Pacers crash and burn in second half, lose Game 1 v. Celtics
I was going to write a standard game recap of Game 1 of the Pacers-Celtics series, but then that third quarter happened and everything I had planned flew right out the window.
The Pacers held a 45-38 lead after 24 minutes of play, thanks to a strong defensive half highlighted by the Celtics shooting just 13-40 from the field. Indiana was in the drivers seat and then it promptly veered right and drove off a cliff.
That 7-point halftime lead had evaporated less than 4 minutes into the second half, as the Pacers missed open shots left and right and turned the ball over frequently. Indiana finished the third quarter trailing 64-53 after mustering just eight points on 2-19 shooting. Any momentum Indiana had was gone and it was clear the Pacers just couldn’t come back from the hole they dug for themselves.
The Pacers ended up losing 84-74, and they head into Wednesday’s Game 2 knowing they should probably have a 1-0 lead in this series. It was the type of performance that showed exactly what the Pacers are missing without Victor Oladipo.
Indiana played winning playoff basketball on the defensive end of the floor, holding Boston to just 84 points on 28-77 shooting (36.4%). The Celtics also turned the ball over 20 times and only scored 24 points in the paint. Kyrie Irving scored 20 points but struggled heavily from the field, shooting just 6-17.
The only issue for the Pacers was that you also have to play offense in basketball, and they didn’t do much of that Sunday afternoon. Indiana struggled almost every way imaginable on the offensive end, shooting an abysmal 28-84 from the floor and 12-21 from the free throw line.
This was the first time all season that the Pacers scored less than 80 points in a game, with the previous low being 88 points on multiple occasions. And somehow, this might be the silver lining of this whole debacle. If the Pacers don’t have their worst offensive performance all season, they actually would have had a chance to win this game.
Any ball movement in the offense disappeared after the first half, and the Pacers seemed to be allergic to knocking down open jumpers or easy layups. The perfect example of this came when Thad Young went up for a layup in the second half and proceeded to put his shot off the bottom of the backboard.
The Pacers finished the game with just two scorers in double figures, and the starters combined for a disappointing 38 points on 15-44 shooting. Cory Joseph was the lone bright spot offensively off the bench as he led the Pacers with 14 points on 5-9 shooting, including sinking two of Indiana’s six made 3’s in the ball game.
Going forward in this series, the Pacers will need to see significantly better play from offensive anchors like Bojan Bogdanovic and Domantas Sabonis to improve on their disappointing Game 1 performances. Bogdanovic took a big step forward when Oladipo was lost for the season due to injury and he will need to shoulder a large part of the offensive load if Indiana wants to make a run this postseason.
The Pacers will have plenty of time before Game 2 on Wednesday night to watch the film and make the necessary changes to even up the series before they come back home. And if they don’t get things figured out soon, they might end up on the wrong end of a sweep.