Banner Town Breakdown: Celtics vs. Pacers (Dec. 27, 2020)
Winslow Townson | Associated Press
With Boston coming off a tough loss against Brooklyn, the Celtics looked to get above .500 with their matchup against the Indiana Pacers. This is the first of two road games the Celtics will play against Indy as part of the NBA’s new scheduling format. After Milwaukee and Brooklyn, the Pacers are a very different level of opponent that Boston can’t play down to. As it’s so early in the season, there are plenty of things Boston must work on in order to progress as a team
Wash, rinse repeat. The starting lineup is again the same lineup of Smart/Brown/Tatum/Theis/Thompson, as the Pacers boast a young frontcourt of Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner to size up with. Robert Williams made his return to the Celtics bench, and the same suspects of Walker (knee strengthening), Langford (wrist surgery recovery), and Tacko Fall (eye irritation) are ruled out.
Boston started off hot with a 5/6 run from the field to get a 12-2 lead early against the Pacers. Boston was making a concerted effort to attack Indiana in the paint early and often, doing as they wished within the first four minutes of the quarter. Things started to get sloppy, and by the 8 minute mark, the Celtics tallied 9 turnovers and let the Pacers back into the game, with Indy surging to a 33-32 lead. Jayson Tatum started to heat up, and Boston regained the lead to go 23-19 into the 2nd quarter.
Boston still was plagued by early turnover issues with some sloppy play (13 total first half TOs) but had some promising minutes in the first half from Payton Pritchard going 3/3 in the first half (2/2 from deep). Marcus Smart got into his bag and did some very Smart-esque things, going 2/2 from beyond the arc with 2 rebounds, 4 assists, and a steal by the end of the 2nd quarter. Boston did a great deal of work on their defensive rebounds with 19 rebounds, and Boston also improved with their fastbreak points, scoring 10 in the first half compared to 12 across their first two games. Boston also shot 46.2% from deep in the first half on 13 attempts, which is good to see in terms of inside-out attacking. The Celtics took a slim 55-52 lead into the half.
Boston played sloppy with their first few possessions in the 2nd half, and soon enough saw a 9-0 run from the Pacers triggering a timeout from Brad Stevens after a messy alley-oop attempt to Thompson led to a fastbreak layup for TJ Warren to give Indiana the 61-55 lead. Indiana continued to excel off of Boston’s turnovers, registering 21 points off 14 turnovers on the game with 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Indiana outscored Boston 39 points to 28 in the 3rd, but a little run sparked by some good play made it an 88-83 lead for the Pacers going into the 4th quarter.
After a bit of back and forth trading shots and free throws, Boston ripped off an 8-0 run to tie the game up at 96 apiece with 6:17 left in the game. Both teams continued to trade misses and makes, and with 24.9 seconds left Domantas Sabonis was sent to the line, missing one of two free throws to make it 106-103. Jayson Tatum was sent to the line, hits the free throws to make it 106-105. After a quick Indy timeout after the inbounds pass, Boston used a perfect trap play and Rob Williams gets the steal leading to a Marcus Smart layup for a 107-106 lead. However, Domantas Sabonis gets inside on the next play and draws the and-one, luckily missing the 3 point play on the free throw. Boston got the ball down 108-107 with 7.7 seconds left. On the inbound pass, Jayson Tatum gets the ball, attempts a deep three, but missed. Smart attempted a quick toss after the rebound, but Boston lost 108-107 as time expired.
Boston was led by Jayson Tatum with 25 points (9/21 shooting, 3/9 from range, 11 reb, 5 ast, 1 blk) followed by Jaylen Brown with 18 points (8/13 shooting, 2 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk). Payton Prichard put up a very nice game with 13 points on perfect shooting (5/5 shooting, 3/3 from deep) to go along with 2 assists and 2 steals, once again showing his value for the bench unit. Robert Williams also had a great showing with 12 points (6/7 shooting) to go along with 4 boards, 1 assist, a whopping 4 steals, and 2 blocks. The Pacers were led by Malcolm Brogdon with 25 points (11/25 shooting, 5 reb, 5 ast, 2 stl), TJ Warren with 17 points (8/14 shooting, 5 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl) and Domantas Sabonis with 19 points (8/18 shooting, 2/4 from deep, 10 reb, 5 ast, 1 blk).
It was an overall frustrating game, despite the bright flashes from Rob Williams and Payton Pritchard. Boston had 18 turnovers on the game, including 11 steals by the Oladipo-less Pacers. This is one of those games that was incredibly winnable and best hope it doesn’t come back to bite Boston further down the line. Boston won the battle of the bench scoring 42 to 31, but were pummeled in the paint 60 to 42 (including 23 fastbreak points). Boston needs to be taking care of the ball and being more patient on offense. It may be time to start talking to Jayson Tatum about his shot selection down the stretch as his 3s haven’t been falling and it’s hard to justify that stepback attempt when you’re only down 1. Boston will look to take on Indiana again on Tuesday in their second road game of the season. I expect a change of play in that matchup.
