Post Game - Celtics vs. Pacers - Wednesday, November 01 (W)

Celtics blow by Pacers, flirt with history in 155-104 victory over Indiana

https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-blow-pacers-flirt-history-015955318.html

Cameron Tabatabaie
Wed, Nov 1, 2023, 9:59 PM EDT·3 min read



The Boston Celtics soundly defeated the visiting Indiana Pacers 155-104 Wednesday night, cruising to an easy victory and moving to 4-0 to open the 2023-24 regular season. Jayson Tatum led the way for Boston, scoring 30 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in just 27 minutes of action. Overall, a 51-point win for the Celtics ties the third largest margin of victory in franchise history.

Tatum wasn’t the only player in green scoring the ball with ease. In total, eight members of the Celtics scored 11 or more points, and as a team Boston shot 56.8% from the field. In fact, the Celtics scored 75 points in the first half alone, underscoring how lopsided things were all evening long. On the other side of the action, Boston played stingy defense, especially on the perimeter. In total, the Pacers went 5-for-37 from 3, which includes a few easy looks that came down the stretch when the game was already out of reach for Indiana.

Let’s take a deeper look at Boston’s big 155-104 victory against the Pacers and what helped power the Celtics to victory.

Boston's offense

Boston’s got out in front early, opening the game with a 20-8 run. By the end of the first quarter, the Celtics had hung 44 points on the Pacers and simply never looked back.

Tatum was really in his element. He once again showed off his improved ability to score out of the post, but his passing was also key for Boston. He logged 4 assists, as did Jrue Holiday and Derrick White. Payton Pritchard ended the game with a team-high 9 assists, though much of this came during garbage time.

The 3-point ball was also a key weapon for the Celtics. Collectively the home team connected on 20 shots from deep, shooting 57.1% on 3-pointers. It’s hard to find something that wasn’t working for Boston on offense.

Boston's defense

It’s worth noting that Indiana was without star Tyrese Haliburton, who is dealing with an ankle injury. The Pacers offense faltered considerably without its top scoring weapon. Boston, meanwhile, was involved and aggressive on defense, taking full advantage of a Pacers team playing without a key contributor.

Scoring was the main entree for the Celtics tonight, but a strong defensive effort can’t be ignored. It was good to see the bench players lock in with a chance to getting meaningful burn. With the starters sidelined, Boston’s reserves won the final frame 46-33.

Final thoughts

The Celtics have started the season looking just about as good as fans could have hoped. The offense has been smooth and at times truly elite. The defense has yet to be sincerely tested, but looks equally solid.

Boston’s aims for this season extend far beyond November, but a nearly historic win is always worth admiring. The Celtics now have a few days off before tipping off in Brooklyn against the Nets Saturday evening.

Celtics-Pacers takeaways: C's put up historic numbers in dominant win

https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-pacers-takeaways-cs-put-021405452.html

Justin Leger
Wed, Nov 1, 2023, 10:14 PM EDT·4 min read



Celtics-Pacers takeaways: C's put up historic numbers in dominant win originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Celtics picked up where they left off with another outstanding performance on Wednesday night.

After outclassing the Washington Wizards on Monday, the C's returned home and put on a show vs. the Indiana Pacers. They quickly asserted their dominance with a 44-point first quarter, topping their 42-point mark in the first frame against Washington. To put that impressive number into perspective, the franchise record for points in a single quarter is 46. This was the first time the Celtics have had consecutive 40-point first quarters since 1982.

They kept their foot on the gas to blow out the Pacers, 155-104. It was their 10th game ever with 150-plus points and their first since 1992. They shot a blistering 56.8 percent from the floor, including 20-for-35 (57.1 percent) from 3-point range. Eight C's players scored in double figures.

Now 4-0 on the season, the Celtics will look to stay undefeated when they visit the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night. First, here are our takeaways from Wednesday's rout.

Jayson Tatum leads the charge

Tatum continues to show why he's a popular pick to win his first MVP award. The four-time All-Star notched a game-high 30 points on 9-of-15 shooting (3-5 3-PT). He has scored 30-plus points in three of Boston's four games while shooting well over 50 percent from the floor.

Twenty-one of Tatum's points came in the first half to set the tone for the Celtics' dominant win.



Tatum also had 12 rebounds and four assists. He put up his stellar stat line despite sitting for the entire fourth quarter and playing only 27 minutes.

There were several key contributors for the C's in this one -- Derrick White, for instance, dropped 18 points (7-10 FG, 4-7 3-PT) -- but Tatum still stands out as the superstar in the stacked starting lineup. It's extremely early in the campaign, but expect the MVP chatter to grow louder if Tatum produces more of these masterpieces consistently.

C's offense showing all-time great potential

When the Celtics added Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday to the mix, it was expected that the already-stacked offense would improve. But it's fair to say not even the most optimistic C's fans anticipated it would look this good.

After tallying 77 points in the first half of Monday's game vs. the Wizards, Boston scored 75 points in the first half of Wednesday's win. According to Celtics stats guru Dick Lipe, it's the Celtics' first time scoring at least 75 points in the first half of consecutive games since at least 1950.



Before Monday, the Celtics had reached 75 points by halftime only 34 times before in franchise history, per Celtics.com's Marc D'Amico. It's the first time they led by 35 or more points in consecutive games in at least 25 seasons, according to Elias.

They led Indiana by as many as 53 points, marking their third-largest lead in the last 20 years. Their biggest lead came in Jan. 2022 when they went up 60 against the Sacramento Kings.

While both historic performances came against inferior opponents, the Celtics are showing they have what it takes to boast an all-time great offense.

A better night from the bench

There were plenty of positives to take away from Monday's game vs. the Wizards, but the Celtics' second unit wasn't one of them. It was an abysmal performance from the group highlighted by Payton Pritchard going 0-for-8 from the field and Sam Hauser shooting 3-for-10. The bench went a combined 11-for-38.

Wednesday marked a much-needed get-right game for Pritchard and the rest of Boston's reserves. Pritchard looked more like his preseason self with a solid 6-for-10 night to finish with 15 points. He also dished nine assists and was a +32 in 26 minutes.





Hauser snapped out of his slump with 17 points, which included five made 3s on six attempts. He added three rebounds and a steal in 19 minutes.



Altogether, the C's bench bounced back to shoot 22-for-39 from the floor and finish what Tatum and Co. started. If the second unit looks more like this going forward, good luck to the rest of the NBA in trying to slow down this Celtics offense.

The 155 is second most points scored by a Celtics team.

In 1959 they scored 173 points.

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401584746

Every Celtics player available played at least 6 minutes, they all scored, they all had at least one rebound, and they all were a positive +/-.

Wow.  Just wow, except . . .

Wow.

Great game for a Celtics fan. For a basketball game, ho hum!! My family members lost all interest in the game by the half time. I soldiered on.

Here's what I saw.  

Again...Holy Crap!!  Either we are really, really good and IND is flat out awful or some combination in between, but that was the Fully Operational Death Star on complete and total display.  Can't add anything except like gyso.

And for the time being the door on the status of the bench was slammed completely shut and obliterated.  The key?  Quite obvious IMHBAO.  When Pritch is driving downhill, going to the basket, beating everyone on offense downcourt and playmaking/dishing out 9 assists ala Rajon Rondo, it's over.  And that's the bench point guard, not the starter.
Even when he got caught a couple of times among the trees underneath the basket there were plenty of our guys on the wings to can the 3 from the defense collapsing.  Plus he'd give it to the hot guy which turned out to be Doogie.  5 in a row.  Real glad to see that.  That's how you are going to get the rock. Come in hot Eddie House style. Our bench needs to develop their own name and rally around that.

I told my wife when we were up 38 going into the 4th quarter and the bench was in that we got up by that same number a couple of days ago at that same time and won by 18/19.  I said let's see what the bench has learned.  Clearly, they were pissed and want no part nor any blame fingers of a weak link being pointed at "the bench" going forward.  "Move along, please.  Nothing to see here."    

BKN up next.  Two days off.  Couple of practices should help.  Looming next Wednesday is @PHI.  Just a heads up.  But let's go one game at a time.  Enjoy.  The fun is in the journey.  Don't miss it.  I've even changed the way I watch games now.  Yes, I still start about 45 minutes in so I don't have to watch commercials, but I don't know the results nor do I look ahead intra-game.  I'm getting there old schoolers!!  Maybe one day I'll make it to the Game On thread!!

db

prakash wrote:Great game for a Celtics fan.  For a basketball game, ho hum!!  My family members lost all interest in the game by the half time.  I soldiered on.

Prakash,





Bob


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Tyrese Halliburton isn't worth 50 points.  Even if he played and scored an impressive 35 this would still have been a 16 point blow out.

95 fgas = excellent.
56.8% fg% = excellent.
57.1% 3pt fg% = ridiculous.
11 turnovers, only 2 by the bench despite 108 of the total 240 minutes (45%) being played by the bench = excellent.
27-28 (96.4%) frito shooting = excellent.

To say everything was working would be an understatement, this was remarkable to watch.

Sam and Payton finally had good games, so that's a very nice touch to this W.  It's how we won, we won with our bench playing well.  To be honest I don't remember Sam and Payton playing that well in the first 3 quarters.  Sam was 1-1 for 5 points in the 12 minutes he played through 3.  In the 4th, against the Indy scrubs, he had 12 points in 7 minutes.  It's good that he saw the ball go through the net, we certainly hope that carries forward, but when he was playing with some of the starters he was still kinda quiet.  Payton, likewise, had 11 of his 15 in the 4th against the Indy scrubs.  Payton also had 8 of his 9 assists in the 4th (Payton also played all 12 minutes of the 4th).  One of the key metrics I watch for Payton is his assist totals and his assist-to-turnover ratio.  Well, 9 assists and zero turnovers is pretty frippin' great on both counts.  Thanks to last night's game Payton's 4-game season-to-date numbers are 4.3 apg and only 1.0 TOpg.  This is another one of those "oh please let some of this stick!" stuff.

Lamar has become my newest "root for" Celtic.  The guy plays hard, he plays physical.  He was one of the last Celtics in the game (WTF Joe?) and had 4 points on 2-4, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and zero turnovers and was bodying up everyone.  Only 7 minutes but I liked what I saw.

Oshae with another high energy, lousy boxscore game.  Every team needs at least one energy guy and he's definitely one of ours.

Svi didn't have a good shooting game.  He seemed to be around the ball a lot though.

Luke played 6 minutes.  In a 50 point blow out with the two bigs in front of him (Z and Al) only playing 38 combined and Luke only plays 6.  No wonder everybody is asking Joe about when Queta's foot will be ok.

Banton with a solid 11 points in 8 minutes game.  His problem seems to be consistency.  There's a part of me that wants him to be assigned to Maine for a week or two to get a couple of games of heavy minutes and be able to play through mistakes, but I don't think that will happen for a couple of reasons.


There are only 2 undefeated teams left in the NBA, the Celtics and the Mavericks.  And, in other news, the Nuggets are now 4-1, the Heat are 1-4 and Milwaukee is two games back at 2-2.


Bob


.

Just an awesome performance. We know there are going to be injuries and ups and downs, but right now the starters are a juggernaut. Let's enjoy this.

It's almost too easy for JT right now. He's so good and with four other outstanding players out there with him, there are open lanes he never had before. Holiday is just a terrific player. As much as I love Marcus, Holiday is a better all around player. He just does everything well and is unselfish.

Good to see PP come out of his funk. He was outstanding last night. The bench seemed to play with a chip on their shoulder. Sam caught fire last night and looked much more comfortable. I thought Brissett brought great energy when it was still a game. Stevens plays hard. He could find some meaningful minutes.

bobheckler wrote:

prakash wrote:Great game for a Celtics fan.  For a basketball game, ho hum!!  My family members lost all interest in the game by the half time.  I soldiered on.

Prakash,





Bob


.

Precious!

Several great things came out of this game.

#1 on my like list was the bench scoring.   Both SH and PP found their range and Banton was our 3rd bench guy in double figures.

Scal said the other day something to the effect that bench scoring on this team is not important.  I strongly disagree with his assessment.  

Our bench does not have to be as productive as they were last night but they need to make their presence felt.  The bench dropped 46 points in the 4th and overall they scored 59 points in this game.

Last year the Celtics lost a few too many games to scrub teams but still managed to post a 57 win season.  I do not see that happening a lot this year so you can circle the 60+ wins category with a measure of good.

The overwhelming level of fire power was on full display.  A B2B 75+ points in their last 2 games is so rare that i believe they have never accomplished that before.  This team dropped 75 at halftime and more than doubled that in the second half with 80 points.

Our starting unit fits exceptionally well together already but truth be told, they are still in the learning stage on how to play together.

Ahh, to hear the lamentations of the women!

https://www.nba.com/celtics/news/sidebar-prac-20231102-mazzullas-bench-unit-meeting-helped-spark-historic-4th-vs-indy



Mazzulla’s Bench-Unit Meeting Helped Spark Historic 4th vs. Indy


Taylor Snow
Sr. Writer

November 2, 20237:18 PM EDT


BOSTON – As they say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Or as we say, “Don’t judge the bench by a quarter.”

On Monday night, Boston’s reserves earned their first full quarter of action together after the starters built a 33-point lead through three frames in Washington, and we’ll admit, it wasn’t pretty at first. They mustered just four points through the first seven minutes of the fourth, before eventually rattling off 14 points in the final five minutes to secure a 126-107 victory.

But who could expect a group to be firing on all cylinders during its very first stretch of significant minutes together? Well, people overreacted, as they do on the Internet, but it didn’t take long for Boston’s bench unit to shut those doubters up.

Two nights later, they were given the fourth-quarter keys once again after the starters had built a 38-point lead over the Indiana Pacers. Only this time, they churned out a 46-point period, en route to a 155-104 win.

It was tied for the highest single-quarter effort – and stood alone as the highest-scoring fourth quarter – in TD Garden history. A quarter in which not a single starter stepped foot on the court.

How’s that for a response?

“I thought we were just a lot more composed,” Lamar Stevens, who had a pair of dunks and a pair of offensive rebounds in the fourth, reflected after Thursday’s practice. “You’ve got to go through things to learn and get better, and I felt like we responded by just taking care of the ball, being confident in the plays that we make, being confident in each other, and just going out and playing Celtics basketball. I thought we definitely responded from that Washington game for sure.”

Part of the response could be attributed to the meeting that Joe Mazzulla assembled for the bench players the day after the Washington game.

“Joe brought us all in and watched film with just that second and third unit,” said Sam Hauser, “and I think that was important to just to have him talk to us about our roles and what we're supposed to do when we come into a situation like that when you're up big and what things we're looking to do on offense, what things we're looking to do on defense. So I think hearing that from him just brought a lot of clarity to all of us.”

Mazzulla said he didn’t have enough of those meetings last year and coming to that realization was part of his growth as a coach.

“That unit has a hard job because everything is up in the air,” said the second-year head coach. “They don’t know when they’re playing, when they’re getting their shots, who they’re playing against. Is it in a lead or is it in a deficit? Is it in meaningful minutes or ones that don’t really matter? So they have a really hard job and I think the more we can be on the same page about their value regardless of what’s going on, I think it’s important for our team.”

The meeting certainly seemed to have an impact on Hauser; he bounced back from a 2-of-9 shooting effort from deep against Washington with a 5-of-6 long-range performance against Indy, scoring 12 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter.

“It's not very often you win by that much in the NBA, and when you do, it offers opportunities for guys who might not get as many opportunities in closer games,” said Hauser. “So I think it's really important for us to take advantage of those moments and really show what we can do out there when our number's called.”

Hauser and the reserves certainly showed what they’re capable of Wednesday night.

With that being said, we surely won’t be seeing 46-point quarters from the bench that often. But we also probably won’t be seeing too many droughts like the one they had in D.C. They’ll likely find their rhythm and end up somewhere in between.

Just don’t judge the bench by a quarter – especially when it’s the first time they’re playing meaningful minutes together. If you do, you’ll probably wind up eating your own words.


Bob


.

worcester wrote:Ahh, to hear the lamentations of the women!

worcester,

The life story of my love life.


Bob


.

Maybe I missed it, but I haven't seen any mention of Mazzulla's bench only film session prior to the game. Mybe that had something to do with the bench's improved performance?

jrleftfoot wrote:Maybe I missed it, but I haven't seen any mention of Mazzulla's bench only film session prior to the game. Mybe that had something to do with the bench's improved performance?

JR,

Yeah, probably. Doing well often silences the critics.


Bob


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