INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Pacers started the season 3-0 and have been purrin’ like a kitten under new head coach Nate Bjorkgren. They pulled up to Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Tuesday night still purrin’ looking to knock off the Boston Celtics for the second time in three days. They escaped with a 108-107 win on Saturday and through three quarters on Tuesday the Celtics looked like easy work.
Well…until they picked up the intensity on defense and Jayson Tatum put on the Superman tights and scored 14 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter. When the smoke cleared Boston was walking out of the joint with a 116-111 win over Indiana.
During the post-game Brad Stevens had this to say. “We’re not where we want to be. but sometimes you’ve got to find a way to win. We’ve got a long way to go to get to as good as we need to be.”
Boston outscored Indiana 33-17 in the fourth quarter to get out of the joint with a win and their dignity. However, not without an impressive night from Victor Oladipo.
The veteran guard led the Pacers with 24 points, 6 points and 6 rebounds. It’s hard to look at the box score and see only 6 assists from him because he was so impressive sharing the basketball. His passes were nuts!! It was the most impressive all around game I’ve seen him play since his injury.
I hope this is a premonition of things to come from Vic. If he can get going with Sabonis and TJ Warren on a consistent basis the Pacers will become a hard out for boyz in the East.
Indiana had six players in double figures including Oladipo. Malcolm Brogdon dropped off 19, TJ Warren added 17 while Myles Turner came through with 16. Domantas Sabonis had his usual solid double double with 14 points and 11 rebounds as Justin Holiday came off of the bench with 12.
Up next the Pacers host Cleveland in its usual New Years Eve throw down.
