POST GAME INDY PACERS - AWAY - BOS 117, IND 97 Final

Celtics Wrap: Boston Defeats Indiana 117-97 In Playoff Preview

NESN by Chris Grenham on Fri, Apr 5, 2019 at 10:28PM

After sweeping a home-and-home against the Miami Heat on Monday and Wednesday, the Celtics were able to sneak by the Indiana Pacers to push themselves into sole possession of the No.4 seed in the Eastern Conference with two games remaining in the regular season.

Jayson Tatum had a game-high 22 points to lead the Celtics. Gordon Hayward (21 points), Kyrie Irving (17), Marcus Morris (11), Al Horford (11) and Aron Baynes (11) all scored in double figures.

Pacers lone top scorer.

With the win, the Celtics jump to 47-32 and are now one game ahead of the Pacers for the No. 4 s

Here’s how it all went down.

STARTING FIVE
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Marcus Smart
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Al Horford
C: Aron Baynes

STRONG START, WEAK FINISH
Both teams got off to a hot start over the first few minutes, but the opening frame quickly turned into a gritty, physical matchup with lots of interior play. Boston was beat up on the glass towards the end of the quarter which ultimately hurt them on both sides of the ball in the early going.

The Celtics shot 50 percent for the quarter, but trailed by three heading into the second thanks to forcing zero turnovers.

Baynes took home the highlight of the first 12 minutes with his slam over Myles Turner.

Irving led all scorers after one with 11 points.

AGGRESSIVE C’s
Hayward was very aggressive on the offensive end in the second, which always bodes well for the Celtics’ offense. He had eight points in the first four minutes of the quarter, acting as the primary scorer with Irving on the bench.

The Celtics locked up on the defensive side of the ball as well, preventing the Pacers from any shot creation. The allowed just 20 points on 36.4 percent shooting during the second quarter, while outscoring Indiana 25-15 over the last nine minutes of the half.

Irving was a wizard as usual, creating shots like this out of nothing.

Irving had 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting heading into the break.

SMOTHERING DEFENSE TURNS TO OFFENSE
Boston’s defense did not let up after halftime, as they kept the pressure on Indiana right out of the gate.

The Celtics prevented the Pacers from finding any rhythm and turned their stops into easy points at the other end, but it was Hayward’s continued aggressive and patient play that led the charge. He had 18 points on 8-of-8 shooting after three..

Boston outscored Indiana 67-47 in the second and third quarters to take a 91-74 into the fourth.

THE FINAL TOUCHES
Back-to-back Jayson Tatum dunks led a Celtics’ run that ultimately put this one away early in the fourth quarter, giving Boston a 102-80 lead.

With every blowout comes the much-wanted Guerschon Yabusele – Robert Williams led lineup, and tonight it included a Time Lord alley-oop.

PLAY OF THE GAME
Tatum throws it down with authority.

NEXT UP
The Celtics welcome the Orlando Magic to TD Garden on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. ET.

112288

Patience.

Chris Grenham, earn your paycheck. Celts jump to 48-32, not 47-32 with two games left. One more win we clinch 4th place. Two wins and two losses by Philly (improbable) we clinch 3rd..

"the Celtics were able to sneak by the Indiana Pacers".

A 20 point win is "sneaking past the Indiana Pacers" lead by a marching band.


bob


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bobheckler wrote:"the Celtics were able to sneak by the Indiana Pacers".

A 20 point win is "sneaking past the Indiana Pacers" lead by a marching band.


bob


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Saw that head scratcher.

GH confirming he is back just at the right time, love what we’ve been getting from Al, great strategy of resting him throughout season as he looks great as well. Jason Tatum attacking and looking all world on his finishes and drives, whenever he gets around to putting it together will be worth the wait. So refreshing to see a guy like Wanamaker that just knows how to play, can use a screen and bury mid range jumpers....Our defense really got after them for stretches. Kyrie got us off to hot start, glad Rozier didn’t play. I’d rest Jaylen until playoffs, backs can be tricky things. But this game was all about GH GH GH!!!!

Off topic somewhat, but did the team stop feeding Robert Williams? Kid looks like a twig, much skinnier than Al. He doesn’t look ready for the give and take, pushing and leaning that all 5’s have to endure in the paint, he looks closer to 220 than 240...???

cowens/oldschool wrote:Off topic somewhat, but did the team stop feeding Robert Williams? Kid looks like a twig, much skinnier than Al. He doesn’t look ready for the give and take, pushing and leaning that all 5’s have to endure in the paint, he looks closer to 220 than 240...???

Cow,

He was always a twig, I've been saying that for a while.  That's why, when so many people were yelling to put him in against BIG centers I didn't think it was such a good idea.  Williams against Cousins, or Embiid?  I'll give him credit, he did a lot better against Anthony Davis than I thought he would but night-in-night-out against those monsters will wear him down to a nub I think.


bob


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Game ball goes to GH.  When was the last time a Celtics went 9-9 from the field.

Boston has now won both B2B games against Miami and Indiana.  I did not expect to see that but I also did not expect that GH would be playing his best basketball of the season.  The recent play of GH combined with having Baynes in the starting lineup has transformed this team.

Baynes is a perfect compliment for AH and Hayward is a perfect compliment for Kyrie because you can run the offense through Hayward when he becomes the point forward.

Things however may become a bit more crowded when Jaylen Brown returns forcing Stevens to juggle limited minutes.

Philly plays Chicago tonight and if they lose the pressure will continue to build up.

Dboss when Jaylen does come back, hopefully the healthy version of himself, that would be less minutes for Morris and Rozier, that’s a good thing....

bobheckler wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Off topic somewhat, but did the team stop feeding Robert Williams? Kid looks like a twig, much skinnier than Al. He doesn’t look ready for the give and take, pushing and leaning that all 5’s have to endure in the paint, he looks closer to 220 than 240...???

Cow,

He was always a twig, I've been saying that for a while.  That's why, when so many people were yelling to put him in against BIG centers I didn't think it was such a good idea.  Williams against Cousins, or Embiid?  I'll give him credit, he did a lot better against Anthony Davis than I thought he would but night-in-night-out against those monsters will wear him down to a nub I think.


bob


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Kid is injury prone enough, he better put on some muscle, we have other picks to find some beef....

Hi,
It's a very important win. First, Celtics established firm grip of #4 seed. Second and more important, they established themselves as a better team in Pacers' heads.
I just hope they won't relax and finish them in playoffs in 4 or 5 games.
Last night, Brad sat TR in favor of Wanamaker. Great move. Not that BW is a better player but he did what he was told to do and it helped.
I agree with Cow - keep JB off until the playoffs. I would drastically cut minutes (for the last 2 games) or even rest all starters.

AK

cowens/oldschool wrote:Dboss when Jaylen does come back, hopefully the healthy version of himself, that would be less minutes for Morris and Rozier, that’s a good thing....

I do not know how the rotation will look with a healthy roster.  

One things seems pretty obvious.  Gordon Hayward looks ready to assume a bigger role on this team.  And Boston can match up with any team in the front court with a healthy Baynes.  

The big key is for every player to maximize their time on the court and contribute to winning and in many cases doing all the little things along the way

I did not see this coming.  I hoped it would be a good game and, depending upon which Celtic team showed up, we could win but I didn't see this being a blow out.  At least not going our way.  Always happy to be wrong when I am cautiously but incorrectly pessimistic.

We got some friendly whistles in the first half I think, and I'm sure the Comments From The Other Side thread will show Pacer fans agree with me, but in the end they took 19 ftas and we only got 16.  So the whistles weren't so one-sided.  Could they have gotten another half dozen or so more ftas?  Sure, but they only hit 11 of the 19 they took, so how many more points would a half dozen or even a dozen more fritos have earned them at that rate?  We hit 14 of 16.  Fewer fritos, 3 more points.  This game was won on efficiency.

And volume.  Both teams took a fast paced 92 fgas.  We had 10 more fgm from them, and there, more or less, is your 20 point difference in the final score.

Jayson Tatum was aggressive and it paid off.  It's that simple, you attack and good things happen (you should listen too, Jaylen).  Brad and the coaches are trying to break him of the habit of taking long 2s.  "Take a 3 or go for the layup".  It makes sense from a metric perspective, but Tatum is most comfortable with long 2s.  Maybe Brad, who is best at figuring out how best to use a player, should just let him do what he feels best at?

Baynes with another double-double.  He is our rebounder-in-chief.  2 blocks too.

Horford's game matched up pretty well against Miles Turner.  When our 3rd or 4th leading scorer can neutralize one of their top scorers, he has done his job.

I love that we didn't need to ride Kyrie like he was Secretariat to win this.  I'm sure he's feeling pretty good about that today too.  There were two players, Tatum and Hayward, who had more points than him.  When was the last time Kyrie was the #3 scorer and we won in a laugher?  Some will say it's precisely because Kyrie didn't hog the ball this happen but I think Tatum taking 19 fgas, and scoring 22 points, has more to do with Jayson Tatum than it does with Kyrie Irving.

The happiest person on this board today, however, has to be Rosalie.  While the rest of us blew hot-and-cold on Gordon Hayward as he struggled to work himself back to where he was pre-injury she never lost faith in him (although that's how she is with just about everybody who wears green).  You cannot have a more efficient game than he had last night.  21 points on 9-9, 3-3 from the line.  ZERO 3pt fgas.  That's unusual, to say the least, especially on a Brad Stevens team but damn if it didn't work out fine.  I am really enjoying watching him work.  He just goes where he wants to go, takes whatever they give him.  They overplay him and try to force him left he goes left, they try to force him right he goes right, but in general he is always trying to go north-south as soon as he gets past their initial play.  7 of his 9 fgas were in the paint and the other 2 were 21' long 2s.  He's not trying to outrun anybody, although he did finish a fast break at the buzzer to end the half, he's just getting guys on his hip and then inching his way in until the defender in front of him commits to something and then he takes what he is given.  In this league of 3-happy bombers it's fun to watch a guy whose athleticism is still not 100% back playing the game of basketball at a high level.   We were worried about our bench.  Rozier is sucking, Brown was injured and not playing well (although he has had a very nice last few weeks, in my opinion) and Morris' shooting has fallen off the table.  The return of OG couldn't be timelier.

Terry Rozier, 3 points on 1-2, a 3 of course, 0 rebounds and 1 assist in 7 minutes.  Brad Wanamaker, 9 points on 4-5, 2 rebounds and 3 assists in 17 minutes.  Changing of the guard?  Match ups?  We'll see over the next 2 games.  If BW starts getting rotation minutes it isn't unreasonable to see that as BS losing confidence in TR and is warming BW up for a more pronounced role in the playoffs.  If Rozier is back to playing his usual minutes and BW returns to picking splinters out of his gluteus maximus then it was match ups.  I don't care either way, I just want performance but, for what it's worth, I think Rozier has been given ample opportunity to establish himself and has struggled all year, but especially since the All-Star game, while Brad Wanamaker has been steadily delivering every time he gets put in.

They shot 43.5% from 3, while we shot 25.9%.  Usually that's the Kiss of Death in this NBA, but we killed them will high efficiency 2-point shooting.  We had 26 fast break points vs 16 for them.   More fast break points, matched them in points in the paint.  This is winning playoff basketball.  Just in time.

Bogdanovich killed us last time.  We did a great job of holding him to 4 points on 1-8.  When Marcus Smart scores more than an offensive player like Bogie you know things are rolling your way.

Our Magic Number to own the #4 spot, and at least one home court playoff series, is 1. Any combination of Celtic wins in our last 2 or Indy losses totaling 1 and we're there. Our last 2 games are Orlando @ home and @ Washington. Indy's last 2 games are Brooklyn @ home and @ Atlanta. I wouldn't count on Indy losing either of theirs but we almost certainly will win at least one of ours.

http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=401071856






bob



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sinus007 wrote:
Last night, Brad sat TR in favor of Wanamaker. Great move. Not that BW is a better player but he did what he was told to do and it helped.
I agree with Cow - keep JB off until the playoffs. I would drastically cut minutes (for the last 2 games) or even rest all starters.

AK

Thats not what happened. TRo was sick

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/celtics-terry-rozier-leaves-pacers-game-early-illness

mrkleen09 wrote:

sinus007 wrote:
Last night, Brad sat TR in favor of Wanamaker. Great move. Not that BW is a better player but he did what he was told to do and it helped.
I agree with Cow - keep JB off until the playoffs. I would drastically cut minutes (for the last 2 games) or even rest all starters.

AK

Thats not what happened.  TRo was sick

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/celtics/celtics-terry-rozier-leaves-pacers-game-early-illness

Hi,
I didn't know that. Hope he's OK.
I just looked at the trend: game vs Mia BW played 13min, last game - 17 min.

AK

BW's play must really be making TRo sick.

TRo’s play has made us all sick. Wanamaker is a breath of fresh air, remember Steve Blake? that guy was limited, but knew the nuances/little things to help a team. He must have played in the league 10 years or more on guile, that’s what Rozier is lacking....

BW is an effective role player. Effective and efficient. Terry is a fine athlete who could be scary good. Too bad his head cramps have hindered his development as a top flight NBA player.

I do believe this game was a statement to Nate Macmillan. He has done a great job after the unfortunate fall of Oladipo. But this game was the nail in the coffin. He's taken this about as far as anyone could have expected with your star out for the season.

With that, I am leaning toward the broom or close with 4-1 for us, but IND season will come to its expected, inevitable end sooner rather than later.

db