BOSTON — The Indiana Pacers walked away from Recreation 1’s 133-128 extra time loss to the Boston Celtics understanding they missed a possibility to steal dwelling courtroom to open the Japanese Convention finals Tuesday evening.
With 22 turnovers, together with two expensive miscues within the closing 27 seconds, the Pacers let victory slip away regardless of main by three factors with the ball within the closing 10 seconds of regulation.
“We gave it away,” Pacers ahead Aaron Nesmith mentioned. “We must always’ve gained the sport.”
The Pacers had a 3-point lead with 27.1 seconds remaining in regulation when guard Tyrese Haliburton dribbled the ball off his foot for an unforced turnover. But, Indiana received the ball again with an opportunity to seal the win on the free throw line with 10 seconds left.
The one concern was they needed to inbound the ball. With 8.1 seconds remaining, an errant inbound cross from Andrew Nembhard to Pascal Siakam sailed out of bounds and gave Boston one other likelihood to tie the rating, which Jaylen Brown took benefit of with a 3-pointer within the nook.
“I feel it is on us,” Haliburton mentioned. “They’re an incredible defensive crew, they received nice defenders, particular person and crew defenders, however they are not a crew who forces a ton of turnovers. I simply felt like extra of them have been on us than them. We received to wash that up.”
The Pacers additionally missed an opportunity to foul earlier than Brown’s tying 3-pointer, which Siakam mentioned was his intention on the play, however Brown caught the ball within the nook together with his shoulders squared to the basket and Siakam didn’t need to threat fouling a shooter and quit a four-point play.
The Pacers turned the primary crew since at the very least 1997-98 to lose a playoff sport regardless of inbounding the ball up 3 within the closing 10 seconds, in line with the Elias Sports activities Bureau.
Indiana’s 22 turnovers have been the second most it has dedicated all season and it contributed to 32 factors for Boston, probably the most for the Celtics in any sport this season.
“Numerous issues needed to go fallacious for us and proper for them,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle mentioned.
Turning the ball over was uncharacteristic for Indiana, which entered the sport committing the second fewest turnovers per sport amongst playoff groups.
Over the ultimate 5:30, together with extra time, the Pacers had extra turnovers (5) than area objectives (two).
“We confirmed our age a bit bit tonight,” Pacers middle Myles Turner mentioned. “Being a youthful crew and being on this excessive stakes of a sport, these uncharacteristic errors simply made their method out.”
Regardless of lacking an opportunity to win the opening sport on this convention finals, the Pacers didn’t depart TD Backyard hanging their heads. Boston raced to a 12-0 result in start the sport and appeared prepared to show it right into a rout. The Celtics maintained a bonus by double digits twice earlier than the Pacers responded to take the lead on each events.
“All yr lengthy, our battle cry has been ‘proceed to play, proceed to push tempo, proceed to execute, preserve enjoying it doesn’t matter what,'” Carlisle mentioned. “It is served us nicely and it did tonight too. So, we received — it is unlucky we did so many good issues on this sport that it got here all the way down to a few errors on the finish. However, that is the NBA playoffs. And, we have to study from it, and we received to bounce again.”
The Pacers have dropped Recreation 1 in every of the earlier two rounds of the postseason after which gone on to win an extended sequence. It left Haliburton inspired regardless of the frustration of dropping in such vogue, particularly when he thought of how nicely they performed on Tuesday evening.
“We all know we will play with these guys,” he mentioned. “We all know we belong. It is discouraging simply due to the performs that occurred down the stretch, we felt like we have been in place to win the sport, simply did not win the sport.
“However what I’ll say, is encouraging, we had been trash in Recreation 1s for the primary sequence and second sequence. Right this moment we performed nice for about 47 minutes, simply did not maintain for 48.”
Recreation 2 is Thursday.
