Indiana Pacers win a nailbiter VS Boston Celtics
The Indiana Pacers won their second game of the season after a tough win against the Boston Celtics. This game should not have been close.
The Indiana Pacers won their second game of the season after a tough win against the Boston Celtics. This game should not have been close. With about eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Indiana Pacers had a 20-point lead. The game went into overtime.
Nonetheless, Indiana wins 135-132 and improves to 2-3 on the season.
Box score highlights:
Bennedict Mathurin vs Boston: 30 PTS | 11 REB | 4 AST
Pascal Siakam with 29 PTS | 11 REB | 5 AST
The High:
Pascal Siakam was the Pacers’ best player tonight from start to finish. While Indiana did play overtime basketball, Siakam bailed them out. He hit the game-sealing three that led to the Pacers’ win over Boston.
Siakam was awesome from behind the arc tonight, making 6 of his 8 attempts. He was 11/20 from the field overall and his 11 rebounds were paramount. Siakam is a superstar, and he showed up big when Indiana needed it most. Even if they shouldn’t have needed it…
Bennedict Mathurin playing the starting minutes in the second half in place of Andrew Nembhard. He was spectacular offensively and was everywhere on the court. He led the team in scoring.
Tyrese Haliburton has found some rhythm and had one of his better games of the season. He scored 17 points and added 12 assists. He was 7/19 from the field tonight and made just 2 of his 10 three-point attempts.
The Low:
Indiana is continuing its trend of not being able to finish games. Last week, they lost to both the Magic and 76ers by four points. These were winnable games for the team and they just fell apart to close it.
Part of the problem to me is playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Indiana was up by 20+ points in the fourth quarter. Then, silly turnovers and a rushed tempo led to Boston being Boston. You watched the game thinking, “a 15-point lead may not be enough”. Those concerns proved correct as the game went into OT
The Pacers were able to win, but there are certainly things that need to be cleaned up moving forward. Overall they looked like a much better team and played a much better style of basketball. They look more comfortable and are gelling together. Now they just need consistency. We are now five games into the season.
The in-between:
Andrew Nembhard only played five minutes tonight. He started the game and then we stopped seeing him.
Pacers reporter Tony East shared this quote from Rick Carlisle's postgame on Nembhard’s minutes.
Carlisle: Andrew Nembhard's knee is acting up. Some tendonitis. Carlisle found out like 40 seconds before the game. Nembhard told Carlisle he wanted to play, but that's why just 5 minutes tonight.
Nemhard has struggled some this season, but that’s not why he was not playing tonight. Injury prevention from the staff. When healthy he’s one of the team’s better defenders.
Myles Turner was not available tonight due to an ankle sprain. With that, Isaiah Jackson got the start. Jackson scored 10 points and 5 rebounds before he fouled out. It would have been interesting to see what help James Wiseman might have contributed.
Full box score from tonight’s game:
On Friday, the Pacers will take on the 2-2 New Orleans Pelicans. That game will take place at 8:00 PM EST.