INDIANAPOLIS — When they’d last played in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, many of the Celtics celebrated afterward by downing beer in the visitors locker room. Wednesday, in their return to the building where they clinched a trip to the NBA Finals, the Boston players went through the more sobering experience of failing to complete a big comeback.
Jaylen Brown followed his team’s 135-132 overtime loss to the Pacers by sitting silently in front of his locker for several minutes. Brown, who had a scowl on his face that whole time, didn’t just shrug off the defeat right away. Such strong reactions are often reserved for bigger games, but his 3-point miss with five seconds left could have tied the score, and he blamed himself for more than that final shot.
“Just our energy was lackluster,” Brown said. “A lot of that was on me.”
Shortly after Brown pointed the finger at himself, Jayson Tatum did the same. Like Brown, he had missed a key shot in overtime, but Tatum expressed more frustration about the approach he brought to the court. Even while scoring 37 points, including a 3-pointer to force overtime, he believed he let down his team.
“I really just didn’t like the way I started the game,” Tatum said. “I feel like I set the tone in a negative way. My energy wasn’t where it needed to be. And I just felt like that just had a domino effect. We were a step behind on offense, on defense, so I take a lot of the blame for that. I just wanted to pick it up in the second half.”
The Celtics almost pulled off a stunning escape but allowed Pascal Siakam to score the game’s final five points. After Siakam tied the score at 132-132 with 36 seconds left, Boston looked for a quick shot to earn a two-for-one opportunity, but Tatum missed a stepback 3-pointer that would have given his team the lead. Siakam then swished a go-ahead 3-pointer, which held as the game-winning basket after Brown airballed a long jumper over Bennedict Mathurin on the last Celtics possession.
Brown liked the opportunity on the final shot but said he thought his miss was indicative of the way he played.
“Just didn’t have my legs up under me,” Brown said. “I thought it was a good look. Just all night I didn’t have my legs up under me. No explosion, no burst, and I think that cost us.”
Final pic.twitter.com/3WhmAo3VuD
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 31, 2024
Boston’s two All-Stars were hard on themselves after their first loss of the season. Though either of them could have regretted big misses in overtime, they seemed more upset about failing to play with their normal edge early in the game. While falling behind by as many as 24 points, the Celtics shot just 6-for-15 from the restricted area in the first half, including 2-for-7 from that range during the second quarter. Their missed layups ignited a Pacers offense that had struggled over the team’s first four games.
“We put ourselves in a hole early in the game just not converting open looks,” Brown said, “not being physical enough on drives, finishing at the rim. And a lot of that was on me, I’ve got to be better for my guys.”
The Pacers lost three of their first four games this season. Their offense, which rarely slowed down last season, ranked an ugly 23rd. Rick Carlisle said they were still trying to regain the edge that carried them to the Eastern Conference Finals and helped give Boston problems in that series. Though the Celtics prevailed in a sweep, the Pacers tested them as much as any other playoff opponent, nearly winning a couple of games. Carlisle suggested his team has had trouble carrying over that experience into this season.
“Sometimes it’s hard to remember how hard things were,” Carlisle said. “So that’s where we are now.”
The Pacers looked like they were back in playoff form Wednesday. Joe Mazzulla credited them for outplaying his group most of the game, saying his team was “a step behind in everything.”
“I thought their speed, their pace, just they were a step ahead of us,” Mazzulla said. “It wasn’t our best night. I thought we missed a ton of layups. I thought we had some rebounds with two hands that we didn’t get that we tapped out. So we just didn’t play our best and Indiana played great. But there’s two things, right? You can focus on that and you can focus on the fact that we just stayed in it. We stayed in it.”
Mazzulla could have emptied his bench at various parts of the second half with the game so lopsided, but he said he never considered it. Instead, in a sign the Celtics would go all out to overcome the Pacers’ lead, Tatum started the fourth quarter after playing the entire third. The Celtics still didn’t make up any ground on Indiana early in the fourth. Moments after Tatum checked back in for his final stint with 5:17 left, Boston still trailed by 16 points.
The comeback happened abruptly. Derrick White drilled a 3-pointer. Brown drove for a dunk. Neemias Queta, who closed the game instead of Al Horford, rewarded Mazzulla’s faith by working to grab four offensive rebounds over 14 minutes. With less than two minutes left, White scored another bucket, then intercepted the ensuing inbounds pass. He set up Tatum to draw a pair of free throws that brought the Celtics within 122-117. On the following Pacers possession, Brown picked Mathurin’s pocket and ran out for a breakaway bucket. Still down three in the closing seconds, the Celtics found Tatum for a tying 3-pointer.
JT SENDS US TO OVERTIME pic.twitter.com/pKOI3maNV7
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 31, 2024
“They were mismatched in transition,” Tatum said. “I saw they had Haliburton on me. I understand that’s probably not the matchup they wanted. Payton (Pritchard) just threw it to me quick. I thought they were going to foul, so I just wanted to get a shot off quick. We had some time left in case I missed it to get the rebound or whatever.”
After Haliburton missed a long runner at the end of regulation, Tatum celebrated by screaming in the direction of the Boston bench. His team, which looked dead just minutes earlier, had flown out of the grave by erasing a 19-point deficit over the final 7:27. After all of the Celtics’ mistakes over the first three quarters, the chance to play overtime must have felt like a gift.
They couldn’t pull out the win from there.
“There’s two things to focus on,” Mazzulla said. “There’s making sure we get off without (being) half a step behind. But you see what we’re capable of kind of at our best top to bottom. And the guys fought, so that was good.”
Despite the late fight, Tatum and Brown knew one good quarter wasn’t enough.
“It starts with us,” Tatum said. “We’ve gotta be better just with our energy and trying to execute and making the right plays. And not just scoring. We’ve gotta be able to get stops, we’ve gotta be able to rebound, we’ve gotta be able to get guys open. Playing with energy, it’s contagious. And it kind of starts with us.”
(Photo of Isaiah Jackson blocking a shot by Jaylen Brown during the second half Wednesday night: Marc Lebryk / Imagn Images)
