Indiana Pacers fall short in close contest against the Boston Celtics

The Indiana Pacers fall to 3-1 on the season after failing to close out the final moments against the Boston Celtics.

The Indiana Pacers played their second game in three nights against the Boston Celtics at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. In the first game, the Pacers won on a Domantas Sabonis and-1 with seconds remaining, but in last night’s contest, the Pacers received their first loss of the season.

The Pacers began the game off a little slow with some early turnovers and missed three-point shots. Both of these things allowed Boston to open up an early 11-0 run on the Pacers. The Pacers would weather this run and put together a very solid first-half performance. Victor Oladipo had 13 points, Malcolm Brogdon with 12, and Myles Turner with a season-high for points in a half at 10.

The second half was a tale of two quarters. The Pacers had another dominant third quarter scoring 37 points. T.J. Warren came to life after halftime scoring 15 points on 6-8 shooting from the field after not hitting a single field goal in the first half. Oladipo put together a complete third quarter by adding seven points, five assists, and four rebounds. The Pacers went on a 15-1 run in the third to give themselves the advantage heading into the fourth.

The fourth quarter started poorly for the Pacers as the Celtics were able to cut their lead down to 2 points. The Celtics were able to get what they wanted in the paint. Warren would foul out of the game with 4:11 left in the game. The Pacers would be trailing by 9 before going on a 9-2 run to cut the lead to two with 55 seconds left. On the final possession, Justin Holiday would have a costly turnover that would seal the game for the Celtics winning 116-111.

There were three big takeaways from this game. The first is that the team proved when Sabonis isn’t going early on they can share the load and keep themselves in games. Sabonis’ scoring didn’t really come to life until the 4th quarter and the Pacers were in the game the whole time.

The second takeaway is Myles Turner is absolutely incredible with the second unit. He is the menace the second unit needs defensively and is allowed to fully display his entire offensive game with them. I looked forward to watching more of Myles with the 2nd unit.

The third takeaway and likely the most important is that Victor Oladipo looks like his old self once again. Oladipo put together a beautiful game last night contributing 24 points, six rebounds, six assists on an efficient 10 for 18 shooting. Athletically and movement-wise Oladipo looks great. His explosiveness looks like it has returned and it tells when he drives to the rim. These past three games have been the best consecutive games Oladipo has had since returning from injury.

The Pacers are back in action tomorrow as the 3-1 Cleveland Cavaliers come to Indy. This has all the makings to be a good game as the Pacers played the Cavs twice in the preseason in closely contested games.