NBA and has been for a long time…” Tyrese Haliburton said postgame. “I’ll learn from it and I’ll be better in Game 2.”
Holiday is the one guy on the Celtics with a ring and this is exactly why Brad Stevens went and got him right before the season — on an up-and-down night for most of the Celtics, Holiday was steady. The Celtics aren’t up 1-0 in this series without them.
Pacers have to clean up turnovers to win
Indiana did not take care of the ball and it cost them — and not just the obvious turnover inbounding the ball with 10 seconds left, giving Boston and Brown one more chance to tie the game. It was all night long.
Indiana turned the ball over 22 times, or 19.6% of their possessions — in almost one-in-five trips down the court, the Pacers coughed up the ball (or had a 24 second violation, or an offensive foul).
Those 22 turnovers became 32 Boston points in a game that went to overtime.
If the Pacers are going to keep the rest of this series close and have a chance to come back, they have to take care of the ball.
