Reviewing last 5 Pacers vs. Celtics matchups ahead of next game

Matchup 2: Tyrese Haliburton helps a weaker lineup keep pace

Sixteen games and a little over a month later, the Pacers faced the Celtics on April 1 for the final time in the 2022 season and one of the final games of the season overall.

While it had been only about a month since their last matchup, the Pacers lineup looked quite different, as they started Goga Bitadze and Terry Taylor alongside Haliburton, Brissett, and Buddy Hield against Boston, who only played eight players on the night.

Despite this relatively weaker lineup, the Pacers still kept pace with the Celtics but couldn’t recover from a 37-point Boston first quarter. They eventually lost 123-128 in one of the best games of the season.

The main reason for this surprisingly competitive game from Indiana boils down to one man: Tyrese Haliburton. On a night where he only had two assists and his teammates weren’t shooting the best from the field, save for Jalen Smith and Lance Stephenson, Haliburton dialed up the scoring and efficiency to a level we don’t usually see from him.

Not only would Haliburton score 30 points on the night, but he would only miss one shot along the way, shooting 10/11 from the field and a perfect 6/6 from 3-point range. On top of that, he would do all this in only 25 minutes due to fouling out later in the game.

While Jalen Smith and Lance Stephenson also contributed well, adding 17/6 and 11 points and 11 assists, respectively, the spotlight was all on Haliburton, as he showed exactly what he could do by almost leading a shorthanded Pacers team to victory against a relatively healthy Celtics team.