POST GAME INDY PACERS - HOME

Celtics Wrap: Boston Earns Second Straight With Overtime Win Vs. Pacers
Boston made plays down the stretch in its 101-98 victory


NESN by Sean T. McGuire

Jayson Tatum knocked down a jumper to force overtime and the Boston Celtics put together their best stretch of the game in the five-minute extra period before claiming a 101-98 overtime victory over the Indiana Pacers at TD Garden.

The Celtics earned a second straight win Monday to move to 20-21 on the campaign while the Pacers fell to 15-26.

You can check out the full box score here.

ONE KEY TAKEAWAY
The Celtics shot 38% from the field during the first four quarters, but were much better on that end in the extra period as they hit four of their seven shots from the field and went 3-for-4 at the charity stripe. Boston made three of its first five shots to break the 89-89 tie at the end of regulation and did so with some good possessions.

Jaylen Brown made the extra pass to Grant Williams for a corner 3-pointer, Robert Williams pulled down a key offensive rebound which led to a Tatum pull-up jumper and Brown finished on a pair of baskets in the paint.

It was a much better showing over the final five minutes for the Celtics offense that it was for the opening 48 and Boston ultimately made enough plays to earn the win.


STARS OF THE GAME
— Jaylen Brown scored a team-high 26 points on 11-for-26 from the field with a pair of fourth-quarter 3-pointers and five points in overtime. Brown, who finished with a triple-double in Saturday’s win against the Knicks, added 15 rebounds, six assists and one block to go along with it.

— Robert Williams was a stat-sheet filler, most notably with his contributions on the defensive end of the floor. Williams finished with 14 points on 4-for-5 from the field while adding 12 rebounds, three steals and three blocks. He had a key block and offensive board in overtime.

— Indiana big man Domantas Sabonis finished with a triple-double of his own. Sabonis scored 11 points (3-for-12 from field) with 23 (!) rebounds and 10 assists.

WAGER WATCH
Williams scored 10 first-half points, hitting the Over 9.5 (-125) on his point prop before the second half even got started. It made it relatively painless night for those lucky bettors. A $125 bet at DraftKings Sportsbook paid out $225.


UP NEXT
The Celtics will travel to Indiana on Wednesday for their second consecutive game against the Pacers. Tip off is set for 7 p.m. ET.

112288

Mr. Robert Williams with 41 minutes tonight. He is averaging about 29 mpg for the season. Continued good health is so important for his and the team’s future.

Well, we have something we haven't been able to say in a while...a 2-game winning streak!! Not a memorable game by any stretch but still pulled out a "W" in OT against crappier competition. We have to take what we can get and can't be choosy at this point.

It's going to take 3 (maybe even 4) consistent scoring starters to make things click with the hyper-inconsistent J's. Menace is not it. MS is not it. AH ain't it. RWIII may be it. PP may be it but he needs to be Eddie House off the bench. Again, the strange thing I keep seeing is we are not having to play great ball to be in all these games regardless of the level of the competition. To raise the level on our end by just the slightest amount, we would go 41-0 from here on out. Seriously.

I've just watched the 1st half but the effort is there. Still some sloppy TO's but the effort is there. Lots of touches, passes and movement (speed). Again, I don't get it.

BTW, we're at the midpoint of the season, 40-41. Trade deadline a month away now.

db

A couple casual observations from last night's game:

Schroder: Oy. His defense may be the worst on the team. He helps and gambles when he shouldn't and doesn't guard when he should. His offense is dribble, dribble, dribble, ISO, make or miss. Or it's dribble, dribble, dribble, finally pass to a teammate whose only option is ISO, make or miss. He can score but he's no point guard. Rondo would sometimes dribble for a while but he was waiting for the other players to get to their spots or a play to develop. Schroder appears to be waiting for the sea to part.

Line Up: At the end of the game it was 2Js, RWill, GWill, and JRich. For some reason I felt we had five guys on the floor who knew what they were doing and why.

This was a needed win in a butt ugly game!

When Marcus went down it opened up the door for Dennis to step in and step up and run offense.  He failed miserably.  

As a result of playing with no PG we had to buckle down.  We had 20 turnovers but in the 4th we had 3 and had 1 in OT.  The Celtics made every effort to win this game.  They had some spacing issues but they stuck with the program.  Case in point, even though Grant could not buy a bucket all game long, Jaylen still passed the ball to him for his only basket, a corner 3 with 2 minutes left in OT.  it was a big shot by him in what can only be described as a very poor game.

JT had 8 turnovers and really struggled from deep (going 0-7)  however he did collect 12 rebounds and hit that corner step back 2 pointer, money.

Jaylen Brown had an impressive game.  He set a career high with 15 rebounds.  he had 6 assists with no turnovers.  He also led the team with 26 points.  With all the mindless chatter about him needing to be traded he has been playing really well.  In his last 5 games he has hit career highs in points (50), recorded his first ever triple double and now he has set a career mark for rebounds.

The other guy that has reached new heights is Robert Williams.  One of the most impressive accomplishments from his game last night was making 3 trips to the foul line and nailing all 6 attempts.  After the game Jaylen stated that Rob should be a candidate for 1st team all-defensive.  Rob really hustles for loose balls, diving to the floor and rebounding out of position.  He's been really solid but I wish they would just get him more touches.

The Jays and Rob both need the same thing. A floor general.

Hi,
Yes, it's a W. Win is a win is a win. True. But...
I'd argue that the same thing - collapse, implosion, melting (call it whatever you like) in 4th quarter - happened again. We observed it in many games this season. This time we got lucky thanks to a weak opponent and heroics of the J's.
My questions in that regard: why it happens and are Udoka and Brad doing/going to do anything about it. So far I don't see any real evidence that they are.
Sorry, just venting. It's so frustrating.

AK

sinus007 wrote:Hi,
Yes, it's a W. Win is a win is a win. True. But...
I'd argue that the same thing - collapse, implosion, melting (call it whatever you like) in 4th quarter - happened again. We observed it in many games this season. This time we got lucky thanks to a weak opponent and heroics of the J's.
My questions in that regard: why it happens and are Udoka and Brad doing/going to do anything about it. So far I don't see any real evidence that they are.
Sorry, just venting. It's so frustrating.

AK

Sinus007

Both Brad and Ime are rookies in their new jobs.

This roster does not have everything that it needs.

It is going to take a while for them to upgrade the roster. This team is not in a situation where we just have one missing piece. I recall the Heat added Jae Crowder mid-season and it turned them into a contender but their roster was already pretty solid so adding that one guy was all that they needed.

We are not in that situation. It is going to take several moves to better position the team to win. Internally there are things that we could do better and improve our win/loss numbers even if we do not make a single move.

I like our defense. The main issue is on offense. This team is not good enough to win without great ball movement. It seems that every close game that we lost pointed to inefficiency on offense. Some of that reflects the lack of enough quality shot makers but the most disturbing aspect are the brain fart turnovers, over reliance on ISO basketball and a lack of consistency in moving without the ball and a willingness to make the next pass. We have seen this team play quality basketball against top contending teams. The key therefore is for players to reduce bad habits and replace them with good habits. It looks like they are trying to do that now but they need not overthink it.

Let's give them more time to get it right.