Last week’s Celtics-Pacers matchup was decided by a controversial call in the closing seconds.
Wednesday’s rematch required no such dramatics.
Boston dispatched last-place Indiana 119-104 at TD Garden behind 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists from Jaylen Brown and 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting from Sam Hauser, who went 5-for-7 from 3-point range in the win. Neemias Queta added 17 points, nine rebounds and five blocks.
Pascal Siakam — whose late game-winner in the teams’ previous meeting should have been nullified by an illegal screen — finished with 32-10-4 but got limited support from Indiana’s depleted supporting cast, which was missing injured starters Tyrese Haliburton and Bennedict Mathurin.
The game closed out the season series between the last two Eastern Conference champions, with all four meetings taking place in the last 30 days. The Celtics, who took three of four from the Pacers, improved to 27-16, strengthening their grip on second place in the East standings. Indiana fell to 10-35.
Fresh off a four-game road trip, Boston now will head back out for a two-city back-to-back, visiting Brooklyn on Friday and Chicago on Saturday.
“We didn’t play great but just finding a way to win, especially coming off nine-day trip and having to leave again tomorrow for two games, is tough to do, and I think it’s more of a mental game than physical in this type of setting,” Hauser said. “So think we did a good job of that and just figuring out a way to win. And now we’ve got to travel, go back on the road and try to get two more.”
The Celtics started hot Wednesday with two Hauser 3-pointers in the opening 68 seconds, then closed the first quarter with a 12-2 run to take a 30-20 lead. Luka Garza drew two shooting fouls during that Boston push, including one off a contested offensive rebound. Baylor Scheierman contributed a corner three and a steal, using the latter to spark a fast break that yielded a Payton Pritchard triple.
Scheierman has seen regular playing time since mid-November — he even started two games during Boston’s recent road trip while Brown and Pritchard nursed injuries — but the second-year pro rarely is part of Joe Mazzulla’s first round of substitutions, as he was Wednesday.
Fellow depth wings Jordan Walsh and Hugo Gonzalez chipped in 3-pointers early in the second quarter, with Gonzalez’s halting an 8-0 Pacers rally. The high-energy rookie also used a strong cut to the basket to score off a Celtics inbounds pass.
Gonzalez’s buckets were part of a 15-0 Celtics run that broke the game open. Boston led by as many as 23 points in the first half and carried a 66-46 advantage into halftime.
It was a balanced offensive effort from the Celtics, who had just one scorer in double figures at half (Brown, with 17 on 5-of-13 shooting) but nine others with between three and nine points. An aggressive one, too: Boston attempted 16 first-half free throws — more than it’s shot in 15 full games this season, including last week’s loss at Indiana — and made all 16.
The Celtics entered Wednesday ranked last in the NBA in free-throw attempts per game (19.2) and second-to-last in fouls drawn. Those numbers have climbed up late, however. Boston attempted 30 foul shots in Monday’s road loss to Detroit and totaled 25 against the Pacers.
“Maybe it was the fine,” Brown quipped, referring to the $25,000 punishment he received for ripping officials after a Jan. 10 loss to San Antonio. “But that’s important. When you’re playing good teams, regardless of the X’s and O’s, you could say complaints or not, if you’re getting to the free-throw line less than 10 times, less than six to eight times a game, it’s tough to win a ballgame. Especially playing through physicality, etc. So I’m just going to keep putting pressure on the rim and keep trying to find ways to get those calls because it benefits us in the long run.”
Brown’s free-throw attempt totals in his four games post-fine: seven, 12, 10 and nine.
Hauser’s fourth 3-pointer of the night, four Derrick White free throws and a pair of strong Brown drives helped Boston remain in command until the midway point of the third quarter. That’s when Indiana began pushing back.
The Pacers staged a 15-4 run that spanned nearly five minutes and cut Boston’s lead from 20 points to nine. The Celtics then proceeded to turn it over twice in the first 29 seconds of the fourth quarter, including one on the opening inbounds pass. Indiana foul shots after the second giveaway made it 91-80.
But any hope of a full-fledged comeback bid was extinguished by Hauser and Brown, who hit 3-pointers to give Boston some breathing room, then scored three times from inside the arc as Boston rebuilt a 20-point cushion.
For Brown, it was his third straight 30-point game and seventh double-double of the season. For Hauser, it continued a stretch of efficient, high-volume 3-point shooting. The veteran wing, who came in shooting 39.5% from deep this season and 46.2% since the start of January, has made four or more threes in five of his last 10 games.
“When Sam is shooting those shots, and they’re not hitting nothing but the bottom of the net, that’s a great sign for our team,” Brown said. “So just finding him, looking for him more, and then living with the makes or the misses, because the analytics are in our favor when Sam is getting open looks.”
White — whom Pacers coach Rick Carlisle called “an All-Star player” before the game — drove for a layup with 4:15 remaining that all but iced the game. The Celtics inserted two-way players Amari Williams and Ron Harper Jr. shortly thereafter and cruised through the final four minutes.
