BSJ Game Report: Celtics 105, Pacers 102 - Jaylen Brown wins ECF MVP, C's head to the Finals

INDIANAPOLIS -- Everything you need to know about the Celtics Game 4 win to sweep the Pacers, with BSJ insight and analysis

IN A NUTSHELL

The Celtics came out hot from 3 while the Pacers actually shot normally for once, but Indiana got a ton of second chances to stay close. The game continued back-and-forth in the second, with the Celtics going up as much as five but Andrew Nembhard, who had 12 in the second, hit a buzzer-beater to make it a one-point game at the half. The Pacers ended the third up three thanks to sloppy, disjointed overall play and cold Celtics shooting. The Pacers led by nine early in the fourth, but the Celtics closed the final 8:57 on a 20-8 run to hold on for the sweep.

Bos Score

HEADLINES 

- Back to the Finals: What more is there to say? Whatever people want to say about this team … hell, about this game … the Celtics are 12-2 in the playoffs and heading to the NBA Finals. They earned it with four hard wins, three of which legitimately could have gone the other way. 

- Executing down the stretch: I wrote about it to start the day. Their clutch execution has been great, and it came through once again. 

“I thought for most of the game we were getting really good looks, we just had to chip away, chip away, chip away at it and just continue to execute,” Joe Mazzulla said. “We did a good job holding them to one shot, and we did a good job executing. So I thought the guys just did a great job embracing staying present and embracing the moment.”

Pascal Siakam hit a floater with 3:33 to go, Mazzulla called a timeout, and Indiana never scored again. 

- Jaylen Brown, MVP: Cedric Maxwell called Brown’s name as the Larry Bird trophy winner and Brown was legitimately shocked. 

“I wasn’t expecting it at all,” he said after the game. “I don’t never win shit so. I’m just happy that we won.”

Brown probably sealed the award with his closing sequence when he blocked Nembhard on one end and then hit Derrick White with the drive-and-kick 3-pointer in the corner. 

“Great shot. We work on that all the time: 2-on-1 reads,” Brown said. “I was able to get to the paint with Turner on me and just found him. Before, I told D-White, ‘Just stay ready. It’s coming.’ And that was just a big shot – big shot – to put us up three and help us advance to the finals.”

TURNING POINT

Brown drew the fifth foul on Myles Turner with 5:36 to go and hit both free throws. Tatum followed that up by attacking Turner and hitting a step-back 3-pointer. That cut an eight-point lead down to five and triggered the big closing run to win the game.  

THINGS I LIKED

- The Jays: Brown finished with 29 points on 50% shooting across the board (yes, including free throws), six rebounds, two assists, three steals, and a block. Jayson Tatum had 26 on 11-26 shooting, 13 rebounds, and eight assists. I wasn’t thrilled with the offense in this game but they were able to do enough against their matchups to lead Boston to the win. 

- Derrick White: He was 1-8 from 3 when he took that ninth 3-pointer. Like I said before the game, just keep letting them fly even when they're not falling and trust that they will eventually. But his biggest impact was on the defensive end, where he blocked three shots and got five steals. The entire Pacers team combined for five steals.

- Jrue Holiday: He finished with 17 points on 7-13 shooting, and one of my favorite plays was him backing down Obi Toppin, finishing through contact, and capping a 3-point play to cut it to two. Toppin is a 6’9” power forward and Holiday used a combination of speed and power to make the play look easy. 

- Al Horford: After needing to hit seven 3-pointers to win Game 3, Horford dished five assists and grabbed eight rebounds, all of which felt huge. 

“Just continue to do everything I can to impact winning,” Horford said. “That’s always been my focus and trying to help the team in different ways defensively. If I have to shoot the ball because that’s what called of me, that’s what I’m going to do. If I have to pass it—like tonight I felt like I had to distribute a little more and make sure I got the ball in other guys’ hands. For me it’s whatever it takes, I just want to win.”

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE

- It doesn’t matter right now. We’ve got 10 days to break down Boston’s flaws and how they might get exploited. I’ll just say that I didn’t like their energy for most of the game and for a stretch it didn’t look like anyone wanted to win this game. But Boston did and they're going to the Finals so these three sentences will have to cover the negativity. 

HIGHLIGHTS

TWO TAKES KARALIS WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

- Joe Mazzulla is a good coach

I feel good taking this victory lap. 

Remember all regular season when Mazzulla wouldn’t call timeouts and he tried to get his team to figure stuff out on their own? Remember how I kept saying how teams view regular season games as chapters in a book that are building to a conclusion where fans see each game as individual stories? 

This is what I was talking about. Suddenly, the Mazzulla timeout thing isn’t a thing anymore because he calls them when he needs them. He out-coached Rick Carlisle in this series. He pushed all the right buttons to get his team to find a way to win. 

I knew Mazzulla was the right call by Brad Stevens last year, but he still had a lot to prove. My belief solidified this season. And now here he is, taking a team to the NBA Finals in his second year. The man knows what he’s doing. 

- They did it their way

Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” is one of my favorite songs, and it kinda jives with what Mazzulla has been getting his Celtics to believe. 

Winning is hard, it will look different every game, so just embrace whatever moment you’re in and figure out how to get the win. Mazzulla has been defiant, as defiant as the song, when it comes to expectations. When all the noise surrounding the team is about how things “should” go, Mazzulla has been focused on how things did go. 

There are still four more wins to be won, so no one is celebrating anything yet. But they can feel good about their unconventional path to dominance. They built a team a certain way, it had to learn and figure things out over the course of seven months, and now they’ve gotten themselves back into the championship series. 

The belief in them wasn’t always there. It still isn’t from some people. But ask them if they give a damn. 

“Through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up, and spit it out. I faced it all, and I stood tall, and did it my way.”

Next up: Game 1 of the NBA Finals will be June 6.