Last night the Indiana Pacers were defeated in game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals by the Boston Celtics 133-128. The Pacers who were projected to lose a lot of these games, put up quite the fight in game one, battling all the way till the end of overtime. The Celtics strong defensive presence was just too much for the Pacers to handle and in the end hey eventually crumbled.
The game started off with Boston going up 12-0 in the first few minutes. As the Celtics are the number one seed in the East many expected their dominance to show right away but nobody expected a 12-0 run to start the first game of the series. Even though the Celtics made this quick run, surprisingly the Pacers didn't let this bring them down and they bounced back even stronger. Throughout the game they slowly chipped away at the Celtics lead until eventually they were tied and at one point they even took the lead. The fourth quarter is when things really took a turn. The Pacers had crawled there way back the whole 2nd and 3rd quarter and were now finally leading with the time winding down on the clock. Unfortunately, a costly turnover lead to a change in possession in favor of the Celtics with under a minute remaining. Down 3, the Celtics were in desperate need of a 3 pointer. From the in bound, Jrue Holiday rifled a pass to Jalen Brown in the corner and he knocked it down to tie the game. The Pacers had one more chance with about 5 seconds to get a good shot off. The Celtics locked down defensively for this last possession and got a stop when they needed it most.
Overtime was when things went downhill for the Indiana Pacers. All the battling and hard work that they had put in all game was in some ways thrown out the window, as they fell apart in overtime. The Celtics dominant two-way line up was to much for the sixth seed to handle and they couldn't keep up with all the talent that they have on the floor.
As the series continues on it will be interesting to see if the Pacers are able to keep up with the dominance of the Celtics. The Pacers have battled all playoff's long and are now used to long and competitive series like the one they previously had with the Knicks. The Celtics on the other hand have many years of playoffs experience and they know how to close out a series. This series overall will be a battle to the very end and no one team is going to get it easy as we are now one series away from the NBA finals.
Comments