INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Pacers were back home after putting in crazy work on their five game road trip winning four of the five. The Eastern Conference’s third place team, the Boston Celtics, rolled into town with a chip on their shoulder. They jumped all over the Pacers going up by as many as 19 points only to hold on for dear life and winning by the hair of their chinny-chin-chin 114-111.
The C’s jumped out of the ride and went on a 16-9 run. Nate and Co. called a timeout to reset. Indiana then made a run to squeeze it to 18-15 Boston. However, the Celtics were shooting that thang going up by as many as 15 points in the second quarter.
Indiana never gave up as they continued to be aggressive with the rock but it was hard to slow down boys like Jayson Tatum and Gordon Hayward. Tatum dropped off 20 of his 30 points in the first half as Hayward came through with 13 of his 27 points before the break.
At the half Boston was up 59-50. After scoring only 22 points in the first quarter the Pacers hustled their way back in by putting up 28 points in the second quarter. Victor Oladipo got red hot in the second period as he went 3 for 3 from behind the arc as he scored 13 of his 27 points before the half.
Boston came out of the break and went on a 11-6 run. Before I could settle back down into my seat Boston was sprinting through Indiana like wet toilet paper. By the time I bit into my hot dog good it was 75-58 with a little more than 7 minutes left in the third quarter. Boston was shooting 80 percent from the field at the 6 minute mark of the third. That was NUTS!!!
The Blue and Gold didn’t throw in the towel though. They continued to sniff around the chicken coup playing with some heart but Boston was still holding them off. At the end of three quarters they were up 94-80.
Indiana jumped out of the ride on the Brad Stevens squad to start the fourth quarter as they went on a 19-2 run to knot it up at 104-104 with 2:30 left to play. Sabonis knocked down a shot to put the Pacers up 107-104 for the first time since they were up 2-0 in the first quarter.
With 49 seconds left Marcus Smart got to the rack to put the C’s up 111-109. Oladipo missed a three with 18 seconds left to play. Boston got the rock back as Kemba Walker was fouled and got to the foul line with 17.4 left to play. He missed the first of two free throws to give Boston a three point lead 112-109.
Sabonis tipped in an Oladipo miss with 7 seconds left to make it 114-111. Indiana got the rock back and Justin Holiday missed the final attempt as Boston got out of the joint alive.
Domantas Sabonis led the Pacers with 28 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. Oladipo had 27 and Myles Turner dropped off 16 points. Indiana only got 14 points from their bench with Justin Holiday scoring 8 of those.
Jayson Tatum led all scorers with 30 points and Gordon Hayward finished with 27.
Up next: The Pacers travel to Philly on Saturday to play the 76ers.
