Celtics (15-4) at Pacers (10-8) Game #20 12/4/23

[FLCeltsFan]

  at 
Boston Celtics (15-4) at Indiana Pacers (10-8)
Monday, December 4, 2023
7:30 PM ET
Regular Season Game #20, Road Game #11
In Season Tournament Game #5
TV: TNT,  NBCSB,  BSIND
Radio: Sirius XM, 98.5 Sports Hub, 93.5/107.5 The Fan
Gainbridge Fieldhouse



Probable Starters
 
PG: Jrue Holiday     ...................................... SG: Derrick White


C:  Al Horford


SF:  Jaylen Brown   ............................................ PF: Jayson Tatum

Celtics Reserves
Delano Banton
Oshae Brissett
Sam Hauser
Al Horford
Luke Kornet
Svi Mykhailiuk
Payton Pritchard
Lamar Stevens
Jordan Walsh

2 Way Players
JD Davison
Nathan Knight
Neemias Queta
 
Injuries/Out
Neemias Queta (foot)  doubtful

Head Coach
Joe Mazzulla




Probable Starters
   
PG:  Tyrese Haliburton.................................................. SG:  Bruce Brown

 
C:  Miles Turner

   
SF: Buddy Hield  .............................................. PF: Obi Toppin

Pacers Reserves
Benedict Matherin
Isaiah Jackson
TJ McConnell
Andrew Nembhard
Aaron Nesmith
Jordan Nwora
Ben Sheppard
Daniel Theis
Jarace Walker

Two Way Players
Kendall Brown
Oscar Tshiebwe
Isaiah Wong

Injuries/Out
Jalen Smith (knee/heel) out
Tyrese Haliburton (illness) questionable
Obi Toppin (ankle)  questionable

Head Coach
Rick Carlisle

Game Notes
The Celtics host the Indiana Pacers for the 2nd of what are now 5 meetings on the schedule this season due to the In Season Tournament.  They were originally scheduled for 4 games, November 1, that the Celtics won 155-104 in Boston without Haliburton.  They will meet again in Boston on January 30.  They will meet twice in Indiana on January 6 and January 8. 

 The Celtics won the series last season 2-1.   They won one game in Boston and one in Indiana while the Pacers won their only game in the series in Boston.  The Celtics are 107-83 all time overall and 40-55 all time in games played in Indiana. This is the first game in the tournament semifinals, also known as the Knock Out Round of the tournament.  The team that wins this game moves on to Las Vegas and the team that loses goes home. 

The Pacers were undefeated in their pool play games and earned first seed and home court advantage for the semifinals.  They beat Cleveland, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Detroit in their pool play games.  The Celtics on the other hand, lost a pool play game to Orlando and had to blow out Chicago on the final day of pool play in order to advance with a higher point differential. 

Tyrese Haliburton missed the first game between these two teams and is questionable for this game.  He missed Saturday's game against the Heat with a bruised knee.  The knee is good now, but he is suffering from a respiratory infection that threatens to keep him out of this game.  Obi Toppin is questionable with an ankle injury.    Both are a game time decision.  Jalen Smith is out with heel and knee injuries.   Kristaps Porzingis is once again out for the Celtics. 

Key Matchups
vs
Jrue Holiday vs Tyrese Haliburton
Haliburton is averaging 27.0 points, 3.6 rebounds, 11.8 assists and 1.1 steals per game.  He is shooting 51.9% from the field and 44.7% from beyond the arc.  If Haliburton can't play due to the respiratory infection, Andrew Nembhard is likely to get the start in his place. 

vs
Al Horford vs Myles Turner
Turner is averaging 16.6 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 2.1 blocks per game.  He is shooting 51.2% from the field and 32.9% from beyond the arc.  Turner is a very good rim protector and hopefully Al can draw him out of the paint.  Turner needs to be covered from the paint to the perimeter as he is able to hit the 3 as well as score at the basket. 

Honorable Mention
Jaylen Brown vs Buddy Hield
Hield is averaging 13.2 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 2.7 assists.  He is shooting 51.2 % from the field and 32.9% from beyond he arc.   He is a scorer and the Celtics need to defend him well to keep him from having a big game.  The Celtics also need a good game from Jaylen on both ends of the court. 

Keys to the Game
Defense - Defense is the key to winning every single game and if they hope to win a championship,  it will be with tough defense.  The Celtics are 2nd in the league with a defensive rating of 107.6.  The Pacers are 29th with a defensive rating of 120.8.  The Celtics need to continue to make defense their identity and their priority.     The Celtics have to play tough defense to prevent the Pacers from getting out on the break and getting open shots as the Pacers are 1st in the league with 17.7 fast break points per game.  They are also first, scoring 128.8 points per game so the Celtics must win this game with defense. 

Rebound - The Celtics are 3rd in the league, pulling down 47.1 rebounds per game.  The Pacers are 29th with 39.4 rebounds per game.  It is important to rebound the ball to give themselves extra possessions and to prevent the Pacers from getting the same along with 2nd chance points.  Much of rebounding is desire and effort and the Celtics have got to put out more effort on the boards than the Pacers if they want to get a win in this game. 

Be Aggressive -  The Celtics have to be the more aggressive team and they have to work harder and play harder than the Pacers.  They have to be more aggressive on defense, on the boards, in going after loose balls and on the 50-50 balls.  They have to be the team that wants it more and play like it.  The Pacers win games by playing harder than their opponents.   The Celtics have to play hard for 48 minutes and not build a lead and then let up or start slow and then have to play catch up.   They need to be more aggressive from start to finish.

Focus and Take Care of the Ball - The Celtics need to stay focused and take good shots and not rush the offense or play too much iso ball.  They need to stay focused on playing the right way and on taking care of the ball. The Pacers move the ball and are first with 30.3 assists per game while the Celtics are 26th with 24.8 assists per game.  The Celtics can't depend on iso ball and instead, they need to keep the ball moving and look for the best shots. They also need to focus on handling the ball and making crisp passes and not turning the ball over as the Pacers average 18.1 points off turnovers per game. 

X-Factors
On The Road - The Celtics start out the knock out round of the tournament on the road.  The Pacers are playing well at home with a 6-5 record at home.  The Celtics can't allow the distractions of travel and a hostile crowd to take away from their focus on the game.   The Celtics beat the Pacers by 51 points in Boston and they have to be ready for a team looking for pay back.   

Officiating - Officiating can always be an x-factor. Every officiating crew calls the game differently.   Will the refs call it tight?  Will they let them play? Will the Celtics spend more time complaining about fouls than actually shooting the ball?  Once again, the Celtics must adjust to the way the crew is calling the game and not allow it to become a distraction for them.  Jayson Tatum was given a flagrant foul and tossed from the game on Friday and then after the fact, the flagrant was changed to a regular foul.  I'm sure he's thinking that the officiating can be an X-factor. 

[Vermont Green]

Big game. Go Celtics!!!!

[FLCeltsFan]

TP to   Vermont Green   for being the first to post in the game thread!!!!!!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Celtics!!!!!

Beat the Pacers!!!!!! 

[Silas]

Let's go Cs and make it four in a row!

[blink]

Lets go Celtics!!!!
Not sure I care a whole lot about the IST that much, I just like seeing us win every game.
I love me some Haliburton (I am an ISU grad), but my Celtic love is even deeper.  Win this and get to Vegas!

[Birdman]

Gotta be a tough one but we can do it

[Redz]

Let’s see if this tournament is worth a hill of beans.

Go Celts!

[Celtics2021]

This board needs to be ready for the fact that the Pacers low point total in their past 10 games was 110 points, and 8 out of 10 they’ve exceeded 125.  They play at a breakneck speed and shoot very efficiently, so if it looks like we’re not playing defense it’s partly the opponent.  This also can lead to some of those quick 10-15 point runs in under 2 minutes.

They also play no defense and the pendulum will swing the other way many times throughout the game, and the Celtics should win.  But if you’re pulling your hair out after an 8-0 nothing spurt, you could be bald by the end of the night, and if you think such a run should result in a timeout from Joe, know that if that were his predilection he might be out of timeouts before the first half is over.

The Pacers have been a fun league pass team, because their games are wild, but they also require an adjustment of expectations..

[Vermont Green]

Injuries/Out
Jalen Smith                (knee/heel) out
Tyrese Haliburton       (illness) questionable
Obi Toppin                 (ankle)  questionable

It sounds like people are expecting Haliburton to be out?  Maybe Toppin too?  That is about 50 pts combined on average for the three players and seems like it would make them really thin at PF if both Smith and Toppin are out.

Nesmith always seems to play well vs. the Celtics so watch out for him.  He is shooting 46% from 3 on about 4 3PA/gm, that is quite an improvement.  Maybe a good night to bet the over on Nesmith?

With no Porzingis and maybe no Queta, seems like a good time to give Brissett some minutes.  I keep saying this and being hopeful that Brissett will snap out of his funk.  He is shooting 11% from 3 and 18% overall.  He averaged about 35% from 3 prior to this season and about 41% overall.  He is -2 in overall +/-, only Stevens and Banton are worse.  He has got to be better than this, right?

[Vermont Green]

Their seven least efficient offensive games have all come on the road and among 181 players with at least 50 field goal attempts both at home on the road, Payton Pritchard (62.7% vs. 35.7%) and Sam Hauser (77.4% vs. 56.9%) have the biggest and third biggest home-road differentials regarding effective field goal percentage.

Found this interesting, although not surprising.  Our two main bench guys (excluding Horford who is really a 6th starter) play much better at home than on the road.  The 1st and 3rd biggest differentials in the league according to this.  Not sure when this stat sort was done, NBA.com has different values now:

Pritchard
Home          49% FG / 42% 3FG
Road           28% FG / 23% 3FG

Hauser
Home          53% FG / 54% 3FG
Road           42% FG / 35% 3FG

But still a big drop off in any case.  Both these guys shoot mostly 3s,  which is expected to add to the variability.

[Celtics2021]

Any word if Halliburton is playing?

[jpotter33]

Any word if Halliburton is playing?

Carlisle said he expects both Haliburton and Obi to play.

[jpotter33]

Oh God, we just got the Chuck guarantee that the C's are going to win the championship. Jinxed us.

[blink]

Oh God, we just got the Chuck guarantee that the C's are going to win the championship. Jinxed us.

Yeah that was not optimal
lol

[Silas]

Let's get ready to rock and roll!