expired on Sunday night as the Celtics blew a winnable game in a 108-107 loss to the Pacers. Tatum had a team-high 25 points and 11 rebounds but settled for a deep 3 late in a one-point game that did not fall on Sunday night, unlike his game-winner against the Bucks.
Domantas Sabonis had a team-high 25 points for the Pacers in the win, including a game-winner in the final 10 seconds on Rob Williams who was surprisingly in the game after a strong performance (12 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 blocks). However, a blown defensive coverage with 10 seconds remaining on an inbounds to Sabonis allowed the Pacers big man to score the game-winner on a open layup.
Jaylen Brown added 18 points and Payton Pritchard started off the bench with 13 points on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting as the C’s fell to 1-2 on the season. They get a rematch with the Pacers on Tuesday night against an Indiana team that is an undefeated 3-0 on the year.
TURNING POINT
The Celtics closed out the first half on a 10-4 run behind hot shooting from Tatum and Pritchard to re-take the lead .
TWO UP
Jayson Tatum: The All-Star scored 14 of his 16 points in the second quarter, carrying an offensively-challenged second unit for Boston with his play creation for himself and others. He also tallied his first two free throws of the season after 59 field goal attempts.
Payton Pritchard: With the Pacers using some box-and-1 zone defense to try to contain Tatum, the Celtics rookie sharpshooter was able to make Indy pay, knocking down all three of his jump shots in the first half, including a pair of from beyond the arc.
TWO DOWN
Turnovers: The Celtics only led by six at halftime despite shooting 61 percent from the half due to piling up 11 turnovers in the first half on a number of unforced errors. The miscues helped Indy dig out of a 10-point first half hole, by producing 15 points off the 11 mistakes.
Jeff Teague: A second straight offensive dud from the veteran point guard who only notched two points in 11 first half minutes.
TOP PLAY
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 28, 2020
PG: Marcus Smart
SG: Jaylen Brown
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Tristan Thompson
C: Daniel Theis
- This is the front half of two-game set against the Pacers in Indiana, with the second game coming in Indiana. Tristan Thompson believes the arrangement will give it a playoff-type feel. "I know, it’s kind of like a playoff feel, right?" Thompson said. "You’re there for four days. I mean, just take it one day at a time. Of course, like how we came out against Brooklyn in the fourth quarter. You know, we played three great quarters. But in a basketball game, you’ve gotta do all four – play all four quarters at a high level in order to put yourself in a position to win. So tonight, we’re going to challenge ourselves to do that for four quarters. Play hard. Play our game. And we know that Brogdon and Oladipo are two heavy ball handlers. And we know they’ve got Sabonis, a double-double guy, an All-Star, who’s going to show roll, get to his right shoulder, to his hook shot. So we know what we’re going up against. We’ve got to be ready to go tonight. And on a back-to-back, so we’ve got to attack them early."
- Jeff Teague is an Indiana native so he enjoyed getting a chance to send some time with family after missing out on seeing them on Christmas in Boston: "It's good because I didn't have a chance to spend Christmas with my family so to be here right after Christmas was really good," he said." You got to do all the COVID testing before we could get there but we did that. It's really cool to have an opportunity to see them. Not being there for the holidays was a little difficult but I was happy to have a chance to see them."
- Look for Brad Stevens to stick with the Thompson/Theis frontcourt yet again with the Pacers continuing to start both of their bigs in Turner/Sabonis. Thompson remains on a minutes limit but is supporting of keeping a long view of his health after sitting out most of camp with a hamstring injury. "Of course I’d like to be playing 30 minutes right now, and going full speed and full blast. But at the same time I have to understand that we don’t want no setbacks and we’re looking out for my best interests. I have to respect that and while I’m out there, in whatever amount of time I’m given, to punch the clock and put my hardhat on."
- A stat to keep an eye on tonight: Jayson Tatum free throw attempts. He's taken the most shots out of any player in the NBA (50) through two games without earning a shooting foul.