Round 1, Game 2: Pacers vs. Celtics

[Jake0890]

Two teams looking to put together two strong halves meet again Wednesday night when the fifth-seeded Indiana Pacers visit the fourth-seeded Boston Celtics for Game 2 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.

Despite their lowest scoring game of the season, the Celtics prevailed 84-74 in the best-of-7 opener by dominating the second half, limiting the Pacers to 29 points after the visitors had taken a 45-38 halftime lead.

Kyrie Irving had 20 points and helped limit Pacers point guard Darren Collison to six points on 3-for-11 shooting to lead the Celtics' win.

Afterward, he wasn't necessarily proud of the achievement, insisting what comes next in a series is always more important than what's just happened.

"At this point, it's just moving on to the next thing," he said at his postgame press conference. "When you have that kind of mentality, you don't need to be fixated on mistakes."

Mistakes were aplenty in Game 1, especially when it came to shooting.

The Celtics shot just 32 percent in the first half, before improving to 41 percent in the second half.

On this night, that was good enough, being that the Pacers followed up a 44-percent first half by missing their first 11 shots of the third quarter.

Just like that, a seven-point halftime lead had turned into a 60-48 deficit.

Outscored 26-8 in the decisive third quarter, Indiana wound up making just eight field goals in the entire second half, going 8-for-38 (21.1 percent).

In the end, guard Wesley Matthews found a positive.

"We've got to shake this off and realize there was a lot of good in there," he said at his postgame press conference. "I don't think if we played with our eyes closed we could have an eight-point quarter again."

The 74-point total was 15 points lower than any previous game this season for the Pacers. But it was the third time in their last four games that they were held under 100, a stretch that included a key 117-97 home loss to the Celtics in the final week of the regular season.

The Celtics' defensive brilliance came despite the absence of Marcus Smart, who is expected to miss the entire series with a torn oblique.

Boston moved Jaylen Brown into his starting spot, yet still managed to play the Pacers almost evenly off the bench, getting outscored just 36-35.

Marcus Morris (20) and Gordon Hayward (10) combined for 30 of the Celtics' 35 bench points. Boston could be without Al Horford (illness) in Game 2. He was officially listed as questionable Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, the Indiana bench contributed to the team's poor offensive effort, with the usually reliable Domantas Sabonis (3-for-9), Tyreke Evans (3-for-11) and Doug McDermott (1-for-7) combining to shoot just 7-for-27.

The Celtics are quite familiar with winning the opening game of a playoff series. In fact, they went up 2-0 against all three of their postseason opponents last season, going on to beat Milwaukee 4-3 and

Philadelphia 4-1 before falling to Cleveland 4-3 in the Eastern finals.

The Pacers, meanwhile, have rallied to win the series on two of the last three occasions when they lost Game 1. Interestingly, they've gone 0-3 in series over that same span after winning the opener.

-Associated Press

[ducler]

Read on Twitter

[Wizop]

good thing these guys' contracts expire.

Sent from my phone.

[Scoot McGroot]

Myles played some really inspired defense, even on the perimeter. Just couldn't stop Kyrie from going off like Kyrie can go off.

For the life of me, though, I cannot understand why we pass up wide open shots so many times to then immediately take an infinitely tougher shot either on the next pass, or after pump faking and then driving into trouble. At least 15 times I saw that tonight, and it blows my mind.

[Vorda]

You cant play PO without all star player... Boston just have much more talent... this will end 4-0

[Vorda]

Myles played some really inspired defense, even on the perimeter. Just couldn't stop Kyrie from going off like Kyrie can go off.

8 p, 3 r... great play for 18 mil. player...

[boomershadow]

I think it's entirely possible we steal a game.

Maaaaaaybe 2.

[Scoot McGroot]

Myles played some really inspired defense, even on the perimeter. Just couldn't stop Kyrie from going off like Kyrie can go off.

8 p, 3 r... great play for 18 mil. player...

Watch the game, Vorda. He played some absolutely amazing defense. He even played perimeter defense well.

Clearly, we ran a system last night where we put the ball in Bojan's hands and asked him to play one on one ball, and asked everyone else to defer to him. This was out of the realm of his normal dribble hand off success. He shot 9-21. We took the ball out of our center's hands; Dom and Myles combined for only 8 attempts. Myles may have only had 2 blocks on the record books, but he completely changed and affected all play at the rim and helped alter many more shots.

If you want statistics that don't win games on average, go for an Enes Kanter. If you want play that helps win games more often than not, or at least last night, helps keep teams in games, keep Myles Turner.

[pacers70]

Here are some of my takes for the game and series so far.

Matthews and Evans both suck. 2 weeks ago I thought I would never say this but...I would rather see CoJo get the bulk of minutes at SG than either of those guys.

I don't understand why we don't run Bogey off of screens more, like we did with Reggie. Bogey in ISO is just not a very good play, in my opinion.

Over the past few weeks, Bogey has played himself back into the Cap Hold. There was a time when I thought Bogey could get $20-22 million next year. I think he has played himself back to the $15-18 million range. Whether the Pacers should re-sign him or not depends on how Free Agency and trade go this summer.

Sabonis and Turner have played themselves off of the "protected list". I think prior to the playoffs, it would have taken an unbelievable offer for KP to think about trading either of them. I don't think KP will shop them but if a good trade comes along and we have to include one of them, I don't think he will hesitate.

I hope we can win 1 game and keep the others respectable, but I am not very optimistic. I think we are going to have a 26-8 or 31-12 type quarter every game. We can't win when we do that.

[Pacers_Freak]

I know there is frustration on how some guys are playing. But, the bottom line is there are zero guys on our team that can create their own offense without Vic. All of our guys are good solid players but need someone to create the offense. Without that guy we struggle. And when it gets tougher as the game goes on that’s why we couldn’t score in a women’s prison with a fist full of pardons.

[Scoot McGroot]

Here are some of my takes for the game and series so far.

Matthews and Evans both suck. 2 weeks ago I thought I would never say this but...I would rather see CoJo get the bulk of minutes at SG than either of those guys.

I don't understand why we don't run Bogey off of screens more, like we did with Reggie. Bogey in ISO is just not a very good play, in my opinion.

Over the past few weeks, Bogey has played himself back into the Cap Hold. There was a time when I thought Bogey could get $20-22 million next year. I think he has played himself back to the $15-18 million range. Whether the Pacers should re-sign him or not depends on how Free Agency and trade go this summer.

Sabonis and Turner have played themselves off of the "protected list". I think prior to the playoffs, it would have taken an unbelievable offer for KP to think about trading either of them. I don't think KP will shop them but if a good trade comes along and we have to include one of them, I don't think he will hesitate.

I hope we can win 1 game and keep the others respectable, but I am not very optimistic. I think we are going to have a 26-8 or 31-12 type quarter every game. We can't win when we do that.

I agree with some of the general sentiment of this post. I think Matthews role should really be as first guard off the bench, 6th man type of thing. He's really been trying his best to overplay that and fill in for Oladipo, but he never could fill in for Oladipo. No one on our roster could, and only a few guys in the league could.

Also, agree in that ISO Bogey is a bad play, and I really hold it against Nate for playing that last night and clearly asking everyone to defer to Bogey. I think Bogey plays best as part of a team system that free flows. I saw entirely too many times last night that guys passed up wide open shots to try to immediately pass the ball to Bogey and either be unable to, or give it to Bogey in a bad spot. NO, I don't hold this against Bogey, but the game plan. Only 8 attempts overall for Myles and Dom? That seems unconscionable. Unless we could net a clear upgrade like a Kawhi (highly unlikely), I still think our best avenue for success is to re-sign Bogey up to the early bird rights and draft a long-term successor to bring along slowly.

As for Myles/Dom. Well, I still think they have a ton of untapped potential. As for Myles, a couple quotes from a recent article by Scott Agness in The Athletic stand out:

The conversations with Turner began at the end of last season during his exit interview and the message was consistent: We need you to be that defensive guy.

He heard it from everyone from within the Pacers’ organization, from McMillan to defensive coordinator Dan Burke, big man coach Popeye Jones and the front office. Now it was about acting on it.
[snip]

“Listen, I’m gonna be real,” he began. “If you look at Myles and the type of player he can be, it’s almost scary. He’s long, he can roll to the basket, he can pop from midrange, he can pop from for a 3-point (shot) and he can play defense. Most bigs can just play offense or just play defense, or they can just roll to the basket. Myles has every tool that a big in this league needs at some point during the game.

“With him, it’s just about him putting it together and with young players, you got to be extremely patient. You look at Vic in his first six years, some players it just takes longer to get it. I think you’re starting to see him turn that corner because he’s actually talking during the games more, he’s actually being more vocal. Before we’re going out to the huddle, he’s actually talking.

[pacers70]

I know there is frustration on how some guys are playing. But, the bottom line is there are zero guys on our team that can create their own offense without Vic. All of our guys are good solid players but need someone to create the offense. Without that guy we struggle. And when it gets tougher as the game goes on that’s why we couldn’t score in a women’s prison with a fist full of pardons.

I think Sumner and Holiday can. Sumner clearly is not ready for the playoffs. Holiday probably isn't either but I think we should at least give him a try.

Frankly, I think Nate should have been giving Holiday some minutes all season. It's tough for these young guys to develop sitting on the bench.

[Pacers_Freak]

I know there is frustration on how some guys are playing. But, the bottom line is there are zero guys on our team that can create their own offense without Vic. All of our guys are good solid players but need someone to create the offense. Without that guy we struggle. And when it gets tougher as the game goes on that’s why we couldn’t score in a women’s prison with a fist full of pardons.

I think Sumner and Holiday can. Sumner clearly is not ready for the playoffs. Holiday probably isn't either but I think we should at least give him a try.

Frankly, I think Nate should have been giving Holiday some minutes all season. It's tough for these young guys to develop sitting on the bench.

I think he should have played more. I’m not convinced in a tough playoff series he could create offense in crunch time. That’s typically all star level players that have that ability.

[Jake0890]

Kyrie destroyed us at the rim when Myles was out of the game.

As Wizop said, thank god Pritchard kept the contracts short term. Most of these role players need to go.

[pacers33granger]

I'm not sure where we would find one, but I'm 100% on the idea of hiring an offensive version of Burke. These scoring droughts have been an issue not just with Nate but Frank too and it's concerning that we always are right there but can't get over the hump no matter what the personnel is. We really cannot continue to let our defense dictate so much of our offense because what you're allowed to do on defense is so unpredictable even during games and especially during the playoffs.

[Pacers_Freak]

I'm not sure where we would find one, but I'm 100% on the idea of hiring an offensive version of Burke. These scoring droughts have been an issue not just with Nate but Frank too and it's concerning that we always are right there but can't get over the hump no matter what the personnel is. We really cannot continue to let our defense dictate so much of our offense because what you're allowed to do on defense is so unpredictable even during games and especially during the playoffs.

I'm on board with that. However, here is what I think you are going to find in my opinion. It is a lot easier to be good/great/elite on defense than it is to be on offense. I'm not saying fresh ideas couldn't help. But it is much easier to find the personnel to be elite on the defensive end and I think that is why the franchise has been down this road. Not saying they are taking the easy way out. It just takes elite dudes to be elite on offense. My point being if Nate was the coach in Houston I'm not sure there offense would suffer that much because they have a couple of elite creators. If D'Antoni coached the Pacers I'm not sure our offensive production would be much better. I'm sure it would be better, but not by much.

[pacers33granger]

I'm not sure where we would find one, but I'm 100% on the idea of hiring an offensive version of Burke. These scoring droughts have been an issue not just with Nate but Frank too and it's concerning that we always are right there but can't get over the hump no matter what the personnel is. We really cannot continue to let our defense dictate so much of our offense because what you're allowed to do on defense is so unpredictable even during games and especially during the playoffs.

I'm on board with that. However, here is what I think you are going to find in my opinion. It is a lot easier to be good/great/elite on defense than it is to be on offense. I'm not saying fresh ideas couldn't help. But it is much easier to find the personnel to be elite on the defensive end and I think that is why the franchise has been down this road. Not saying they are taking the easy way out. It just takes elite dudes to be elite on offense. My point being if Nate was the coach in Houston I'm not sure there offense would suffer that much because they have a couple of elite creators. If D'Antoni coached the Pacers I'm not sure our offensive production would be much better. I'm sure it would be better, but not by much.

Yeah I'd tend to agree. Though the Spurs were 7th in ORtg this year and I really would not consider Derozan/Aldridge to be elite offensive players. It's not really fair to use Pop as a comparison, but still.

Not having a good PG since Mark Jackson (or Tinsley..) has also been an issue. Hill was our best in recent memory but he was a combo guard and was poor at running an offense.

[basketballwacko2]

Myles played some really inspired defense, even on the perimeter. Just couldn't stop Kyrie from going off like Kyrie can go off.

8 p, 3 r... great play for 18 mil. player...

Watch the game, Vorda. He played some absolutely amazing defense. He even played perimeter defense well.

Clearly, we ran a system last night where we put the ball in Bojan's hands and asked him to play one on one ball, and asked everyone else to defer to him. This was out of the realm of his normal dribble hand off success. He shot 9-21. We took the ball out of our center's hands; Dom and Myles combined for only 8 attempts. Myles may have only had 2 blocks on the record books, but he completely changed and affected all play at the rim and helped alter many more shots.

If you want statistics that don't win games on average, go for an Enes Kanter. If you want play that helps win games more often than not, or at least last night, helps keep teams in games, keep Myles Turner.

I believe that all Vorda cares about is stats and griping.

[Pacers_Freak]

8 p, 3 r... great play for 18 mil. player...

Watch the game, Vorda. He played some absolutely amazing defense. He even played perimeter defense well.

Clearly, we ran a system last night where we put the ball in Bojan's hands and asked him to play one on one ball, and asked everyone else to defer to him. This was out of the realm of his normal dribble hand off success. He shot 9-21. We took the ball out of our center's hands; Dom and Myles combined for only 8 attempts. Myles may have only had 2 blocks on the record books, but he completely changed and affected all play at the rim and helped alter many more shots.

If you want statistics that don't win games on average, go for an Enes Kanter. If you want play that helps win games more often than not, or at least last night, helps keep teams in games, keep Myles Turner.

I believe that all Vorda cares about is stats and griping.

You’d lead RealGM if I could And1 this more than once. If Vorda was GM we could win a fantasy b-ball championship.

[Pacers_Freak]

I'm not sure where we would find one, but I'm 100% on the idea of hiring an offensive version of Burke. These scoring droughts have been an issue not just with Nate but Frank too and it's concerning that we always are right there but can't get over the hump no matter what the personnel is. We really cannot continue to let our defense dictate so much of our offense because what you're allowed to do on defense is so unpredictable even during games and especially during the playoffs.

I'm on board with that. However, here is what I think you are going to find in my opinion. It is a lot easier to be good/great/elite on defense than it is to be on offense. I'm not saying fresh ideas couldn't help. But it is much easier to find the personnel to be elite on the defensive end and I think that is why the franchise has been down this road. Not saying they are taking the easy way out. It just takes elite dudes to be elite on offense. My point being if Nate was the coach in Houston I'm not sure there offense would suffer that much because they have a couple of elite creators. If D'Antoni coached the Pacers I'm not sure our offensive production would be much better. I'm sure it would be better, but not by much.

Yeah I'd tend to agree. Though the Spurs were 7th in ORtg this year and I really would not consider Derozan/Aldridge to be elite offensive players. It's not really fair to use Pop as a comparison, but still.

Not having a good PG since Mark Jackson (or Tinsley..) has also been an issue. Hill was our best in recent memory but he was a combo guard and was poor at running an offense.

Yes Pop is on another level and if we could get a guy of his caliber to be our OC then wow. I’m the biggest DeRozan hater in the world but I would still say he’s a better creator than anyone on our roster.