Jaylen Brown, Celtics veterans lead Boston to blowout win over Pacers
Published in Basketball
The Celtics opened their longest road trip of the season with an emphatic victory Friday night in Indianapolis.
Championship holdovers Jaylen Brown, Payton Prichard, Derrick White and Sam Hauser combined for 103 points to lead Boston to a 140-122 beatdown of the Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Brown turned in his eighth straight 30-point outing and 11th in his last 12 games, finishing with an even 30 on 13-of-20 shooting and adding four steals. Pritchard finished just shy of a double-double with 29 points, nine rebounds and five assists. White had 21 points, six assists and five rebounds, and Hauser was lights-out off the bench, going 7 for 8 from 3-point range to finish with a season-high 23 points.
Team-wide, the Celtics shot 57% from the field and 51% from 3. They also got another strong showing from resurgent backup big man Luka Garza (15 points, 5-of-5 shooting, five rebounds), who’s a combined plus-63 since reentering head coach Joe Mazzulla’s rotation last Saturday.
Winners of four in a row, the 19-11 Celtics now will play four straight road games against Western Conference foes. They’ll be in Portland on Sunday (6 p.m. ET) before visiting Utah, Sacramento and the Los Angeles Clippers. All of those teams have sub-.500 records, with the Jazz, Kings and Clippers occupying three of the bottom four spots in the West standings.
Indiana, last season’s Eastern Conference champion, sits second-to-last in the East at 6-25, well on its way to a lottery pick after losing star point guard Tyrese Haliburton and a host of other rotation players to injuries.
The depleted Pacers rank last in the NBA in field-goal percentage, 3-point shooting percentage, points per game and offensive rating, but they got off to another uncharacteristically efficient start. Just as they did in Monday’s 103-95 loss at TD Garden, they overwhelmed the Celtics with 3-pointers early in the game, starting 6 for 6 from beyond the arc to take a 15-point first-quarter lead.
Indiana hit just three of its next 17 triples, however, and Boston began steadily chipping away at its double-digit deficit.
The Celtics’ bench again played a key role in the comeback. Hauser sparked it with back-to-back 3s, then hit another to open the second quarter. Garza continued to earn his minutes in his third game back in the rotation, impacting the game as a screener and rebounder.
Baylor Scheierman nailed a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer, grabbed an offensive rebound that led to a White three and zipped a behind-the-back pass to Anfernee Simons for yet another 3. Scheierman also forced multiple Pacers turnovers with drawn fouls. Mazzulla kept the second-year pro on the floor for the entire second quarter, favoring him over fellow wings Jordan Walsh (three first-half minutes) and Hugo Gonzalez (six).
Scheierman finished as a plus-18 in his 20 minutes.
While the reserves delivered hustle plays, Boston’s top scorers piled up points. Brown, White and Pritchard all reached double figures before halftime, with Brown and Pritchard picking Indiana apart with a succession of tough midrange makes. That trio supercharged a Celtics offense that outscored Indiana’s 47-22 in the second period, including a 19-2 Boston run.
“We started to get some stops, the ball was moving, we started making shots and the tide just kept kind of turning,” Hauser told NBC Sports Boston sideline reporter Abby Chin. “We started rebounding really well, and coming out of halftime, we blew out the lead a little bit more. It was a lot of good things happening at once there.”
The Celtics led 75-61 at halftime, then continued to pour it on in the third. Nine minutes into the second half, Brown sank a midrange jumper, stole the ball on the ensuing possession and bounced a pass behind his back to a trailing Garza, whose transition layup stretched Boston’s lead to 20 and pushed it over the 100-point plateau.
All the while, Hauser kept raining down 3s. The veteran sharpshooter made his first seven attempts from distance in his best shooting performance of the season.
His first miss, which came with 1:24 remaining in the third quarter, sparked a scuffle that resulted in double technical fouls on Walsh and Pacers guard TJ McConnell. Walsh pulled down the rebound off Hauser’s misfire, and McConnell shoved him. Officials separated the two, and Mazzulla, who’s celebrated Walsh’s fiestiness in the past, high-fived the 21-year-old once he reached the bench.
Their tussle did briefly energize McConnell, who scored on the next two Indiana possessions, but the Pacers never mounted a serious challenge. The Celtics took a 111-91 lead into the fourth quarter and coasted from there.
The only drama over the final 12 minutes was whether Brown would get his 30 points. He did on a 3-pointer with 5:43 to play, after which he broke into a wide smile and then was shut down for the night.
In Celtics history, only Larry Bird (nine) has registered more consecutive 30-point games than Brown’s eight. He’s averaging just shy of 30 per game this season (29.4).
“By the looks of the shots he was making at the end there, he was going for it, and credit to him,” Hauser told Chin. “He’s so special, and he can kind of just score on anybody in this league at will. Great having him as a teammate, for sure.”
Other observations:
— Jayson Tatum made the trip to Indianapolis, as he has for most Celtics road games this season. Before Friday’s game, the rehabbing superstar went through a workout at Butler University, according to videos shared on his Instagram page, with a notable guest in attendance: Celtics president of basketball operations (and former Butler head coach) Brad Stevens.
One of the videos showed Stevens flipping an underhand pass to Tatum, who then drove past two assistant coaches for a dunk.
Stevens said last week that Tatum has “obviously made great strides” in his recovery and “obviously (is) itching to play,” but that the Celtics won’t consider reactivating him until he is “110% healthy.” Tatum is roughly 7 1/2 months removed from Achilles surgery.
— Reserve big man Chris Boucher, who has not seen playing time since Nov. 23, missed the game for personal reasons. Josh Minott was a healthy DNP for the first time since Oct. 24.
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