Post Game - Celtics at Pacers - Monday, December 01 (L)

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401607491

NBA in-season tournament: Tyrese Haliburton's first career triple-double leads Pacers past Celtics in quarterfinals

https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-in-season-tournament-tyrese-haliburtons-first-career-triple-double-leads-pacers-past-celtics-in-quarterfinals-025336249.html

Ryan Young
Staff writer
Mon, Dec 4, 2023, 9:53 PM EST·2 min read



Tyrese Haliburton’s first career triple-double came at the perfect time.

Haliburton, thanks to a huge second-half performance, led the Indiana Pacers past the Boston Celtics 122-112 on Monday night in the quarterfinals of the NBA’s in-season tournament. The win officially pushes the Pacers into the quarterfinals of the tournament in Las Vegas later this week. Haliburton finished with 26 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds in the win, adding to his already incredible season.

Things were tight early on at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, though the Celtics took a slight lead at the break after they closed the second quarter on a 12-2 run. It wasn’t until the third quarter that the Pacers finally flew ahead, thanks to a huge start from Haliburton.

Haliburton either scored or accounted for the Pacers’ first 19 points of the second half. Just like that, the seven-point halftime deficit was gone. The Pacers outscored Boston 37-23 in the third quarter alone, which suddenly gave them a seven-point lead headed into the final period.



That lead, though, didn’t hold. The Celtics tied the game back up again by the midway point of the fourth quarter. But Haliburton finished the job in the final two minutes, and converted an incredible four-point play with a deep 3-pointer that put the Pacers up by four.



That bucket sparked a 10-4 run for the Pacers, which allowed them to close out the game and seal the 10-point win.

Haliburton shot 10-of-18 from the field and 5-of-11 from behind the arc while grabbing his triple-double. The 23-year-old former Iowa State standout entered Monday night averaging a career-high 27 points and 11.8 assists so far this season. Budd Hield finished with 21 points in the win for the Pacers, and Myles Turner added 17 points and 10 rebounds. All five starters finished in double figures, and they shot better than 47% from the 3-point line.

Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 32 points and 12 rebounds in the loss. Jaylen Brown added 30 points and nine rebounds, and Derrick White finished with 18 points.

With the win, the Pacers will now take on either the Milwaukee Bucks or the New York Knicks in the east semifinals on Thursday night in Las Vegas. The Bucks and Knicks will square off in their quarterfinals game on Tuesday.

We should know better by now. 2nd Verse same as the 1st. As top dog, EVERY team we play brings their best game. Wake up, Boston! And you have to play for 48 minutes, not 46.

Hallelujah. Holy shoot. Where's the Tylenol?!!

db

This was disappointing, they are a great 3 point shooting team, but I believe we shot ourselves in the foot missing easy shots. I just wish they had given up on the 3 ball and driven the heck out of them. Of all games for Al to have a lousy shooting night. When you play a team like this, you need to be just as physical as they are and I believe the Celtics were not.

Oh well, so much for winning the tournament, Now come home and see if they can get KP back on the floor. It is obvious he is missed big time. Can’t blame the J’s, they played their hearts out, If only Tatum got hot earlier, they would have had a big lead, missed easy shots.

By the way, someone tell Neismith to shut up, he was a little sickening on the floor last night. What’s his beef? He is on a good team???

Hi,
It's very hard to win when you shoot 29% from 3pt, 67% from FT against a team that shoots 47% and 81% respectively.

AK

Off night shooting was the major crime.

An added issue is that we do not have the players to keep up with a relatively young lineup that can run. That was also a killer against Orlando and will be something to address if/as the coaching staff tweaks the rotation.

One bright spot is we managed to outrebound them without Porzingis and with Turner and Haliburton each grabbing a bunch of boards.

Haliburton sure had a game. He's been having a great season. Indiana has a fairly strong starting 5. Who decided to wake Nesmith up?

It was really an entertaining game. I can't believe the length of the three pointers Halliburton shoots. They have to be 28-30 feet out. I kept thinking that's a terrible shot, but he hit 3 from out there. The kid is a heckeva player.

I thought we played ok. Just didn't shoot the three well. D White had 5 turnovers. He usually is so solid that is anomaly. JT missed three FTs, just don't know what's up with his FT shooting. Other than that, our defense was solid, they just made shots and they played hard on defense. Kudos to them.

I believe the free throw problem comes down to a lax in attention. Shame on them for not trying harder to correct this issue. There have been games where we would have won if they hit all the free throws they missed. The problem is, it is almost team wide I know I have complained about this before, but I just do not feel secure when Jaylen goes to the line. These guys are too talented to be missing free shots. A bad shooting night I guess I can accept. Hey, I did not lose a shot at $500,000!!! They did. The silly excuse of them being bored is beyond me. I just listened to a pod cast where Bob Ryan says the NBA will eventually adopt a 4 point shot Good God Almighty!!!! Bring me back to the '60's please

Despite any and all complaints, shortcomings for us and missing players, we were tied at 105 with around two minutes left.  Then IND started throwing up and hitting incredible, never to be repeated BS that kept going in.  Shrug it off, tip your hat and get the Hell out of there.

This tournament will never have the two best teams in the Finals.  If they do it will be an anomaly.  Just like in last year's playoffs where the 7th seeded Lakers and 8th seeded Heat did what they did and only because everything fell apart in front of them to where 5 of us from this site with no bench could have made it to the Conference Finals or Finals. Remember, the total games won between the Lakers and Heat for their respective last series was 1. DEN mercilessly swept the hapless Lakers and MIA wasted the Finals leaving with their tails between their legs losing 4-1.

BTW, they aren't doing consolation games with this IST are they?      

db

This was a very winnable game for the Celtics.  Shooting the 3 ball poorly did not help but what really killed us was the 18 turnovers to only 6 for them.  Even with the high turnover numbers the Celtics still put up 97 FGA.

One thing pops out.  AH only took 3 shots and scored just 2 points.  I thought he played pretty well overall and Kornet scored 6 points and had 4 blocks.  The problem that I see is triggered when our centers have to step up and cover guys coming off screens up top.  

Hauser once again made his shots count (5-7 from deep) for 15 points.  PP is still up and down making shots.  Other than the 6 points from LK, Hauser was our top scorer off the bench again.

Overall I was mildly disappointed.  We definitely miss KP.

Get ready for the Bucks or the Knicks next.

NYCelt wrote:Off night shooting was the major crime.

An added issue is that we do not have the players to keep up with a relatively young lineup that can run. That was also a killer against Orlando and will be something to address if/as the coaching staff tweaks the rotation.

One bright spot is we managed to outrebound them without Porzingis and with Turner and Haliburton each grabbing a bunch of boards.

Haliburton sure had a game. He's been having a great season. Indiana has a fairly strong starting 5. Who decided to wake Nesmith up?

Thunder and even Nets ran us into ground last year, losing big leads!! Last year we had little depth behind the J’s. Thought we took care of that with a much improved Hauser, Joe is not using Stevens or the rookie Walsh obviously. Banton could help, still has to learn to play harder, I would start using those guys more. Bottomline we hit 12 3’s, a very low amount for us and they hit 19; we both took about 40, that is this eras NBA. I hate it having to rely on 3’s and being at the mercy of the 3’s.

so local papers keep saying that Brad is out there looking to solidfy the bench and get some help   Who is available?  I still think we need some beef, I think teams are getting away with pushing our stars around and hardly going to the line.  Maybe if they all shut up, the refs would start calling more fouls.  Tatum should be going to the line alot more than he does.  you cannot touch Luca, Bron, Josic, EMBID, without a foul being called.  I want some BEEF.  And, I love Pritchard, but where has his shot gone?  We need consistency and are not getting it except Sam.

Decision making needs a shot in the arm.

I thought the most ill advised 3 pointer was the one JT launched late in the game.  It was still a 2 possession game with the Pacers up 109-105.  Tatum comes down and launches a 3 pointer which missed and the Pacers were back in transition mode and Buddy Hield made  3 pointer.

In that situation we really only needed a 2 pointer.

Our overall depth remains questionable.  We cannot and should not expect AH to put up substantial numbers game after game.  With KP missing 5 games the cumulative effect comes to light.

PP and Sam Hauser are in our top 8.  We have seen Brissett earlier in the season and Banton has been getting more rotation minutes the last few games and we also saw some of Queta.

The one experienced guy that has not seen the court much at all is Lamar Stevens.  He played over 1100 minutes last year in Cleveland.  He is a legit NBA players so why is he still riding the pine?  I believe it is mostly related to his lack of 3 point shooting.  The way I see it is that you could put him in the dunker sport on offense.  We could also use another big guy because of potential health issue associated with KP and the fact that AH is still in decline despite some of the good things that we have seen from him.  

Defensively, a defensive wing who can also check the 4 spot should be considered.  That is where the 6' 7" Stevens come in along with his 230 lbs. of muscle.  

Banton and Brissett are also non 3 point makers so I really do not understand why Stevens is glued to the bench.

RosalieTCeltics wrote:so local papers keep saying that Brad is out there looking to solidfy the bench and get some help   Who is available?  I still think we need some beef, I think teams are getting away with pushing our stars around and hardly going to the line.  Maybe if they all shut up, the refs would start calling more fouls.  Tatum should be going to the line alot more than he does.  you cannot touch Luca, Bron, Josic, EMBOD, without a foul being called.  I want some BEEF.  And, I love Pritchard, but where has his shot gone?  We need consistency and are not getting it except Sam.

I don’t know why we didn’t sign Biyambo? I know he can’t hit 3’s, but he does his job in a Perk like fashion and is now starting. He could have helped us

I looked at Myles Turner the other night, was impressed for a while, then it was bombs away for him,there is a hole in his game. It is covered up by having such good three point shooters. Aren't some of our guys on non guaranteed contracts that come due in January??? What is going to happen? I believe Luke is one of them, and Banton. Gyso, am i wrong????

Hola, amigos, I'm with Rosalie on the need for beef. If Queta is the answer, this is the time of year to find out. In the minutes I've watched, he's looked pretty good. Luke is higher in the pecking order, but (IMHO) he doesn't have the tools to be more than a good 3rd stringer...Sam is great when he hits, but other teams still pick on him on defense. Sure would be nice to have another aggressive wing (like Nesmith, for example)...With Zingis, I think we see the whole picture already. Excellent, but delicate, like a Maserati that you'd never take to the dump. Trouble is, we need to make dump runs and for that, we need a truck. Just my take. hawk

Sorry for the duplication!

Hawk,

Duplication fixed.

I like your analogy... "With Zingis, I think we see the whole picture already. Excellent, but delicate, like a Maserati that you'd never take to the dump. Trouble is, we need to make dump runs and for that, we need a truck."

I agree. A big old Ford F150 with some big rims and wide tires. Diesel if we can get it and a little rust is even OK.

NYCelt, Exactly!