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Celtics Pursue East Sweep vs Pacers

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INDIANAPOLIS – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Boston Celtics are in the driver’s seat but Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle says his club will be controlling the throttle in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.
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There’s no reason for Indiana to do anything other than push the pedal to the metal on Monday night in Indianapolis since no team has recovered from a 3-0 deficit in NBA playoff history.
“We’re not going to be deterred,” Carlisle said of the mountain to navigate. “We’re going to be back here Monday night looking to extend the series and we’re going to come at it even harder. We have to. We don’t have a choice. … Believe me, we are going after them.”
While the Pacers will stay off the brakes, the Celtics will be trying to close the door on the series.
Top-seeded Boston moved within one victory of advancing to the NBA Finals for the second time in three seasons by rallying from an 18-point, third-quarter deficit to post a 114-111 road victory in Game 3 on Saturday.
“We’ve met every challenge,” Celtics star Jayson Tatum said. “We’re in great position right now, one win away from the finals. But we can’t look past Monday or anything like that, and we have a special opportunity to go back to the finals.”

Boston Takes Control Over Pacers

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INDIANAPOLIS – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Boston’s Jrue Holiday converted a go-ahead three-point play and added a key steal in the final seconds of regulation to help the Celtics post a 114-111 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals at Indianapolis.

Jayson Tatum recorded 36 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists as Boston took a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Jaylen Brown scored 24 points and Al Horford drained a career-high seven 3-pointers while scoring 23 points for the top-seeded Celtics.

Indiana’s Aaron Nesmith had a 3-pointer bounce off the rim as time expired.

Andrew Nembhard scored a career-best 32 points and added nine assists for the sixth-seeded Pacers. T.J. McConnell had 23 points, nine rebounds and six assists, Myles Turner added 22 points and 10 rebounds and Pascal Siakam also scored 22 points for Indiana, which lost at home for the first time in seven playoff games.

The Pacers played without All-NBA Third Team selection Tyrese Haliburton, who injured his left hamstring in Game 2.

Holiday wasn’t cleared to play until approximately 45 minutes before tipoff due to an illness. He finished with 14 points, nine rebounds and three steals.

Game 4 is Monday in Indianapolis.

Boston trailed by five before Horford drilled a trey with 1:12 left, and Holiday added his pivotal three-point play to give the Celtics a 112-111 edge with 38.9 seconds to go.

The Pacers were later looking for a go-ahead shot and eschewed a timeout. Nembhard was handling the ball and Holiday forced it away with 3.3 seconds remaining. Holiday was then fouled and made two free throws with 1.7 seconds to play.

Haliburton Hurt

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Indiana Pacers lost All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton to a sore left hamstring in Game 2 against the Boston Celtics on Thursday night.

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Haliburton, 24, left with 3:44 remaining in the third quarter of Indiana’s 126-110 road loss and did not return. The Pacers’ second-leading scorer in the playoffs (19.3 points per game) finished with 10 points and eight assists in 28 minutes.

“Losing Ty for the game obviously is a big blow,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said. “We’ll know more (Friday) and even more Saturday. … I know you want details. I don’t have much.”

The Pacers trail the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals 2-0, with Game 3 set for Saturday night in Indianapolis. Indiana is 6-0 at home in this postseason.

Haliburton, who had 25 points and 10 assists in Game 1, missed 10 games with a left hamstring strain suffered Jan. 8 against the Celtics. On that occasion, he had to be helped off the floor after a slip and fall.

–Field Level Media

Can Pacers Clean Up Play?

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Indiana Pacers know where improvement is needed on Thursday when they visit the Boston Celtics for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals.

The Pacers committed 22 turnovers in their 133-128 overtime loss in Game 1 on Tuesday, and those miscues led to 32 Boston points. The costliest turnover came with 8.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter while sixth-seeded Indiana was leading 117-114. Pascal Siakam couldn’t handle Andrew Nembhard’s inbounds pass, and he then allowed Jaylen Brown to make a game-tying 3-pointer that forced overtime.

“We had a lot of turnovers that would be hard to explain, but this is the conference finals in the NBA playoffs and these things happen,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “As many turnovers as we had, our guys continued to play, continued to fight and found a way to get a three-point cushion and the ball. So at that point we just gotta finish it off.”

Aaron Nesmith (five) and Myles Turner (four) accounted for nine of the 22 giveaways, but Tyrese Haliburton also turned the ball over three times — including twice in key moments. He dribbled the ball off his foot when Indiana led by three with 27.7 seconds left in regulation, then lost the ball out of bounds with 1:02 remaining in overtime.

“I think it’s more on us,” Haliburton said. “They’re a great defensive team. They got great, great defenders — individual and team defenders — but they’re not a team who forces a ton of turnovers. They’re a solid, solid team. I just felt like more of (the turnovers) were probably on us than them forcing them. We got to clean that up, and outside of (Game 1) and one game last series, we’ve really taken care of the ball. So, we’ll fix it in Game 2.”

Top-seeded Boston has won Game 1 in each of its three playoff series this year, but it failed to win Game 2 at home against Miami in the opening round and against Cleveland in the conference semifinals.

After Thursday’s game, the best-of-seven series will shift to Indianapolis for Games 3 and 4.

Celtics Survive OT with Win vs Pacers

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Boston’s Jayson Tatum scored a game-high 36 points and added 12 rebounds as the Celtics earned a 133-128 overtime victory against the visiting Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. Tatum scored 10 points in overtime, including six straight that gave the top-seeded Celtics a 127-123 lead with 42.9 seconds to play.

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Jrue Holiday added 28 points and Jaylen Brown finished with 26 points in the win. After Brown drained a corner 3-pointer that made it 117-117 with 6.1 to play in regulation, Tyrese Haliburton missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer and the game went to overtime.

Haliburton had 25 points and 10 assists, and Pascal Siakam finished with 24 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists for the Pacers. Myles Turner added 23 points in the loss.

Indiana made 9 of 10 free throws in the game. Boston was 24 for 30 from the free-throw line.

The Pacers committed 22 turnovers.

The Celtics scored the game’s first 12 points and led 34-31 after one quarter. Boston had a 47-37 lead after Holiday’s jump shot with 8:01 remaining in the second quarter. Indiana tied the score, 61-61, on Haliburton’s 3-pointer with 1:19 left in the half. It was 64-64 at halftime.

Turner led all scorers with 18 points in the first half.

Indiana had its first lead of the game after Haliburton’s layup broke a 64-64 tie with 11:25 remaining in the third quarter. The Pacers stretched their lead to five, but Boston regained control and led 87-75 after Tatum’s three-point play with 4:50 left in the third capped a 13-0 run.

The Pacers used a 9-0 spurt to pull within four points, 92-88, late in the third. Indiana trailed 94-93 entering the fourth after Haliburton banked in a buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the end of the third.

–Field Level Media

Pacers vs. Celtics: Whole Lotta Offense

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Based on past performance, it’s unlikely that generating good offense will be a problem for either team when the Indiana Pacers visit the Boston Celtics for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday night.

Sixth-seeded Indiana led the NBA in scoring during the regular season, when it averaged 123.3 points per game. Top-seeded Boston averaged 120.6 points per contest in the regular season, which ranked No. 2.

The Pacers shot 67.1 percent from the field — an NBA playoff record — when they beat the host New York Knicks 130-109 in Game 7 of the conference semifinals Sunday. Tyrese Haliburton led the way with a 26-point performance.

“I’m just proud of this group,” Indiana’s Myles Turner said. “This is the most special group I’ve been around since I’ve been here. We all play for each other. There’s no ego. When you have guys who can score 15-plus points every single night — seven, eight guys — there can be a lot of ego involved with that, and we were able to nip that in the bud a lot early in the season.

“And obviously having Pascal (Siakam) coming here midway through the season, adding his leadership and everything he’s able to provide for us offensively and defensively has been huge. … We’re not done yet.”

Haliburton averaged a team-high 20.1 points per game during the regular season, but Siakam is the team’s leading scorer in the playoffs (21.2). The Pacers have scored at least 140 points 11 times this season.

“I think it’s just the old-school way of thinking that you can’t play this fast in the playoffs, but I think opportunistically you can do it,” Haliburton said. “I think if we’re able to get stops, of course we can.”

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown do most of the heavy lifting on the offensive end for the Celtics. Through 10 playoff games Tatum is averaging 24.3 points and 10.4 rebounds. Brown is averaging 23.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per game in the postseason.

“We understand what we can do individually,” Tatum said. “Each night just kind of presents different challenges and being ready and up for the task to do whatever is needed because both of us are capable on the basketball court to do literally everything.”

Indiana dispatched the Milwaukee Bucks in the opening round before it eliminated New York. Boston advanced by defeating the Miami Heat in the first round and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference semifinals. Each series went five games.

The Celtics will likely be without center Kristaps Porzingis, who will reportedly miss at least the first two games of the series with a calf injury. Porzingis was injured during Game 4 of Boston’s series against Miami. The Celtics have a 5-1 record in the playoffs when Porzingis hasn’t played.

“You know that he wants to play,” Boston’s Jrue Holiday said. “You know that he wants to get out there and play with his teammates, but then seeing him out there and seeing him working has been good. And honestly just hope that he recovers fast so that we can get him back out there.”

Boston won three of five meetings against Indiana during the regular season.

“Really excited to get back out there and play,” Holiday said. “Seems like we’ve been off for a while, so excited to get out there Game 1, kind of get it started.”

–Field Level Media

Celtics Eliminate Cavaliers

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BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Boston’s center Al Horford had 22 points and 15 rebounds as the host Celtics advanced to the Eastern Conference finals by handing the short-handed Cleveland Cavaliers a 113-98 loss in Game 5 of a semifinal series on Wednesday night.

Top-seeded Boston won the best-of-seven series 4-1. The Celtics advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the third straight season and for the sixth time in the past eight years.

Jayson Tatum added 25 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists for Boston. The Celtics led by just three points early in the fourth quarter but extended the lead to 14, 101-87, on a Tatum 3-pointer with 6:45 to play. The Cavaliers didn’t threaten after that.

It was a skeleton crew that took the court for Cleveland, which played without star guard Donovan Mitchell (calf), center Jarrett Allen (rib) and guard Caris LeVert (knee).

The calf injury also caused Mitchell to miss Cleveland’s 109-102 loss in Game 4 on Monday night. Allen didn’t play in the series, and LeVert was coming off a 19-point performance in Game 4.

Evan Mobley had a game-high 33 points and seven rebounds for the fourth-seeded Cavaliers. He made 15 of his 24 field-goal attempts.

Cleveland received a season-high 25 points from Marcus Morris Sr., who made 5 of 6 3-point attempts.

It was 28-28 after one quarter. Cleveland used an 18-6 run to take a 46-40 lead in the second quarter, but Boston responded with a 13-2 spurt that put the Celtics in front 53-48. Boston had a 58-52 lead at halftime.

The Celtics had a 69-57 advantage with 8:41 remaining in the third quarter after a Horford 3-pointer capped an 11-0 run. Cleveland kept fighting back, however, and was within seven points, 85-78, at the end of three quarters.

Cleveland failed to score 100 points in eight of its 12 playoff games.

–Field Level Media

 

Fever Go Down in Clark Debut

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UNCASVILLE – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – DeWanna Bonner climbed the all-time scoring list with 20 points and the Connecticut Sun capitalized on Caitlin Clark’s turnover-prone WNBA debut to defeat the Indiana Fever 92-71 in the season opener Tuesday in Connecticut.

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Clark, who was chosen with the No. 1 pick after a record-breaking college career, tallied a team-high 20 points and three assists but committed 10 turnovers and four fouls. She shot 5-for-15 from the floor, including 4-of-11 from 3-point range.

Clark’s miscues included six bad-pass turnovers and one traveling call. Connecticut scored 29 points off Indiana’s 25 total turnovers.

On a transition bucket in the third quarter, Bonner passed Candice Dupree for the fifth-most points in WNBA history and now has 6,901. Alyssa Thomas, who recorded a league-record six triple-doubles last season, picked up where she left off with 13 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds for Connecticut (1-0).

DiJonai Carrington and Tyasha Harris each added 16 points and Rachel Banham had 10 for the Sun.

Clark connected with Aliyah Boston to tally an assist on the game’s opening possession. But the rookie also picked up two early fouls and sat for most of the final 4:51 of the period.

Harris made three 3-pointers in the first quarter to help the Sun build a 19-13 lead. Carrington poured in 14 points in the second quarter alone to add to that edge.

Clark’s first WNBA basket came on a driving layup midway through the second after an 0-for-4 start. Her first professional 3-pointer was a catch-and-shoot play from the left wing to cut the deficit to single digits with 30.1 seconds before halftime, but Connecticut eventually took a 49-39 edge to the locker room.

Clark hit a 29-foot triple and Erica Wheeler added five points in an 8-2 Fever spurt early in the third quarter to trim their deficit to 53-47. That’s as close as they would get, as Bonner and Thomas combined for the next six points.

Bonner’s three-point play at the 6:37 mark of the fourth quarter made it 75-59 Sun. Clark made her third 3 on the ensuing possession, but Harris answered with one for Connecticut and the Fever never threatened again.

–Field Level Media

Atlanta Hawks Win NBA Lottery

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CHICAGO – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The NBA Draft Lottery has been completed, the order has been doled out and the Atlanta Hawks beat the odds to come out on top, when they were granted the top overall selection in the 2024 NBA Draft.

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It is the first time the Hawks have won the top choice via draft lottery in franchise history. They had the No. 1 overall pick in 1975, via the New Orleans Jazz, and selected David Thompson (who chose to play for the ABA’s Denver Nuggets).

Triumphant Hawks general manager Landry Fields celebrated the reveal Sunday afternoon on live television as the team’s onsite representative when the order of the top two selections was revealed.

Fields flashed a toothy grin when the Washington Wizards — who had the second worst record in the NBA at 15-67 last year — were announced to have landed in the second spot, giving the top choice to Atlanta.

The Hawks (36-46) had just a three percent chance at receiving the top choice, as opposed to a 65.91 percent chance at picking tenth overall. It is the fifth lowest odds all time for a team to wind up with the top selection in the lottery.

The Houston Rockets will select third, while the San Antonio Spurs are at No. 4.

Despite having the league’s worst record at 14-68, and the best odds at winning the lottery, the Detroit Pistons fell all the way to the fifth choice.

Rounding out the top ten will be the Charlotte Hornets (No. 6), Portland Trail Blazers (No. 7), Spurs (No. 8), Memphis Grizzlies (No. 9) and Utah Jazz (No. 10).

The Chicago Bulls will pick 11th, while the Oklahoma City Thunder are 12th. The Sacramento Kings are 13th and the Trail Blazers are 14th.

–Field Level Media

Tatum, Brown Drive Celtics to Victory

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CLEVELAND – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Boston’s Jayson Tatum recorded 33 points, 13 rebounds and six assists and the Celtics regained the lead in their Eastern Conference second-round series with a 106-93 victory over the host Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night.

Tatum’s teammate, Jaylen Brown, scored 28 points on 13-of-17 shooting and collected nine rebounds as top-seeded Boston took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Jrue Holiday added 18 points, eight rebounds and five assists and Derrick White had 12 points for the Celtics.

Donovan Mitchell made seven 3-pointers and scored 33 points for the fourth-seeded Cavaliers. Evan Mobley had 17 points and eight rebounds, while Caris LeVert and Darius Garland scored 15 points apiece for Cleveland.

Game 4 is Monday night at Cleveland.

The Cavaliers were without big man Jarrett Allen (ribs) for the sixth straight game. Kristaps Porzingis (calf) missed his fourth straight game for the Celtics.

Boston shot 51.2 percent from the field, including 13 of 34 from 3-point range. Cleveland connected on 42.9 percent of its shots and was 12 of 36 from behind the arc.

The Cavaliers trailed by 15 points before scoring the first six points of the final quarter. Mobley capped it with back-to-back hoops to bring Cleveland within 84-75 with 10:29 remaining.

Payton Pritchard and White nailed 3-pointers over the next few minutes as Boston pushed its lead to 94-81 with 6:58 remaining.

After a three-point play by Mitchell, Brown and White scored to give the Celtics a 98-84 advantage with 5:42 left.

Tatum’s fall-away baseline jumper over Max Strus made it 104-89 with 2:14 left, and Boston closed it out.

Boston led by nine at the break before opening the third quarter with 14 consecutive points.

Tatum opened the quarter with a three-point play, White added a 3-pointer and Brown followed with a layup to increase the margin to 17. White and Holiday knocked down treys to end the surge and give the Celtics a 71-48 lead with 9:06 left in the third quarter.

Mitchell hit a short jumper with 8:39 left in the third to start a 9-0 run as the Cavaliers pulled within 14 with 5:25 left. Boston thwarted the charge, and Brown drained a long 3-pointer with 20.3 seconds left to give his team an 84-69 advantage entering the final stanza.

Tatum scored 18 points in the first half as the Celtics took a 57-48 lead into the break. Mitchell had 23 in the half for Cleveland.

–Field Level Media