4 stats that defined the Pacers-Celtics matchups this season
By Ben Gibson
The Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics will face off in the playoffs, but before the post-season begins, let’s see what statistics defined their previous meetings.
The Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics faced off four times already this season, but their most important meetings come later this week in their first-round matchup in the playoffs.
However, how we got here is far from a straight line.
The narratives around the two teams couldn’t be more different. The Celtics are seemingly coming into form for the post-season but chemistry issues plagued the team all season. After going to the Eastern Conference Finals the last two years, the team barely managed to get home court advantage of the Pacers. But anything less than another appearance in the ECF would be a failure for Boston.
Indiana is scrapping along after losing Victor Oladipo for the season. What was once a season full of promise is now shadowed by the what-ifs of what a fully healthy Pacers team would be capable of. For Indiana, getting to the second round would be a major overachievement. Unlike Boston, Indiana’s team chemistry might be their strength.
Regardless of the story of how they got here, there are four stats that defined their previous four meetings.
The Pacers have a -11.8 net rating against the Celtics
There’s no real way to shine that up. The Pacers were outscored by nearly 12 points per 100 possessions.
The Celtics dominated the matchup this season. Sure, there was Indiana’s win in the first meeting and the oh-so-close loss in the third, but in the other two games, they were beaten by a total of 40 points.
Ouch.
Myles Turner missed the second meeting and the defense suffered for it, but that doesn’t fully absolve the Pacers. Domantas Sabonis may not be the defender that Turner is, but Domas is still an above average one.
While the cult of Brad Stevens sometimes is a bit much, he knows how the scheme things to his advantage. While Nate McMillan’s defenses can stop almost any team, his offensive creativity lags behind. That’s an advantage for Boston.
The Pacers do well enough from 3-point range even if their attempts are below the league average, but the Celtics make sure any other shot is a sub-optimal one.
On defense, the Pacers were screened into oblivion at times while the Celtics ran various actions to free up Kyrie Irving and other shooters.
On offense, Thaddeus Young became a volume scorer, which isn’t what anyone should want to be, much less a scraper like Thad. When Boston takes the ball out of Bojan’s hands and forces the other Pacers to score, life gets a lot easier for the Celtics.
The net rating may be a bit ghastly, but there’s a reason why it got so out of hand at times for Indiana.