Celtics-Pacers: 5 things to watch in Game 2, including how Boston handles pursuit of Al Horford

After a Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Eastern Conference Finals that might best be described as chaotic, here are a few things to keep an eye on as the Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers wrap up Game 2 at TD Garden on Thursday:

Indiana head coach Rick Carlisle had his Pacers attack Al Horford repeatedly in Game 1 – especially in the second half – in an attempt to drag Boston’s center to the perimeter and into the action by using his man to set screens on the ball .

Initially it was Myles Turner, who shoots 47.3% from 3-point range in the postseason and can hurt opponents playing drop coverage by alternating pick-and-pop launches and hard rolls to the rim :

Later, after Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla juggled the matchups to have superstar Jayson Tatum guard Turner, it was Pascal Siakam, a dangerous one-on-one scorer and playmaker whose mid-game was money in these playoffs – 55% from floater range and 48% on long midrange attempts, according to Cleaning the Glass:

And sometimes it was the Pacer that the 37-year-old Celtic had tried to hide on after switching from the one beforehand who trotted to Tyrese Haliburton to make a choice:

Regardless of who was responsible for getting Horford into space and under the microscope, Indiana largely enjoyed the opportunities it created once he was there. Pull-up 3s against the drop, practice jumpers from the foul line, ankle-jelly stepbacks, calm drives all the way to the rim — the Pacers generated great look after great look against a Celtics defense that finished. regular season third in points allowed per possession and also ranked third in the postseason on Tuesday.

Horford can stay ahead and slide with Indiana drivers at the rim, as he proved with a pair of blocks, including a huge one on Andrew Nembhard with 2:31 left in overtime:

However, it is an open question whether he can hold up more consistently under such repeated pressure – and for that matter, what Mazzulla and Co. can do to alleviate this.

There’s an awful lot of responsibility on the plate of the oldest player left in the postseason, in the absence of injured center Kristaps Porziņģis; after averaging a career-high 26.8 minutes per game during the regular season, Horford has jumped to 31.8 since Porziņģis went down, and the 39:35 he logged in Game 1 was the most he’s recorded in nearly played for 16 months. Given the crucial role Horford plays in Boston’s offensive space and defensive alignment without Porziņģis, you can bet the Pacers will continue to try to force him into action and find out if Boston has better answers than the ones in Game 1 .

Slow and steady?

Boston clearly opened Game 1 with the intention of being opportunistic by pushing the ball whenever it could. Running away steals led to dunks and layups. Running away from misses led to more layups. Running away leads to – you guessed it – layups.

All those early fouls got them off to a 12-0 start. But it also ensured that the terms of engagement were firmly within Indiana’s comfort zone – a pace that fits much better with the way the Pacers like to generate offense and has been excellent. bee generating offense, then the pace at which Boston has been the best basketball team all season.

In what could be a related story, after missing their first six shots as they settled into the game, the Pacers scored on seven of their next eight possessions, scoring 64 points in the next 20.5 minutes on 67, 5% shooting and puts the fear of God into every Celtics-loving soul that packs the stands at TD Garden.

When Boston regained control in the third quarter, it did so by playing through Tatum and Jrue Holiday, playing mismatch ball against Indiana’s guards and forcing the Pacers to navigate screens and size:

Those isolations, post-ups and pick-and-rolls – and the free throws they generated when Indiana had to try to ramp up their physicality to deal with Boston’s advantages in that arena – fueled a 14-2 run which put the Celtics ahead again. by double digits. The Pacers would of course fall back, as they did in a pinch-and-tuck Game 1. That play felt remarkable, though: a reminder that, as fun as it is to play the up-and-down, free-flowing style Indiana prefers, Boston’s best bet at maintaining its lead in this series might be by to embrace rut.

Holiday party

Jrue Holiday has a tons in his first season in Boston. His touches and field goal attempts per game, average time of possession and usage rate were all at or near career lows. He handled the ball in the pick-and-roll and attacked in isolation far less often than ever before, spending far more time firing catch-and-shoot 3-pointers, because that’s the role Mazzulla needed him to play to create one. of the most efficient offenses in NBA history. Ultimately, he also played a more varied defensive role, often guarding centers so that Porziņģis, Horford or Luke Kornet could stay closer to the basket for rim protection purposes and sometimes manning the middle of a matchup zone that acted as a curveball for the basket. wrong-footed offenses that involved a steady diet of either a drop in coverage or a switch.

The 15-year veteran has handled that adjustment well and has functioned beautifully in that more defined role all season, helping the Celtics grow into the regular-season powerhouse and title favorite they have become. But in Game 1, with the offense high and the Celtics in need of bucket-getters to match the Pacers’ firepower, Holiday came through:

Holiday’s postseason resume is a bit checkered. He shot 40% from the field and 30% from 3-point range over three playoff runs with the Bucks. He shot 35% from the floor in Round 1 against Miami. He had a whisper-quiet four points on 2-for-7 shooting in Boston’s Game 2 loss to the Cavaliers in Round 2. But he started to come into shape after the last three wins against Cleveland, and with his best performance of the postseason ‘. – 28 points on 10-for-16 shooting, seven rebounds, eight assists, three steals, +7 in 48 minutes – Jrue reminded that while he can be a trick-or-treat contributor at times, he’s also a two-Time All-Star is capable of much more than just spotting in the corner.

Turn on your Archie Bell & the Drells

Hey, Celtics? Hey, Pacers? Come on man:

It’s the Eastern Conference finals. If you win four games here, you’re playing for the whole damn thing. I understand that you guys are the best offenses anyone has ever seen and all, and I don’t mean to bash the defensive efforts that helped cause some of these abuses. But this turnover… good Lord, man. Let’s go ahead and tighten things up for Game 2, shall we?

Emotional baggage

A game like Game 1 – where the heavy underdog is the visitor so close to win, only to kick the game away, and where the big favorite host is so close to see his dreams turn to ash, only to be saved from himself by an act of God, or at least by God briefly dressed as Jaylen Brown – is rare and wild. (I loved this line from old friend of the show Tom Ziller: “It’s like the Nicene Creed about heartbreak.”)

It would be understandable if the Pacers left Game 1 feeling like they just blew their best chance to topple Goliath. It would also be understandable if they felt emboldened to push even harder, as they have proven they can push the title favorite to the absolute brink.

Likewise, it would be understandable if the Celtics were somewhat shocked after seeing their lives flash before their eyes like that. But it would also be understandable if they were convinced that they had proven their mettle, after taking an opponent’s best shot square on the chin, running through it, landing the necessary haymakers and finishing with their hand raised in victory.

These are fiercely competitive professional athletes who would not have reached this point in their respective careers without the utmost self-belief; these are also, for the most part, young men subject to the same bouts of self-doubt, anxiety, nerves, and thorny Big Feelings as the rest of us mere mortals. How quickly each party can process the emotional weight of how this series began – or, if they can’t, at least tuck it almost under their couch, and come out with a clear mind, a full heart and a sharp intention – could end up playing as big a role in how things move forward as the adjustments to X and O that Mazzulla or Carlisle can make. After all, it is a game played by people.