Well this was an eventful night, wasn’t it?
On a night that the Celtics saw their roster re-made… again… the what’s-left-of-the-Celtics came out in Indy and promptly shat themselves for the better part of 36 minutes of pseudo-NBA basketball. Luckily for them, the Pacers were almost equally bad for enough of this game to keep it close enough for the streaky Celts to catch fire at the right time. The result: Another game where the Celtics went from un-watchable to amazing in the final quarter.
This game started with the worst four minutes of basketball you’ll ever watch. I could have played power forward and you would have seen no significant drop off in play. Yet the Celtics still held and early lead. That is until a 19-4 Pacers run put them up 12.
A largely even second quarter saw the Celtics go into the half down 9, 46-37.
Yeah. 37 points at halftime. On 34.8% shooting. Brandon Bass and Kelly Olynyk were each 3-6 at the half and each had a big hand keeping this close in the second quarter. STBFC* Bass made an immediately noticeable difference in the game… so… way to drive up that trade value.
Jared Sullinger led the Celtics with 8 points in the half. We also saw 7 minutes of James Young in the first half, which only saw him go 0-1.
The Celtics came out… let’s call it hot (as hot as a team shooting 34% could get) and cut the lead to 4. The Pacers snapped out of an 0-8 funk to counter with a 9-2 run. The Pacers got up as high as 9 in the third, but the Celtics continued to hang around to go into the 4th down 5.
The Pacers scored the first 7 points of the 4th to go up 12 before a Marcus Smart 3 stopped the run. The lead got pushed up to 13 before the Celtics whipped off an 8-0 run on a Bass 3-point play (on a pretty nasty dunk), a Smart 3, and a Bradley jumper forcing the Pacers to take a time out with 7:06 left. A Crowder backdoor cut shrunk the lead to 3 about a minute later. A Bass 3 (!!!) after a couple of Pacers free throws cut the lead to 2. A little back-and-forth later, a Marcus Smart 3 cut it to 1. After some squandered chances, the Celtics tied the game with 2 minutes left on a Bradley jumper. A Sullinger 3 after a Pacers make gave the Celtics their first lead since the first quarter. CJ Watson hit a jumper to give Indy a lead. Then Sullinger got called for an offensive foul on a pick and roll with :53 left to give the ball back to the Pacers. The Celtics failed to execute with the ball and :33 left. They fouled with :22 left, but CJ Miles only made 1 of 2, giving the Celtics the ball and time to take the last shot. What they got was an Evan Turner drive that drew a foul on Roy Hibbert with 9.7 left.
But…
He missed his first free throw.
After a make, the Celtics ended up fouling David West, who hit 2 free throws to give Indy a 3-point lead with 8.6 left.
But the Celtics weren’t done yet.
Avery Bradley hit a 3 (the Celtics 5th of the quarter, and his 11th point of the 4th), to tie the game. The Pacers, who had no timeouts left, couldn’t get a decent look… and off we went to OT.
OT started out looking like the Pacers would go on a run to put the Celtics away, but again, the Celtics hung around. They turned an early Pacers 4 point lead into a 1 point Celtics lead on a Turner J. It stayed that way until David West drew a foul with :31 left and hit 2 free throws to give Indy the lead. The ensuing possession was a jumbled mess that resulted in a Hibbert blocked shot, and fumble out of bounds off Marcus Smart. Miles went back to the line with 11.6 left to hit 2 free throws and give Indy another 3-point lead.. and the Celtics the ball with a chance to tie… again.
And they ALMOST did it.
Kelly Olynyk cleared space with an upfake that gave him a great look at a 3 that missed. Indy hit a free throw to ice it after that, and the Celtics wild comeback fell short in a 107-103 loss.
*Soon To Be Former Celtic
The Green:
The Celtics fight: The first 3 quarters of this game were pure shit. I mean… unadulterated, rancid death. But the team simply didn’t quit… and on a team like this, in a situation where they just saw two trades (well, one and an almost sorta kinda one) and had every reason to be demoralized… they didn’t quit. Hey, it’s the little things.
Avery Bradley’s second half: At what point do we just give in and give Bradley the “streaky shooter” label? He was 7-11 for 16 points after halftime, 1-6 for 2 points before it.
Brandon Bass: 17 points on 7-14 shooting off the bench. Few people will discuss this tomorrow with all the other madness, but Bass is maybe the biggest reason why the Celtics even had a chance.
The Gross:
I’ve already mentioned the first three quarters. I don’t know what more to say.
Tyler Zeller: Non-existent tonight. Probably because he couldn’t hang with Hibbert. The Celtics needed a heavy duty dose of Jared Sullinger’s wide base (It’s all about that base), mixed in with some zone defense, to neutralize the Pacers’ 11 foot tall center.
Evan Turner’s shooting: He was 3-15 and it feels like he had a bad game but he had 15 rebound and 7 assists. I admit that my judgment might be clouded here.
The Greenlights:
Bradley sends the game to OT
Smart’s no-look to Crowder
//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Marcus Smart crazy hustle and D
The Grid:
- Points in the paint: Celtics 42-30
- FG%: Celtics: 41-103 (39.8%) Pacers 34-92 (37%)
- 3 pointers: Celtics 10-34 (29.4%) Pacers 9-23 (37%)
- Free Throws: Celtics 11-16 (68.8%) Pacers 30-34 (88.2%)
Not much time to worry about this one with the Raptors on deck tomorrow night.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
