Everything you need to know about the Celtics one-point win over the Pacers on Monday night.
HEADLINES
Fourth quarter collapse averted: The Celtics looked to be on the verge of an ugly collapse after blowing an 18-point lead in the final three minutes of the game. After trailing by five with 30 seconds remaining, the C’s chipped away at the deficit with some 3-pointers while the Pacers made free throws. With the lead trimmed down to 1 with nine seconds remaining, Terry Rozier stole the ball at the top of the key and went coast-to-coast for the game-winning jam with 1.5 seconds remaining.
TERRY ROZIER WITH THE GAME-WINNING STEAL-AND-SLAM!!! pic.twitter.com/j0xwqLih3f
— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) December 19, 2017
3-point shooting isn’t enough
Seven different Celtics made a 3-pointer, including four from Marcus Smart. The hot shooting helped the Celtics jump out to a 18-point lead in the first quarter, that proved to be enough of a cushion to hold up over the final three quarters. Kyrie Irving led the way with a game-high 30 points on 5-of-9 shooting from downtown, while Al Horford, Jaylen Brown and Smart all drilled multiple treys.
The rookie gets aggressive:
Jayson Tatum has been most of his damage from 3-point range during his rookie season, but the 19-year-old made a bigger impact with his moves to the rim on Monday night. A pair of highlight slams stole the show at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, as Tatum made quick smart decisions with the ball for most of the night to score 16 points on just eight shot attempts.
THERE HE GOES AGAIN pic.twitter.com/Rtlt2PadQF
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 19, 2017
TURNING POINT
TWO UP
Kyrie Irving:
The point guard continues to be on a torrid shooting stretch. He took advantage of a big size mismatch against Darren Collison to effortlessly post 22 points over the first three quarters without breaking much of a sweat. He finished with 30 on 12-of-23 shooting and has now shot over 50 percent from the field in 12 of his last 16 games.
KYRIE ? pic.twitter.com/mBmink9T9Z
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 19, 2017
Celtics first quarter offense:
You couldn’t have dreamed of a more picturesque offensive first quarter for this group on the road. Boston opened the game a scorching 10-of-10 from the field, which enabled them to build an early 19-5 lead and ultimately an 18-point lead in the opening frame. All five starters were a part of the 10-of-10 start, which helped the visitors build enough of a cushion early to hold off multiple runs from the Pacers over the final three quarters.
TWO DOWN
Defending Victor Oladipo:
The likely All-Star guard was let out of the box in the third quarter, as he scored 16 points in the frame on 6-of-12 shooting. The Celtics threw an assortment of guards at him (Smart, Brown, etc.) and they all got into foul trouble as Oladipo scored from inside and out against the league’s top defense.
Officiating:
This game started on the early side (7 p.m.) but you wouldn’t have known it in the 9 o’clock hour given the number of whistles in this game, the majority of which went against the Celtics. The officials called a combined 38 fouls through three quarters, 25 of them coming against Boston as Jaylen Brown (five fouls), Aron Baynes (five), Marcus Smart (4) and Kyrie Irving (four) found themselves in the second half. Many of these whistles were of the ticky tack variety,
INJURY REPORT
Daniel Theis played with a broken nose for the second straight game. He’ll have his nose reset on Tuesday morning and will need a couple days to recover from that.
TOP PLAYS
Two dunks from Tatum
AHHHHH ROOOOK ?? pic.twitter.com/ylHs1Z1qvr
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 19, 2017
THERE HE GOES AGAIN pic.twitter.com/Rtlt2PadQF
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 19, 2017
ONE TAKE B-ROBB WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER
Brad Stevens found a rotation he likes:
The struggle has been real for Brad Stevens to find a bench unit that can stay afloat for long stretches without Marcus Morris available. However, it appears he’s found a combination he likes to combat the issue, mixing in more minutes for the starters with the bench unit, just in shorter individual stints. Tatum and Horford got some time with the Larkin/Rozier/Theis unit in both halves, while Irving captained a mainly bench unit in the second and fourth quarter. It wasn’t always pretty, but it was effective enough to avoid the midgame collapses the team had been experiencing of late.