Celtics Rally From 18 Point Deficit to Put Pacers in 3-0 Hole
Jrue Holiday--who was so sick earlier in the day that he missed shootaround--scored Boston's last five points in the final 38.9 seconds as the Celtics recovered from an 18 point deficit to beat the Indiana Pacers 114-111 and take a 3-0 Eastern Conference Finals lead. Holiday finished with 14 points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals, but Boston's biggest star overall was Jayson Tatum, who had a game-high 36 points, a game-high 10 rebounds, and a team-high eight assists. Jaylen Brown had another strong performance (24 points on 10-18 field goal shooting), and soon to be 38 year old Al Horford had his second flashback performance in the past four games with 23 points, five rebounds, and three blocked shots. Horford shot 8-14 from the field, including 7-12 from three point range. Derrick White added 13 points, seven assists, five rebounds, and three steals as all five Boston starters scored at least 13 points. Boston's bench is depleted with Horford taking the starting spot of the injured Kristaps Porzingis, but Boston still has the league's best starting five.
Andrew Nembhard led the Pacers in scoring (32 points) and assists (nine). T.J. McConnell had an excellent game off of the bench (23 points, nine rebounds, six assists and just one turnover in 29 minutes). Myles Turner added 22 points while tying Tatum for game-high rebounding honors with 10. Pascal Siakam scored 22 points and dished for six assists. That quartet played very well, but the other Pacers combined to score just 12 points on 6-19 (.316) field goal shooting. The Pacers' ball movement, player movement, shooting, and passing were impeccable for the first two and a half quarters, but they did not maintain that high level execution in the game's final 18 minutes.
When Indiana's All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton was sidelined with a hamstring injury during Boston's 126-110 game two win, it looked as if Boston would have an easy path to two more victories to punch their ticket to the NBA Finals--and Boston seemed to confirm that view by storming to a 24-15 first quarter lead, but then Indiana outscored Boston 49-22 to take a 64-46 second quarter lead. The Pacers led 69-57 at halftime, shooting .636 from the field in a performance reminiscent of their sizzling shooting in their game seven win versus the New York Knicks.
It is easy to criticize the Celtics for taking things for granted and losing focus, but the Pacers should also get credit; they have several very talented players other than Haliburton, and those players played very well, but they just could not quite sustain that level for the entire game, particularly after the Celtics' defensive energy and intensity went up a notch down the stretch in the third quarter. The Pacers led 84-66 at the 6:04 mark of the third quarter, but the Celtics cut that lead in half and entered the fourth quarter trailing 90-81.
The Pacers never regained a double digit lead, and the Celtics chipped away during the final stanza, culminating in Holiday's two game-winning plays; his driving basket/three point play gave the Celtics their first lead (112-111) since the opening moments of the second quarter. After the teams exchanged misses, Holiday stole the ball from Nembhard and made two free throws to push the Celtics' advantage to 114-111. The Pacers called a timeout after Holiday's second free throw, and they ran an interesting inbounds play with 1.7 second left: four Pacers lined up in the backcourt like NFL wide receivers, and then they ran "crossing patterns" as they sprinted past midcourt, freeing Nesmith to take a corner three pointer; it is difficult to get off a quality shot against a good defensive team when you need a three pointer to tie with less than two seconds left, but the Pacers executed that situation as well as possible. As the saying goes, it is a make or miss league, and Nesmith missed.
Indiana Coach Rick Carlisle vowed after the game that the Pacers will go after the Celtics with even more intensity in game four--but the reality is that no NBA team has ever won a playoff series after trailing 3-0, and it is difficult to see the Pacers making such history under any circumstances, let alone without Haliburton.
Labels: Al Horford, Andrew Nembhard, Boston Celtics, Indiana Pacers, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, Myles Turner, T.J. McConnell, Tyrese Haliburton
posted by David Friedman @ 12:23 AM
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