The Boston Celtics Win but deserve to lose. The Indiana Pacers lost but didn’t deserve to win. Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, which the Celtics won 133-128 in Boston on Tuesday night, may have been the rare game in which the winning team went into the locker room more disappointed than the losing team.
The Celtics are the better team. As usual with this group, however, they played Tuesday night like a team that believes it can make mistakes. They rarely attack the rim. They spent the game parallel to each other. Jayson Tatum finished with a game-high 36 points, but shot just 12-for-26 — and struggled until within 10 points in overtime.
Meanwhile, the Celtics’ defense allowed the Pacers to shoot 53.5% from the field. If not for a ridiculous, tied game three, at the end of the word game Jaylen Brown corner kick, and the Pacers turned the ball over 21 times, including some brutal mistakes late in the game, the Celtics would be down 0-1 and no longer have home-court advantage.
If you wanted to take a half-court approach with the Pacers, you could point out how successful they were in shutting down the Celtics’ half-court defense. Much of that was a result of their offense Al Horfordwho looked like a big-legged man, almost 38 years old. Tyrese Haliburton, who led the Pacers with 25 points and 10 assists, was able to earn his spot. He and the Pacers have proven that, despite what our experts think, they will be a tough opponent.
But this game and series is about the Celtics. This is a team that has championship hopes but continues to perform below its talent. That worked against the Jimmy Butler-less Miami Heat and the Donovan Mitchell-less Cleveland Cavaliers. It will probably work against this dominant Pacers team as well. But it won’t work in the finals, whether they face the Dallas Mavericks or the Minnesota Timberwolves. At some point, the Celtics will have to prove that they can be the best version of themselves throughout the series. They may have won game 1, but if they play this way in the next round in the final, there will be no worse team at the other end ready to win again.
Yaron Weitzman is an NBA journalist for FOX Sports and an author Reaching the top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the boldest run in professional sports history. Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.
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