BOSTON — For the second game in a row the Indiana Pacers fell asleep at the wheel in the second half. This time they literally fell off of a cliff in the fourth quarter being outscored 31-12 to drop Game 2 99-91. At one point they went on a scoring drought for darn near 8 minutes before finding a bucket. Down 2-0 it’s going to be a problem getting back into this series.
The Cetlics jumped out of the ride and went on a 7-2 run to start the game. However, Indiana wasn’t about to get punk’d as they settled down on defense and before I could bite into my hog dog they were up 20-13 by the 6:31 mark of the first quarter.
Nate McMillan had so much confidence in his bench that he had four cats from the bushes on the floor in the first quarter. Tyreke Evans, Corey Joseph, Doug McDermott and Domantas Sabonis were all seeing the floor early to hold the Pacers down.
Indiana was on fire as they got started shooting 73 percent from the field and 80 percent from behind the arc. Bojan Bogdanovic put up 10 of this 23 points in the first quarter. Darren Collision and Wesley Matthews both picked up two personal fouls in the opening period. However, Nate’s crew led 33-29 at the end of the first quarter shooting 65 percent from the field.
Please don’t trip and act like Kyrie didn’t come to work as he’d dropped off 10 of this 37 points and 5 of his 7 assists by the 8:58 mark of the second quarter.
Indiana started off 4-4 from three point land and then fell off of the wagon going 0-8 from downtown. However, they were still able to maintain a lead of 44-40 with 3:35 left in the half. As much as Indiana tried to force their will on the Celtics, Kyrie kept reminding boyz that he was on the floor as he ended the first half with a floater to put Boston up 52-50. Ole boy dropped 18 points in the first two quarters.
Boyz came out of the break trading baskets. Then all of a sudden Boston went cold for darn near four minutes as the Pacers went on a 10-0 run. Before I could put cheese on my nachos it was 70-58 Indiana with 6:06 left in the third.
Myles Turner was on the floor looking like he was about to start something like Michael Jackson as the Pacers put up a 29 point third quarter to begin the drag process. Well… what we thought was going to become the drag process. At the end of three Indiana was up 79-68.
It was the drag process alright, Boston woke up and went on a 10-3 run to open the fourth quarter as the place exploded when Jason Tatum darn near tore the rim down on a monster dunk to pull within 4 down 82-78.
Kyrie was still doing work on the offensive end as Indiana scored only 3 points in the fourth quarter up to the 5:47 mark which was NUTS!!! The Pacers couldn’t hit an elephant in the butt with a base fiddle. With 5:26 left to play Kyrie knocked down a 25-foot jumper to put the Celtics up 84-82.
Even though Indiana couldn’t buy a bucket for 8 minutes they were only down 86-82 with 3:40 left to play. Then Wesley Matthews finally knocked down a three-pointer from 25-feet to pull within one down 86-85.
Then Bojan Bogdanovic drained a three to put the Pacers up 88-87 before Gordon Hayward answered to put the C’s up 89-88 but Bojan comes right back down the floor and drains another three to go back up 91-88. Wesley Matthews hits a three-pointer to give Indiana life and the lead 92-91 with 32.4 seconds left.
That’s when the wheels completely fell off for the Blue and Gold. Gordon Hayward connects on a 2-foot layup then Jason Tatum jams one home on an And 1 and it was a wrap.
Kyrie led all scorers with 37 as Jason Tatum dropped off a cool 26. Gordon Hayward gave them 13 on his way to Big Momma’s house. The Pacers were led by Bojan Bogdanovic’s 23, Thaddeus Young’s 15 followed by Darren Collison who had 13 points. Myles Turner started off looking like he was going to raise hell but fell short only scoring 8 points and only grabbing 3 rebounds.
Pacers go down 2-0 head back to the crib to try to find some new life. Game 3 is Friday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.