BSJ Game Report: Celtics 133, Pacers 128 - C's steal Game 1 win thanks to late Pacers mistakes

Everything you need to know about the Celtics Game 1 win over the Pacers, with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics exploded out of the gate on a 12-0 run and held a lead of about seven for most of the quarter but the Pacers whipped off a late 11-5 run to make a three-point game after one. The Celtics got the lead back up to 10 but the Pacers shot the lights out, led by Myles Turner, to tie the game at the half. The Celtics methodically built a 13-point lead in the third, but a 16-4 answer cut the lead to just one heading into the fourth. Jrue Holiday carried Boston for a while, but the Pacers just couldn't miss. They also couldn't inbound up three with 10 seconds to go, opening the door for a Jaylen Brown 3 to send it to overtime. Jayson Tatum shook off a lot of struggles to score 10 in the overtime and give Boston the win. 

Box Score

HEADLINES

- A gift: The path to a championship is littered with luck, so there's no need to apologize for taking the gifts left at their doorstep. The Pacers turned the ball over twice in the final :28 of the fourth quarter amid three Celtics misses (two by Tatum), but Brown was able to make the shot that mattered to get it to OT. 

- Settling down and executing: There are two sides to this coin. First, the Celtics did not execute well down the stretch of the fourth, but they took advantage of the gift. Then once they got to overtime, they did the things they needed to do to win. Tatum shook off whatever was holding him back to close the game out. 

- Big-time performances: Brown didn’t just make the shot, he made the defensive play to get Boston that extra possession. Jrue Holiday played 48 minutes, scored 28 points, and took on the bulk of the Tyrese Haliburton matchup. Tatum, despite a brutal late-game stretch, put up 10 points in the overtime, grabbed 12 rebounds and was a team-best +20.

TURNING POINT

Tatum scored six straight points in less than 30 seconds to turn a two-point deficit into a four-point lead, a lead they’d hold onto for good. 

THINGS I LIKED

- Belief: “The game is not over until the final whistle, the final buzzer sounds,” Brown said after the game. Even though some fans had already left the building. Even though a lot of us had declared the game is done. The Celtics held onto the belief that the game doesn’t end until it ends. The Celtics got some luck, but they also manufactured some of their own luck by fighting until the end. 

“JB making that shot was just unbelievable,” Al Horford said. “Once he did that, I feel like that kind of picked us back up. At that point, we were confident that we had an opportunity, to get a stop, to finish the quarter and head to overtime. Just a big play by him there. In the OT, executing and getting stops when we needed to was key."

- Jaylen Brown: He was great the whole night. He was tough on both ends of the floor, coming up with some big steals while also shooting 50% on his way to 26/7/5. 

- Jrue Holiday: He played 48 minutes and didn’t sit at all after halftime. After the game, he credited the long layoff for allowing him to get through all those minutes. He was huge in the fourth quarter, scoring eight of his 28 points. 

“Just huge, just very assertive on the offensive end,” Horford said. “He was unbelievable tonight. It was a lot of fun watching him just kind of go and do his thing and just put his imprint on the game. Whether it's posting up or whether it's shooting threes. He was just all over the place.”

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

The offense after they made runs: The most important possession for the Celtics might be the one right after they get a 12-point lead. For example, it was 12-0 Boston out of a timeout, they got a stop, and were out in transition with a chance to make it 14. But Brown threw an alley oop to Tatum that was stolen by Aaron Nesmith and the Pacers scored. That triggered a 7-2 Pacers run to get them back into the game. 

When Boston went up 13 in the third quarter, Tatum turned the ball over and the Pacers scored after three offensive rebounds to get rolling on an 11-2 run. 

The Pacers will make runs on their own. Boston’s bad offense after taking those leads led to them not being able to build on those leads and the Pacers closing the gap. Those are missed opportunities that the Celtics can’t repeat. 

- The bench: Not having Xavier Tillman, who missed the game due to the death of his father, was unfortunate for Boston. I think they could have used him instead of Luke Kornet, to struggled through a lot of his minutes. Sam Hauser was just not good at all. And Payton Pritchard had eight points but did not do well against TJ McConnell. 

- Derrick White: Imagine a game where both he and Holiday play well together. 

HIGHLIGHTS

FOUR TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- There are no style points

They won the game. There is a lot to fix for Game 2, but they are doing this after a win. That's not a game they win last season. 

- This Game 2 won’t be the same

“First two rounds, we won our first Game 1 by a large margin,” Tatum explained after the game. “Tonight, being a close game, going to overtime, they certainly feel like they probably should have won. We feel like we can play a lot better. So I’m excited to come out and respond, and just do a better job of protecting homecourt than we have done recently.”

That nails it. Part of the reason why the first two Games 2 were so problematic was the feeling of superiority over a bad opponent. The only thing this game should do is focus the Celtics. This was a freebie for them and they know it. 

- Game 2 will be very different 

The Celtics probably can’t count on being +15 from the free-throw line again. The Pacers are probably not going to hit 12-23 from the midrange again. A lot of what we saw won’t be duplicated in Game 2. It’s going to be a very different game. 

- Jayson Tatum is a lucky man

I shudder to think of the stories that would have been written about him if they lost this game. The overtime gave him a chance to redeem himself and change the narrative from guy who choked down the stretch of the fourth quarter to guy who struggled but shook it off to take over in OT. 

Winners get to write history 

Next up: Game 2 is Thursday night at 8 here at TD Garden