In-Season Tournament, Qtr-finals – Celtics @ Pacers – 7:30PM, Mon, Dec. 4, 2023

[LewisnotMiller]

Pacers Injury Report: Haliburton and Toppin are QUESTIONABLE. Jalen Smith is OUT.

Toppin is meh, but Pacers sans Hali would make things easier.

It should make things easier, but with the way this team plays down to the competition? Aaron Nesmith 30 burger incoming

Made me chuckle.
Then sweat.

[GoGreen]

Yup, sounds about right.

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[playa-hater]

Yup, sounds about right.

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Surprised no one came up with a Theory on this oddity.

[zoyathedestroya]

Very interesting matchup for this IST QF from statistical standpoint:

• IND holds the #1 offense vs. BOS has the 2nd best defense.
• IND allows the least 3FGs per game vs. BOS takes the 2nd most 3FGs per game.
• IND allows the most 2FGs per game vs. BOS takes the least 2FGs per game.
• IND allows most points in the paint vs. BOS scores the 5th least points in the paint.
• IND scores most fastbreak points vs. BOS allows the 6th least fastbreak points.
• IND allows the most drives per game vs. BOS is 29th in drives per game.

Pacers worst offensive performance (89.9 ORtg) came against the Celtics, but they were without Haliburton.

[playa-hater]

Pacers Injury Report: Haliburton and Toppin are QUESTIONABLE. Jalen Smith is OUT.

Toppin is meh, but Pacers sans Hali would make things easier.

It should make things easier, but with the way this team plays down to the competition? Aaron Nesmith 30 burger incoming

I mentioned something similar about playing down to the comp and one poster blasted me with "Boston only lost 4 games" etc.. Soo, I am not sure I should Blast you or agree with you!

But If the Pacers can score 144 on the rd and win without Hali, I certainly wouldn't sleep on them.

[LewisnotMiller]

Toppin is meh, but Pacers sans Hali would make things easier.

It should make things easier, but with the way this team plays down to the competition? Aaron Nesmith 30 burger incoming

I mentioned something similar about playing down to the comp and one poster blasted me with "Boston only lost 4 games" etc.. Soo, I am not sure I should Blast you or agree with you!

But If the Pacers can score 144 on the rd and win without Hali, I certainly wouldn't sleep on them.

You can play down but still win, of course. One of the teams I coach did it enough last year to cause me considerable stress...lol

[zoyathedestroya]

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[Mr_Mojo_Risin]

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What a brown nose.

[steefP2]

Yup, sounds about right.

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Surprised no one came up with a Theory on this oddity.

Killahghostface has posted about this a few times; it’s in large part due to enormous shooting variance from opponents when Tatum sits. Over the last 10 games, opponents have almost missed every 3 in the Tatum off minutes. He’s also not been as good but the numbers are heavily skewed by an over 10% difference in opponent 3 point shooting.

[zoyathedestroya]

15-4. 20th game of the season.

Celtics best starts after 20 games in franchise history:

18-2: 1963, 1985, 2008, 2009
17-3: 1973, 1986, 2018
16-4: 8 seasons including last season

All those teams made the Conference Semis.

[bigfoot_cryptozoology]

It's a bit disappointing, that they have to win in Indiana to have the same starting season record as last year. Then again, they were quite a phenomenal team at the beginning of last season and phenomenal is a good thing indeed...

[Hal14]

Good stuff here. Caitlin Cooper clearly knows her stuff.

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One takeaway from the part I listened to, I like that Caitlin says "potential assists" twice in a short span of time.

It would be cool if we could have all websites post potential assists, rather than assists. Cause assists is misleading since the player will look better/worse than they really are, depending on how good their teammates are at making shots..

Oh and also, I noticed that Caitlin (a Pacers beat writer) seems more knowledgeable about the game than Celtics beat writers..and she also sounds much less negative about the team she covers than Celtics beat writers.

[Celts17Pride]

This game comes down to the Celtics guarding the 3 point line and getting back in transition in my opinion. Celtics do those two things they should win pretty comfortably.

[steefP2]

It's a bit disappointing, that they have to win in Indiana to have the same starting season record as last year. Then again, they were quite a phenomenal team at the beginning of last season and phenomenal is a good thing indeed...

I think the main difference is last year they had excellent health going 16-4 and everyone was shooting career numbers (to an unsustainable degree) whereas now we’ve had some missed games to key guys and half our roster has underperformed offensively compared to their capabilities.


We’re more winning off the strength of our defense which btw at this point last season was 20th in the league !



Obviously this team hitting their ceiling isn’t a foregone conclusion but it feels like currently they’re playing only slightly above their floor and still winning near 80% of their games. Idk how good we’ll end up being but I am pretty damn sure both the floor and ceiling is better than last year

[strokerace]

Good stuff here. Caitlin Cooper clearly knows her stuff.

Read on Twitter

One takeaway from the part I listened to, I like that Caitlin says "potential assists" twice in a short span of time.

It would be cool if we could have all websites post potential assists, rather than assists. Cause assists is misleading since the player will look better/worse than they really are, depending on how good their teammates are at making shots..

Oh and also, I noticed that Caitlin (a Pacers beat writer) seems more knowledgeable about the game than Celtics beat writers..and she also sounds much less negative about the team she covers than Celtics beat writers.

Caitlin Cooper was on a Ringer pod with Brian Barrett recently talking about tonights game. She really knows the game inside and out. I'm going to guess that the Pacers are going to be tight tonight being the first game on TNT for most of them and we know Nesmith is going to try to do way too much. This should be a win if we take it seriously.

[playa-hater]

Bless the Basketball Gods for having this game on TNT.I don't remember any Mondays TNT Airing any games on a Monday.

[Celts17Pride]

Scott Agness @ScottAgness
4 minutes ago

Spero Dedes, Greg Anthony and Stephanie Ready on the TNT call tonight of Celtics at Pacers, 7:30pm ET. It’s the Pacers’ first national TV game this season. Bally Sports Indiana will also televise the game.

[KillahGhostface]

Nesmith, you’ve been awesome this year. Has become the player we all hoped for, and I always root for you.

Hope you go 0-11 tonight bud.

[bisme37]

Scott Agness @ScottAgness
4 minutes ago

Spero Dedes, Greg Anthony and Stephanie Ready on the TNT call tonight of Celtics at Pacers, 7:30pm ET. It’s the Pacers’ first national TV game this season. Bally Sports Indiana will also televise the game.

Not my personal favorite announcer crew lol. Dedes is boring and all Anthony knows about the C's is we keep losing to his son.

[bisme37]

...

Thanks for doing the postgame the other night! I'm back I guess lol.