The Celtics were in grave danger of falling to 1-3 on the season before Jayson Tatum and Payton Pritchard came to the rescue in the fourth quarter. Tatum led a second unit that erased a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter thanks to a 26-6 run to start the frame, allowing Boston to fight back for a 116-111 win against the previously undefeated Pacers. Tatum had a game-high 27 points and 11 rebounds while Jaylen Brown added 20 points but the star of the show in the final frame was Pritchard who posted 10 points along with a career-high 5 rebounds and 5 assists in the win. Tristan Thompson also posted his first double-double as a member of the Celtic (14 points, 10 rebounds) to help Boston overcome another hot shooting night by the Pacers over the first three quarters (Indiana shot 51 percent from the field). Malcolm Brogdon had a team-high 24 points for the Pacers who had six players finish in double figures and fell to 3-1 on the year.
The Celtics improved to 2-2 with the victory with a back-to-back looming in Boston on Wednesday against a Grizzlies team missing Ja Morant (sprained ankle).
TURNING POINT
The Celtics saw an eight-point first quarter lead erased by the Pacers second unit who had their way with most of Boston’s second unit for the second straight game.
TWO UP
Tristan Thompson: The big man almost had a double-double by himself in the first half, tallying up 10 points and 8 rebounds, including five on the offensive glass in his 15 minutes of action.
Javonte Green: The second-year swingman got the matchup assignment against the Doug McDermott after being a DNP-CD on Sunday night. He responded with a strong night defensively, limiting McDermott to just two points in the first half, while adding seven of his own on 3-of-5 shooting.
TWO DOWN
3-point defense: The Celtics let the Pacers find a healthy number of open 3-point looks all night and it showed in the numbers. Indiana hit 47 percent of their 3s on 9-of-19 shooting before intermission continuing a trend of soft perimeter defense for Boston this year.
Jeff Teague: The veteran had his third straight nightmare shooting performance in the first half, missing his four of his five shot attempts, including all three from inside the arc. He’s shooting 3-of-24 from 2-point range on the season through 3.5 games.
TOP PLAY
PG: Marcus Smart
SG: Jaylen Brown
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Tristan Thompson
C: Daniel Theis
that ball movement though ? pic.twitter.com/WbujqW70yJ
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) December 30, 2020
- The Celtics will be without Tacko Fall for the third straight game due to an eye infection. The Pacers will have starting guard Victor Oladipo in the lineup after he sat out Sunday's game due to rest.
- Payton Pritchard has been a bright spot off Boston's bench so far as a rookie, scoring a career-high 13 points in Sunday's loss, earning him more minutes. He believes the transition to the NBA has gone well for him so far. "I had an idea of what it would look like. It’s obviously a lot of traveling, late nights and stuff like that, so recovery and nutrition and all that, you’ve definitely got to take that stuff serious, but it’s been going great so far," he said.
- Jeff Teague has missed 11 straight shots over his last two games despite getting to the free throw line a team-high 10 times in Sunday's loss.
- The Celtics picked up team options for 2021-22 on Grant Williams, Romeo Langford and Rob Williams before Tuesday's deadline, as expected.