Post Game - Celtics vs. Pacers - Saturday, January 06 (W)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401585121

Celtics-Pacers takeaways: Tatum, great defense power C's to 118-101 win

https://sports.yahoo.com/celtics-pacers-takeaways-tatum-great-024639881.html

Nick Goss
Sat, Jan 6, 2024, 9:52 PM EST·5 min read



Celtics-Pacers takeaways: Tatum, great defense power C's to 118-101 win originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

[Okay, I'll write the takeaways.  Here goes:

The three takeaways:

Celtics clamp down on defense early
J-Squared were the dynamic duo all game long
Porzingis gets poked, Al says, Hold my beer!!!]


The last time the Boston Celtics came to Indiana, the Pacers knocked them out of the NBA's in-season tournament with a huge fourth quarter.

The C's made sure history didn't repeat itself Saturday night. Boston's defense was outstanding and held the league's highest-scoring offense to its lowest output of the season in a 118-101 win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

The Celtics were in control nearly the entire game, led by their two stars Jayson Tatum (38 points) and Jaylen Brown (31 points).

After falling behind by as many as 16 in the first half, the Pacers mounted a good comeback and trimmed the Celtics' lead to 84-81 at the end of the third quarter. But the Celtics' execution level increased in the fourth quarter as they built the lead back up to 16. Tatum provided a lot of the offense and led an 18-4 run that put the score out of reach for Indiana.

Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis left the game in the first quarter after getting hit in the right eye. He briefly returned before exiting for good.

The win improves Boston's record to a league-best 28-7.

The Celtics will remain in Indiana and play the Pacers again Monday night. Before we look ahead to that matchup, here are four takeaways from Saturday's showdown.

Strong start defensively

The Celtics entered this game with the league's second-best defensive rating, and they put the clamps on the Pacers in the first quarter. The Pacers put up just 17 points, making it their lowest-scoring first quarter of the season. It also tied for their lowest-scoring quarter in any game.

The C's did a great job contesting shots as the Pacers hit on just seven of their 23 field goal attempts over the first 12 minutes, including a putrid 1-of-10 mark from 3-point range. Boston also blocked two shots and tallied one steal in the quarter. The Celtics did a nice job defending the paint, too, and forced four missed shots by the Pacers at the rim.

Here's a look at the Pacers' shot chart for the first quarter:



Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton didn't score a single point and missed all four of his shot attempts in the quarter.

The Pacers came into Saturday as the highest-scoring team in the league at 127 points per game, but they had no answers for the Celtics' active defense to begin this game.

The Celtics have been a very good team in the first quarter this season. They rank No. 1 in first quarter points allowed at 25.9 per game and easily own the best first-quarter net rating (21.2).

The Jays carry the offense

The Celtics needed a huge game from their two superstars and that's exactly what they got.

Tatum scored a game-high 38 points on 14-of-23 shooting, including eight 3-pointers. He also chipped in 14 rebounds and six assists in 38 minutes.



Tatum has now scored 30-plus points in three consecutive games, and he's reached that level in five of his last seven matchups. The 25-year-old forward also has tallied 35 rebounds over the last three games. He's making a massive impact on both ends of the floor.

Brown poured in 31 points on 13-of-20 shooting. He helped the Celtics open up a large first quarter lead with a team-high 10 points over the first 12 minutes.



Tatum and Brown combined for 69 points. The rest of the C's starters combined to score just 17 points.

Al Horford steps up with Kristaps Porzingis injured

Porzingis' eye injury resulted in Horford playing more minutes than anticipated, and he delivered in a major way.

The veteran center provided 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting off the bench . He also grabbed seven rebounds and dished out a team-high eight assists, including this perfect alley-oop to Brown that extended Boston's lead to 15 in the fourth quarter.



Horford's defense was excellent, too. He blocked three shots and altered several others.

Even at 37 years old, Horford is still capable of playing a leading role at both ends of the floor. It's a huge luxury for the Celtics to have that kind of two-way player coming off the bench.

Still room for improvement

The Celtics' elite defense made up for some of the sloppy mistakes they made throughout the game.

The C's committed 18 turnovers, which led to 24 points for the Pacers. Indiana turned the ball over just nine times.

The free throw line was another area where the Celtics struggled. They made just 10 of their 19 attempts, including five misses in the third quarter as the Pacers trimmed the deficit from nine at halftime down to three at the end of the third quarter.

The easiest way to let a team back in the game is by not taking care of the basketball and missing free throws. The Celtics need to clean up those mistakes if they're going to beat the Pacers again Monday night

From another perspective:


Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown lead Celtics over short-handed Pacers

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2024/01/06/pacers-vs-celtics-jayson-tatum-jaylen-brown-lead-boston-to-win/72074108007/


Dustin Dopirak
Indianapolis Star



INDIANAPOLIS -- With two of their best perimeter defenders on the shelf, the Pacers saw their six-game winning streak snapped by the best team in the NBA in a 118-101 loss to the Celtics at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Saturday night.

The Pacers fell to 20-15. They sit in a four-way tie for fifth place in the Eastern Conference along with the Heat, Cavaliers and Magic. The Celtics have the NBA's best record at 28-7.

Here are four observations.

Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown take advantage of Pacers' injuries

Pacers guards Bruce Brown and Andrew Nembhard have each been dealing with injuries for the past month, but until Saturday night, Indiana didn't have to play a game with both of them out.

Nembhard suffered a bone bruise in his knee against the Bucks in Las Vegas on Dec. 7, but Brown was still playing through what was at the time an undisclosed bone bruise in his knee. He continued to do so until Dec. 23. Nembhard returned from his injury on Dec. 21 against Memphis, so Nembhard just slipped into Brown's spot as the starting shooting guard. Nembhard suffered a mid-back sprain against the Bucks on Jan. 1, but Brown returned to action Jan. 3.

But with Brown's knee still recovering, the Pacers opted not to make him play in both nights of a back-to-back and Nembhard wasn't ready to come back either, so both were out against the Celtics. That's a problem because Brown and Nembhard are two of the Pacers' top three perimeter defenders and the Celtics have some of the league's best perimeter scorers including All-NBA wings Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as well as All-Star Jrue Holiday and All-Defensive pick Derrick White in the backcourt.

Forward Aaron Nesmith played despite spraining his ankle on Friday night, so that gave them one player in the starting lineup capable of taking on a tough defensive matchup, but the Celtics simply hunted the Pacers' other starting guards -- Tyrese Haliburton and Buddy Hield.

Tatum and Brown were particularly effective at that, and once Tatum got rolling he also went unconscious from outside as well. Tatum scored 38 points on 13 of 22 shooting, including 7 of 12 from 3-point range. Brown scored 28 points on 12 of 19 shooting. He hit just one 3-pointer and struggled at the free throw line, but just getting there was helpful.

Tyrese Haliburton has slow start but gets going

As most teams have tried to do, the Celtics did everything they could do to keep Pacers All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton from beating them and that meant trying to get the ball out of his hand as early as possible in each possession as possible. The Celtics have the benefit of having two of the best backcourt defenders in the NBA to do that in White and Holiday.

White started on the assignment and he bottled up Haliburton early. He didn't score at all until the 4:28 mark of the second quarter, knocking down a 3-pointer after having missed his first four shots. In the first half, he scored six points on 1 of 6 shooting, including 1 of 4 from 3 as opportunities in the paint were hard to come by.

However, White committed his fourth foul early in the third quarter and had to come off, and Haliburton spearheaded a 32-26 third quarter with nine points on 3 of 5 shooting. The Celtics had to put Sam Hauser on Haliburton at one point, and Haliburton simply blew by him. In the fourth quarter he added two more. He finished with 17 points on 5 of 15 shooting.

Ex-Pacer Oshae Brissett makes critical hustle plays for Celtics

Since signing with the Celtics in July, former Pacers forward Oshae Brissett has found it hard to find playing time. However, he got extended minutes on Saturday after Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis took a shot to the head from Nesmith, himself a former Celtic.

So Brissett went all out to remind his former franchise what they were missing. He scored just six points, but his scrambling under the basket was critically important. He grabbed eight rebounds, including five on the offensive end, helping the Celtics score 15 second-chance points.

Pacers go cold from 3

As short-handed as the Pacers were and as excellent as Tatum and Brown played, Indiana still stayed in striking distance most of the game. It cut a 15-point Celtics lead in the first half down to just one point in the third quarter and was down just three before Boston blew the doors open in the fourth.

The big reason why the Pacers never took control when they had the chance, however, was inefficiency at the 3-point arc. After hitting 19 3s against the Hawks on Friday night, the Pacers were just 8 of 42 from 3-point range on Saturday. They scored 54 points in the paint but missing that many opportunities from outside proved insurmountable.

Wow J’s showing these punks who’s the boss? Nesmith had a nice dunk, other than that he’s now on my sh!t list after that poke and felt he should have been called for alot more fouls as he’s a borderline cheapshoot artist. I understand he plays hard, but he’s borderline dirty.

Second game of a b2b on the road and was great to see J’s carry us. We all know they just did us a favor, beat Bucks twice. Bucks have no one that can match up with Haliburton and as a team their wings and perimeter players can’t contain the plethora of young wings on Pacers. Thankfully we know what to expect from Pacers now, and J’s were up for challenge as both put up vintage games both ends. Was hard earned, refs were screwing us all night, we bricked so many FT’s, would have a 4-6 point lead, should have easily been 10, at one point we missed 4 straight FT’s. Usually that comes back to haunt you.

A player I’m noticing more and more is Hauser, he plays sound hustling defense and he’s always moving without the ball and finding seams for lay ups now consistently. Big improvement by Sam, another guy who’s earning minutes is Brissett, he’s got a nose for the ball. Play of the game should have been his ripping the offensive board in heavy traffic and whipping it to Tatum for a 3 plus 1, then somehow the refs stole that one from us. Thankfully the basketball gods didn’t let that play effect the game, even though the refs sure tried. We scored, then Tatum came down for another FU 3 next possession. Later Jaylen had 2 transition dunks off the defense, further FU….I’m so glad J’s had their A games going and were up to the task. The refs and Nesmith, the cheapshot artist, had me pissed during the game, so I was so glad we got the win.

How did he not get a technical on that poke, they used to call tech’s on contact? The guy he poked is 7’4”, hard to try too even reach him at that height in the eye?

Now you have a collection of teams all bunched up together in the hedgerows  of the NBA.

Lets count them:  NY, Miami, Orlando, Indy, and Cleveland.  All 5 of them sporting 15 losses on the season.

The only real competition for the Celtics are the Bucks and Sixers.  The Bucks are not sustainable because they cannot play defense at a high level (Opp 119.5)  and the Sixers are plagued because the Celtics own the space inside of the Sixers heads.  They have lived there long enough to be granted full property rights in the event of a probate hearing.

The glittery visuals of some high scoring team like the Pacers gets smudged up a bit when a team like the Celtics proves to them that every coin has two sides.  The ringing message:  If you cannot defend us you cannot beat us.

Unfortunately last night's a$$ whoppin is not finished.  We go at in again on Monday night.  This mini series is coming down to a strong case of abuse.  The only thing those guys talked about in the post game presser was missing shots.  They don't get it.  They got beaten senseless and they don't get it.  

No one should tire from discussing the Jays.  Right?  How about the amazing Al Horford.  At this point in time, what they do is a given.  But we should not and will not take for granted that which is given.

I'm just about done  as I need to watch happy zappe throw a pick 6.

CJ has his team playing some zone defenses.  We saw it again last night.   We also saw the positive impact derived from playing Brissett.  Nothing wrong with having another wing defender.

One more observation.  Nesmith plays more angry than hard.  His play looks quite reckless.  He fouls every time he tries to play defense.  He's out there clawing and scratching away like this is a damn cat fight.  The refs better step up before he gets hurt.

Rosalie

Maybe he conflates being a tough guy with being a strong defender. He always seemed to over-run things. how many times when he was on out team, you just wanted to scream at him to calm the F down.

He's like a bottle of soda that has been vigorously shaken up just before it gets opened.

KP got the eye injury because Nesmith was being overly aggressive. They should have called a flagrant 1. I call it the involuntary manslaughter rule.

Here's what I saw last night.

1) JT & JB - I don't think we can ever be thankful enough for these two. They are going to be the main reasons the next 4-5 banners go up in Boston. Just casually putting up 30+ each. Can't take these two for granted.

2) You can call me Al - Here's another one. Such a huge contributor whenever you need him. When KP went down 5 minutes in, Al seamlessly stepped right in.

3) IND, this is what it looks like to play a team with defense. Clearly, the Bucks spoiled you. They have no defense. They've got points, but that's as far as you'll go. Looks like we're going to give you Monday's game with our questionable list now growing to include Doogie, JT and KP. But don't get your hopes up. We play even better with guys out. All you can shoot is threes. No inside game. Please refer to SAC Graveyard for your immediate future.

4) As for Nesmith - Where's Draymond when you need him? Speaking of which, any word on him? He's definitely been locked down and told to be radio silent. He's actually doing a very good job of that! Have to give him credit. But still a lot of unanswered questions. Mainly, WTH is going on?!! It's almost too quiet. Woj reported this first week in January he may be allowed to report to the arena at least to be with the team. But that's all I've heard. OK, just read he's being reinstated this week. I'm guessing now if he goes off one more time, he's banned permanently from the league or at least a full season off with playoffs. If I were the rest of the league I would try every game to set him off. Not really sure what's all coming from this. Not a lot of details, just now it's basically over. Like a Black box. I will be adding Golden State to my list of teams to record and watch, waiting for the next landmine to go off. You gotta love it.

db

Sam Mitchell on Sirius XM today said the Celts should trade Al and Payton for Jakob Poetl.

My take is, if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. Yours?

I agree. Al and PP will help us hang #18.

worcester wrote:Sam Mitchell on Sirius XM today said the Celts should trade Al and Payton for Jakob Poetl.

My take is, if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. Yours?

We already have a poor mans version of Poetl in Luke on the cheap, we need Pritch’s savy, hustle and outside stroke. He and Hauser can go for 3-4 3’ s or more in any game, when they go off like that, we are unbeatable.

I'm with you Cow.

Like the way Luke has developed. SAM TOO. SO CHEAP YET PRODUCTIVE.