It didn’t at all times look fairly, however the Boston Celtics completed off their six-game highway journey with a 4-2 report, together with a 23-point win over the playoff-bound Sacramento Kings. On Friday night, they returned residence to the TD Backyard seeking to construct momentum on their homecourt, and for an evening, they did precisely that. Bolstered by a flurry of three-pointers, the Celtics jumped on the Indiana Pacers within the second half, and scored a blowout 120-95 win.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown served because the North Star for the Celtics this night, combining for 61 factors and 6 made threes on the night time. With Malcolm Brogdon a late scratch resulting from again soreness, Derrick White loved an elevated workload and added 22 factors, 9 assists and 5 made threes, and Robert Williams III stuffed the stat sheet in his second recreation again from harm, with a 4-8-1-3-3 stat line in simply 16 minutes. Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner scored 20 factors apiece for the Pacers.
Oftentimes this season, it has felt just like the Celtics have ebbed and flowed with their three-point jumpers. Within the early going immediately, they flowed. They related on 5 threes from totally different gamers within the first eight minutes of the sport, serving to them preserve tempo with a feisty Indiana offense — and compensating for some uncharacteristically sloppy ball-handling. Either side cracked the 30-point threshold within the first quarter, with the Celtics holding a two-point lead heading into the second, 34-32.
The opposite vital issue within the Celtics’ favor? Jayson Tatum. Having struggled to attain effectively for the reason that All-Star break, the Celtics’ famous person seemed to take a unique strategy to tonight’s recreation. He was extra aggressive going downhill this night, buying and selling a few of his quantity capturing from vary for easy drives to the basket, ending on the rim or combating his option to the free throw line. He recorded 21 factors within the first half.
Discovering separation from this Indiana staff proved to be a problem. Led by one other robust effort from Turner, who has loved some success within the Celtics matchup this season, they saved the sport inside one possession for a lot of the second quarter. Although the Celtics drove the lead as excessive as 10 factors late within the quarter, the Pacers got here up with some well timed shot-making in response, and Boston lead on the half was simply 5 factors, 60-55.
Because the second half started, a lightning-fast 9-2 run — capped off by a steal and pull-up three from Brown — rapidly established the Celtics because the frontrunners. The lead prolonged into double-digits, and that’s the place it stayed at some point of the third quarter. Brown led the surge along with his trademark aggressive scoring, and White added a pair of three-pointers. The Indiana offense lastly began to falter, partially resulting from an absence of out of doors capturing — they shot simply 4-of-26 from three on the night — and the Celtics led by 16 getting into the ultimate body, 92-76.
White opened the fourth quarter scoring along with his fourth three of the sport, and Sam Hauser adopted it up along with his second moments later. After a Pacer timeout, the run rapidly blossomed to 14-2, and the rout was on in earnest. Staring down the second half of a back-to-back in Atlanta on Saturday night, Indiana coach Rick Carlisle was fast to empty the bench, and the Pacers pulled their regulars with simply over seven minutes remaining in regulation.
Subsequent up, the Celtics will face one other staff on the surface of the playoff image, internet hosting a San Antonio Spurs staff with one eye on the draft lottery this Sunday at 6 PM EST on NBC Sports activities Boston.
