BSJ Game Report: Celtics 142, Pacers 138 (OT) - Offensive rebounds save Celtics from themselves

Everything you need to know about the Celtics' overtime win over the Indiana Pacers, with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics came out a little sloppy with 7 first-quarter turnovers, a bunch of them coming early. But the Celtics' offense otherwise looked pretty good, and went on a pair of big runs to build a 9-point lead. However, the Pacers made a late run to cut that to 3. The Celtics were able to get the lead into double-digits in the second with Jayson Tatum on the bench and as high as 16 but the Pacers kept it close into the half, and then opened the third with a monster run. From there, it was a back-and-forth game. Whenever Boston made any kind of run, the Pacers answered (often with a 3). Late mistakes cost Boston a chance to close it out in regulation, and the mistakes carried into the overtime, but Marcus Smart got the Celtics off to a good start and Tatum’s putback in the final minute sealed the win. 

Box Score 

HEADLINES

Offensive rebounds save Celtics: They had 20 offensive rebounds and 22 second-chance points compared to Indy’s 10 and 13. This is where the game was won. The Celtics extended possessions and got 5 more shots than Indiana. We can say what we want about a lot of aspects of this game, but offensive rebounding is about effort, so Boston wasn’t just being lazy the whole game. 

A taste of their own medicine: The Pacers shot 22 of 49 from 3 and still lost. Myles Turner set career highs with 40 points and 8 made 3-pointers (he was 8-10!). They were bombing away and keeping this game close no matter what Boston did. This is usually what the Celtics do to other teams. 

Brogdon’s return: He put up 24 points against his former team, and consistently hit key shots all night. He helped the Celtics win the bench battle 51-44.

Points a-plenty: 142-138 final almost matches the 2013 All Star game final of 143-138 and is more combined points than 8 All-Star games since the year 2000.

TURNING POINT

Benedict Mathurin fouled Marcus Smart taking a 3-pointer just :40 into the overtime, and then compounded the foul by drawing a technical foul. The Celtics went from down 3 to up 1 in a blink, and while the Pacers were able to tie the game up a couple of times after that, they never took the lead. 

SECOND GUESS

Boston grabbed a Pacers miss and had the ball with 26.3 seconds left and a 5 second difference on the shot clock. Jaylen Brown streaked up the right sideline and lofted a pass to Al Horford that sailed out of bounds, giving Indiana the ball with 22.2 seconds left. 

Luckily, Smart played great defense on the final possession to force a miss. 

Personally, I would have stopped the play in the backcourt and called the timeout to draw something up and make sure the Celtics got something good; something where the clock could have been drawn down and then set up for a good shot. Maybe they could have subbed Derrick White back into the game for an additional shooter, or Robert Williams for a lob threat, or both.

I understand the argument against it, but in this game, against this team, I would have set something up to try to avoid the OT. If nothing else, it would have given the Pacers a lot less time on the other end. 

FOUR UP

Malcolm Brogdon: 24 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds in 36 minutes. He went 5-6 on 3-pointers, and always seemed to hit big shots all night. He added 2 steals defensively and had just 1 turnover. 

Derrick White: Carried the Celtics for a stretch on his way to 17 points on 50% shooting all around. Honestly, if we saw more Derrick White and less Marcus Smart in the early portions of the game, this could have been a much easier win in regulation.  

Sam Hauser: 13 minutes but 3 blocked shots and a whopping +14 in his limited time on the floor. He also had 8 points on 3-3 shooting (2-2 3pt). How many times are we ever going to lead with Hauser’s defense in a section like this moving forward?

Jaylen Brown: I was on the fence about this because he made some terrible defensive mistakes and he had some bad turnovers. But he shot well and finished with 30 points while coming out of the gates hot. Plus, he’s playing in the mask and I think there's an adjustment there that factored into some of his mistakes. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. 

It was also interesting that Joe Mazzulla went with Brown as the starter with the Brogdon/White pairing in the backcourt to start the second quarter. Tatum is usually the guy who gets that call to start second quarters (though Brown has gotten a few of these rotations before, so it’s not the first time). 

I’m curious to see how long this continues and whether Mazzulla is looking at it as Brown gets to cook without having to handle the ball whereas Tatum has generally had to be a creator with that group when they've been down players. It makes sense in theory, but I’m not sure how much sitting down Brown in the midst of a hot start helps things. I might just prefer to let Brown has his monster first quarters and go from there. 

FOUR DOWN

Grant Williams: I don’t know if the right arm is still an issue. He’s wearing a shooting sleeve on it, so it could still be problematic for him. If it is, then sit a few games. This is not the time to be proud or stubborn. If it’s hurt, then sit. 

If it’s not hurt, then he was just flat-out terrible and the 6:11 he played was notable. He shouldn’t struggle as much as he did against the Pacers. 

Luke Kornet: Really rough night for him. He wasn’t strong enough for their bigs or quick enough to cover their wings. 

Jayson Tatum: While I skewed positive on Brown, I’m going negative on Tatum despite his putback to seal the game. He finished with 31 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block, he called that “a good stat line, but really not a good game." He did have a 10 point fourth quarter, finally hitting some shots, but I’m sticking with him here. He was just bad enough, long enough, for me to skew down. 

Marcus Smart: He and Tatum combined for 9 of Boston’s 15 turnovers. He threw some of the worst passes I’ve seen anyone throw, which is very unlike Smart. His bad games are almost always shooting-related first, so him being in some kind of passing funk is weird. He was so bad in this game, I would have understood if he was benched for the OT. 

TOP PLAYS 

THREE TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- The Celtics lose that game against a more seasoned team: We can argue that, maybe, they wouldn’t have come out so terribly to start the third quarter against a better team. We can also argue that maybe if Turner doesn't turn into Steph Curry, the Celtics would have had an easier time in this game. 

All I know is that if the Pacers were smarter down the stretch, Boston would have lost this game the way it was being played. 

- I do not envy the decisions Mazzulla has to make: Mazzulla will have some tough decisions to make every night. For all the talk about how great the depth is and how great Derrick White was, White sat the final 6:21 of the fourth quarter and all of overtime. I want to scream about that, but … who does he replace? The easy argument would have been Smart, but he went on to lead Boston with 7 points in the overtime.

Maybe it’s matchup-dependent, but someone playing well will end up having to sit like White did down the stretch.

- I’m willing to look past this if they play well in Philadelphia Saturday night: This very easily could have been a case of easing back into things after the break. I don’t like it, but if they come out strong against Philly and follow it up against the Knicks on Monday with a good effort, then I think we can write this off as a clunky win over a tough but young team. 

Next up: The Celtics head to Philadelphia to face the Sixers at 8:30 p.m.