What a game! In the first half, the Boston Celtics (26-7) shoot out all the lights. Afterwards, the Indiana Pacers (17-14) strike back impressively, the victory seems certain to them. However, an unbelievable error in the final seconds will allow Boston to win 112:111 (BOXSCORE).
Not even two minutes had passed since Pacers coach Nate McMilian was forced to take a break. However, he could only weaken the extremely hot start of the guests to a limited extent. Boston overhauled the Pacers in the first round according to all the rules of art.
After the first 10 attempts from the field all met their goal, the Celtics quickly had a 19-point lead on the credit side. Only when some mistakes crept into the game of the guests, Indiana was able to fight a little bit in the second section. But every time the hosts shortened the gap, Boston responded with his own run.
So also in the second half. Headed by the strong Victor Oladipo, who scored 30 of his 38 points in the second half, Indiana fought his way up to 5 points. Boston answered with several good Plays from Al Horford (14 points, 10 Rebounds, 9 Assists), but the Pacers did not let go. Until the end there was a duel at eye level, just two minutes before the final siren Indiana even equalled out (100:100).
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Soon after, Oladipo put his team in the lead for the first time with a threesome 52 seconds to go. With an acrobatic layout he even increased it to 107:102 – but that should not have been it yet. Kyrie Irving (30 points, 4 assists) and Marcus Smart (15 points, 5 assists, 7 turnovers) shortened the score again to one point, but Indiana had the chance to bag the victory from the free-throw line.
After an inbounds-play Bojan Bogdanovic made a big mistake. Instead of waiting for the foul, he played the ball in a high arc towards Oladipo. Terry Rozier sprinted in between, snatched the spalding and hammered it through the Reuse for a win that was no longer possible. Incredible!
The strong performance of Oladipo was destroyed by this mistake.
On the side of Celtics, apart from top scorer Irving and all-rounder Horford, Jayson Tatum was also in good shape with 16 points (6/8 FG) as well as 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Despite his broken nose, Daniel Theis had 17 minutes to play and scored 4 points, 4 rebounds and 1 block with 2 ball losses and 4 fouls.
Pacers vs. Celtics: Click here for the BOXSCORE!
Kyrie Irving. In a normal game with free throws for the Pacers at the end of the game, Oladipos name would have stood here. That was not the case, however. On the Celtics side, it was Irving who made this wild finish possible in the final minutes with two Clutch 3s. But of course Terry Rozier deserves a big praise for his decisive steal.
Bojan Bogdanovic. In itself, the Serb did not deliver a bad game. His lapse in the final seconds, however, ruined the Pacers’ monster comeback. He simply must not allow himself to make such a mistake, especially not with a 1-point lead in his back so close to the end.
Indiana was obviously anxious to close down the zone in the Defense, especially to restrict Kyrie Irving in his work. However, this resulted in some quite open threesomes for Celtics. Due to the high throwing rate of the Celtics, the Pacers were also unable to pull through their otherwise fast game. Only the numerous ball losses of the guests – among other things forced by intensive defense – made it possible for Indiana to successfully push the tempo and thus start the monster comeback.