The Celtics will play the Pacers in Indiana on Monday night, with the hopes that this turns into a rather fun road trip. Monday night's winner will advance to Thursday night's semifinals in the NBA In-Season Tournament, which will take place among all the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas.
There is no more point differential to worry about anymore. Monday night's winner gets to go spend a few days in Sin City and play for a shiny new trophy, while the loser simply gets to go home and await an opponent on Friday night. The Celtics clearly want to win this thing and take home the first-ever NBA Cup, which was on display as they kept pouring it on against the Bulls last week to help their chances to win Group C.
To no surprise, the Boston Celtics are the favorite tonight against the Indiana Pacers. Boston is listed as a 5.5-point favorite, which may not seem like a lot to some people, and that’s because the Celtics are missing a key part of their offense. Kristaps Porzingis is dealing with a calf injury that will keep him sidelined for tonight’s In-Season Tournament game.
Hield added 21 points on 4-of-6 3-point shooting and five other Pacers finished in double figures. The balanced attack carried Indiana to a fifth straight win to open In-Season Tournament Play.
They will face the winner of Tuesday's East Semifinal between Milwaukee and New York on Thursday in Las Vegas.
"When the boat starts rocking, when you're in a home game in the playoffs, that's when special things can happen," Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said after the victory. "Down the stretch, Tyrese hits the four-point play. I certainly feel like the crowd and the energy had something to do with that. And our crowd was amazing. They were amazing all night long. Hats off to them."
The Pacers and Celtics were tied at 94 midway through the fourth quarter on Monday, after Brown's 3-pointer capped a 7-0 run by Boston.
The Celtics, on the other hand, will be without Kristaps Porzingis, who is rehabbing from a calf injury and might also somehow be in Latvia. The Celtics won’t have quite as much firepower without him, but the Celtics have proved capable of shredding teams nonetheless by leaning on the unstoppable force of Horford.
The Celtics are currently a clean 5.5-point favorite, which definitely assumes Haliburton will play. But even if he does, the Celtics should have a clear advantage even on Indiana’s weird blue court. Hopefully they can keep the searing baby blue out of their eyes and hit some threes.
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