Everything you need to know about the Celtics' win over the Pacers, with BSJ insight and analysis.
IN A NUTSHELL
The worst offense in the league came out blistering hot (again) and put up 39 on their way to an 11-point first-quarter lead. That flipped in the second quarter as Payton Pritchard led a monster run to go up 14. Sam Hauser got hot in the third to push the lead to 20, and the Pacers never challenged from there.
HEADLINES
- Hot shooting: The Celtics shot 51% from 3, powered by Sam Hauser’s 7-8 night. They hit 20 3-pointers, but the story of this game might actually be the mid-range shooting. Look at these shot zones.
That's a lot of green all over the court.
- Hot start, cold finish: The Pacers hit their first six from deep and shot 7-12 from 3 in the first quarter. Not quite their 8-9 in the first of their game on Monday, but it was still pretty ridiculous shooting. The difference in this game was they didn’t wait until halftime to come back down to earth. They went cold in the second quarter, shooting 11-32 the rest of the game.
- Hot streak: Boston has now won four straight games, and the rest of their road trip features teams under .500. The Celtics have the fewest games in the East against teams under .500, and they’re now 8-3 against those teams.
TURNING POINT
The second quarter was a bloodbath. The first part of it was a slower walk-down of the lead and then the Celtics whipped off a 13-0 run that put them up 12 and that was it. They ended up winning the second 47-22.
THINGS I LIKED
- The second quarter: When I say the Celtics killed the Pacers from midrange in the second quarter, I mean it.
They were 9-12 between the restricted area and the 3-point line. Pritchard was the guy doing most of the damage, hitting 6-8 in that area. This was just a professional walk-down of the lead until they could hit the death blow.
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