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Props to the Pacers, this team literally plays their butts off every game from opening tip to the final seconds. People keep asking how it's possible that a team missing it's best player, and probably not as talented as other teams can stay in games - it's because of the incredible hustle they display.
Should Boston go on to win this series, they are going to find whoever they play next to almost be a breath of fresh air defensively. Milwaukee (should they win) doesn't play with the same defensive mind-set that the Pacers do. Sure, the Bucks are more talented then Indiana, but they don't play nearly as hard as the Pacers do. The Pacers have hardly given Boston a single play where they haven't attacked them full force.
I do believe the C's will finish this series off in about 5 games, but the Pacers are giving them every last ounce of energy they have. Major props!!!

Nuntius wrote:

PhilBlackson wrote:Pretty much how I predicted this series would be...

Indy would be tough, fight tooth & nail but in the end just not have the talent to keep up with BOS without Vic. Really has to suck for Pacers' fans to think how different the series may have been.

This. It's really, really unfortunate but that's how the sport is. Personally, I believed the exact same thing as you. We will be a tough out. The games will be close. We won't get swept. But, at the end, we won't be able to outscore them. We will lose in 5 or 6.

That said, seeing it happen still hurts a lot. Especially with the way that it is happening. Especially tonight. Not being able to get the ball in was just unbelievable. We knew that our offense would be our downfall. We knew that we go into scoring lulls. But they have never been so bad. It has never been so exaggerated. It isn't surprising, though, since Boston is a great defensive and Brad Stevens have game-planned against Bojan, our biggest threat without Dipo.

It just sucks, man. It sucks.

Series is a prime example of why superstars are so important in the playoffs. You can game plan and nullify a system and system players in a 7 game series. At the end of the day, it comes down to who's got the best star.

Full respect to Pacers. As Celtics fans, we all know and feel the pain of going into the playoffs without your star player. Series could have been very interesting otherwise.

ForeverTFC wrote:

Nuntius wrote:

PhilBlackson wrote:Pretty much how I predicted this series would be...

Indy would be tough, fight tooth & nail but in the end just not have the talent to keep up with BOS without Vic. Really has to suck for Pacers' fans to think how different the series may have been.

This. It's really, really unfortunate but that's how the sport is. Personally, I believed the exact same thing as you. We will be a tough out. The games will be close. We won't get swept. But, at the end, we won't be able to outscore them. We will lose in 5 or 6.

That said, seeing it happen still hurts a lot. Especially with the way that it is happening. Especially tonight. Not being able to get the ball in was just unbelievable. We knew that our offense would be our downfall. We knew that we go into scoring lulls. But they have never been so bad. It has never been so exaggerated. It isn't surprising, though, since Boston is a great defensive and Brad Stevens have game-planned against Bojan, our biggest threat without Dipo.

It just sucks, man. It sucks.

Series is a prime example of why superstars are so important in the playoffs. You can game plan and nullify a system and system players in a 7 game series. At the end of the day, it comes down to who's got the best star.

Yup, this is exactly why you give Kyrie the max and never look back...he just has a different gear for the postseason.

Andrew_M08 wrote:Lol either of these teams will lose to Milwaukee in 5 games max

Boston will handle Atlanta Hawk...I mean Milwaukee Bucks, the same way they did last year.

I feel like a lot of people on this board will be finding ways to discount every Boston win. But they're going to have to come up with quite a few excuses.

London2Boston wrote:Full respect to Pacers. As Celtics fans, we all know and feel the pain of going into the playoffs without your star player. Series could have been very interesting otherwise.

It's still a series, I'm not writing their obituary until we see the outcome of Friday.

These haven't exactly been commanding wins by Boston, Indiana has had a pair of a few minute stretches where they've been a black hole, they could easily clean that up at home.

Gooner wrote:

Andrew_M08 wrote:Lol either of these teams will lose to Milwaukee in 5 games max

Boston will handle Atlanta Hawk...I mean Milwaukee Bucks, the same way they did last year.

So they will lose every away game?Good thing they have home court then.Oh wait..

truly wrote:

Gooner wrote:

Andrew_M08 wrote:Lol either of these teams will lose to Milwaukee in 5 games max

Boston will handle Atlanta Hawk...I mean Milwaukee Bucks, the same way they did last year.

So they will lose every away game?Good thing they have home court then.Oh wait..

It's nice to have a home court, but that doesn't make you safe. Better team will win. Celtics were underdogs last year, despite home court. But things didn't go according to expectations for the Bucks.

So what exactly happened on that inbounds play from Matthews? You have a timeout where I assume a set play was drawn up, how did they mess that up so horribly?

itrsteve wrote:

London2Boston wrote:Full respect to Pacers. As Celtics fans, we all know and feel the pain of going into the playoffs without your star player. Series could have been very interesting otherwise.

It's still a series, I'm not writing their obituary until we see the outcome of Friday.

These haven't exactly been commanding wins by Boston, Indiana has had a pair of a few minute stretches where they've been a black hole, they could easily clean that up at home.

Agreed. Lets stop all of this planning for the Bucks because I’m certain they aren’t doing this in the locker room.

Raptor_Guy wrote:So what exactly happened on that inbounds play from Matthews? You have a timeout where I assume a set play was drawn up, how did they mess that up so horribly?

I don't think anyone from Pacers has revealed what play they had set. Whether Bogdanovic should have been looking for the pass, or whether Matthews made a bad decision. Nobody knows.

For what it's worth, Matthews took responsibility, saying he should have taken better care of the ball. That's really all we have:

https://www.foxsports.com/indiana/video/1497442371974

i was SMH-ing so much on that horrendous inbounds play my head nearly unscrewed from its socket.

Gooner wrote:

truly wrote:

Gooner wrote:
Boston will handle Atlanta Hawk...I mean Milwaukee Bucks, the same way they did last year.

So they will lose every away game?Good thing they have home court then.Oh wait..

It's nice to have a home court, but that doesn't make you safe. Better team will win. Celtics were underdogs last year, despite home court. But things didn't go according to expectations for the Bucks.

Bucks are the better team tho, lol. Better best player, better defense, better 3pt shooting, better rebounding...

It's actually kind of difficult to find an area where the C's are better. The C's havent looked better in this series than they have in the RS while the Bucks continued their RS play through the first 2 games; I'm not sure when this switch is gonna get turned on, but if this play isnt gonna cut it against the Bucks

It seems like this is going to be the exact same game 4 times. Pacers will stick around or have the lead for 2-3 quarters just because they have a good defense and play hard. However, they will eventually crumble down the stretch because they will run out of gas. Boston can turn to Kyrie Irving to create shots when things aren't working, Pacers have to turn to Thad Young or Bojan.

Sucks that Oladipo got hurt but props to the Pacers for making it this far.

Without Vic the Pacers just lack a creator. No one else can create. In crunch time they couldn’t score in a women’s prison with a fist full of pardons.

mademan wrote:

Gooner wrote:

truly wrote:
So they will lose every away game?Good thing they have home court then.Oh wait..

It's nice to have a home court, but that doesn't make you safe. Better team will win. Celtics were underdogs last year, despite home court. But things didn't go according to expectations for the Bucks.

Bucks are the better team tho, lol. Better best player, better defense, better 3pt shooting, better rebounding...

It's actually kind of difficult to find an area where the C's are better. The C's havent looked better in this series than they have in the RS while the Bucks continued their RS play through the first 2 games; I'm not sure when this switch is gonna get turned on, but if this play isnt gonna cut it against the Bucks

Bucks should win easily then, ok. No excuses for them.

Gooner wrote:

mademan wrote:

Gooner wrote:
It's nice to have a home court, but that doesn't make you safe. Better team will win. Celtics were underdogs last year, despite home court. But things didn't go according to expectations for the Bucks.

Bucks are the better team tho, lol. Better best player, better defense, better 3pt shooting, better rebounding...

It's actually kind of difficult to find an area where the C's are better. The C's havent looked better in this series than they have in the RS while the Bucks continued their RS play through the first 2 games; I'm not sure when this switch is gonna get turned on, but if this play isnt gonna cut it against the Bucks

Bucks should win easily then, ok. No excuses for them.

They really don't. All 3 teams (Bucks/Raps/C's) are finals or failures this year. I dont think any team looks at this season favourably if they lose before then

What’s up with Myles Turner’s game? Is he strictly a jump shooter especially from three these days? I thought he had more to his game in the low post but so far haven’t seen it or did he completely change things up with the way he plays?

truly wrote:

Gooner wrote:

Andrew_M08 wrote:Lol either of these teams will lose to Milwaukee in 5 games max

Boston will handle Atlanta Hawk...I mean Milwaukee Bucks, the same way they did last year.

So they will lose every away game?Good thing they have home court then.Oh wait..

I'm pretty confident in saying that having Irving and Hayward is more of an advantage this year, over not having either one but having home court last year.