The Pacers came very close to the feat Tuesday night in the first game of the Eastern Conference final in the NBA playoffs, but ultimately suffered a narrow defeat 133-128 after overtime on the floor of the Boston Celtics. It was Jaylen Brown who saved his team, hitting a three-point shot 6 seconds from the end of the match to tie the score at 117-117 and snatch overtime.
His teammate Jayson Tatum then took charge, finishing the game with 36 points (including 10 in overtime) and 12 rebounds. The Pacers, who had to work hard several times to catch up throughout the evening, may regret having stupidly lost vital balls at the very end of the game when they had the match in hand. Tyrese Haliburton scored 25 points and distributed 10 assists, Pascal Siakam finished with 24 points, 7 assists and 12 rebounds.
“A lot of ups and downs, I don’t think we played our best basketball,” lamented Jaylen Brown after the match (26 points in total), whose team had not played for almost a week afterwards. the 4-1 elimination of Cleveland in the previous round, unlike the Pacers, who snatched their place in the conference final on Sunday, during a decisive N.7 match in New York.
“We almost gave up a game on our floor, we have to do better,” added Brown. “We managed a few actions at the end of the match, but honestly, we have to be better, even if I take this victory, of course!”, continued the savior of the C’s.
“The defeat is entirely my fault,” lamented Pacers coach Rick Carlisle. “With 10 seconds left in the game, we should have taken a timeout, moved the ball and found a way to get and make one or two free throws that would have killed the game.”
“But we didn’t manage to do it and we made a few other mistakes,” he concluded. “We were a resilient, tough team for almost the entire second half of the season, we must continue like this.” Match N.2 of this conference final played in the best of 7 matches will take place in Boston on Thursday evening.