Basketball, She Wrote

Pacers In-Season Tournament Quarterfinal Preview

Added 2023-12-03 14:00:08 +0000 UTC

Breaking down the knock-out round match-up with the Celtics from the film room

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

The Pacers went undefeated in the group stage of the NBA's In-Season Tournament and their reward for those efforts is playing the Boston Celtics -- the team with the best record in basketball who, as you likely recall (or, maybe, purposefully chose to forget?), hung 155 points on the Blue & Gold at the beginning of November. In allowing what their defense typically discourages, the Pacers were undone at the three-point line, getting outscored by 45 points from deep while surrendering their highest number of attempts (35) in a game this season.

Of course, Tyrese Haliburton wasn't available for that meeting, which should even out some of the discrepancy beyond the arc, assuming he's good to go. The film, meanwhile, suggests that both teams may have left some meat on the bone as far as making things difficult on each other. This is a prickly match-up for the Pacers, but there is plenty of room for improvement.

Let's dig in! As a note, Haliburton sat out Saturday against the Heat with an illness and Kristaps Porzingis is day-to-day with a left calf injury. For this exercise, we're going to operate as if both will be available -- although that may not turn out to be the case on Monday.

We'll see.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introducing the match-up (this is a safe space)

0:42 - Tyrese Haliburton makes a difference

3:14 - Double Trouble -- To Three or Not to Three?

6:00 - Allowing what they typically discourage

8:35 - Avoiding transition cross-matches

9:52 - Jrue Holiday guarding up; the propensity for the Celtics to get weird on defense

14:08 - Dialing up the pressure

15:45 - Will the Celtics take a page from the Trail Blazers?

18:00 - Aaron Nesmith as a potential X-Factor

20:38 - Thank you and goodbye (enjoy the quarterfinals!)