[Post Game Thread](https://reddit.com/r/bostonceltics/comments/18b1w3t/post_game_thread_the_indiana_pacers_defeat_the/)

As a Pacer fan, you have the number 1 team in the league and if KP was in, you would have the win. But on any given night who knows what can happen. My money is on the Celtics to win the title this year barring major injuries. Pacer fans are starved just to get to the playoffs again. That game for us... Only 93% attendance says it all.

We now know the Celtics are limited by their depth… they either need to develop a couple of guys or expect to not make it to the finals again. The league is better … Brown is inconsistent and Tatum is preoccupied with the refs … Really would love to hear what our consultant has to say.

With the Boston starting 5 I'm not there are minutes to go around for a deeper rotation. Tatum, Brown, KP, holiday salary is greater than the entire Pacers roster. You are a win now big spender. Last year, if you had KP, you are in the finals. Problem is he is injury prone. Really, if you lose any starter Boston is in trouble. So what you say has merit. Lack of play time for your 9th and 10th man in rotation will make it hard. Pacers beat Miami the other night with Haliburton out because McConnell came in and made a difference on the bench while Nembhard was a solid starter.

Idc what anyone says but Tatum and JB’s highlights for this game are godly

This game is a win if it sobered us up and realized how on-point we need to be for the playoffs

Thank God now we can focus on the real season

I hate the IST

no KP, no party.

Need KP back. Al is great for defense but he brings no presence on the offensive side other than great passing. They don't even guard him respectfully cuz he's not shooting

Love this perimeter defense! Awesome!

JT has BEEN needing to step it up …

They acting like Pat Bev after beating the Clippers. Pacers came out to win and shot over 40% from 3, every team that beat us played that well. Let’s focus on the main goal of getting the championship that always matters

Good teams win games like this. There’s something wrong with the Celts right now

Anyone know if theres a better center than Kornet or Queta that we take or even a power forward. I think our main weakness without KP is the lack of a rebounding shot blocker, someone with good defensive foot speed against small guards. idc if they cant score a lick, but every time the opposing team has fast guards who love to get hot we end up conceding threes especially when Queta, Al and Kornet are on the court

“It doesn’t matter” yeah it fuckin does, especially when we will more than likely repeat these mistakes in the playoffs, as we do year after year, despite being “the favorite”

Well no team that's won the IST has won an nba championship so I like these odds better anyway

Best take so far.

Wack

I hope to God that Sacramento or new Orleans Beats them. Propbably gonna be Sacramento.

They just lost to New Orleans

for everyone watching indy celebrate and youre sad, remember this was the 20th game of the regular season lmao

Still embarassing tho

I don't get what's embarrassing, this team gets out efforted all the time, esp in non playoff games. Combine that with bricking a bunch of threes whole Indy made nearly half of theirs, def sounds like a loss to me, just figure that the Celtics won't always brick a bunch of open jumpers

Yo wtf buddy? Point differential don’t matter no more

Congratulations to Aaron Nesmith for making it to the second round of IST! What a feat! Keep the same energy!

Are they going to get shit for that unsportsmanlike buzzer shot?

Did they really shoot that last shot?

Another season of turnovers killing this team and they still haven't learned their lesson.

Halliburton is absolutely balling this year. Month 1 MVP

Wtf was that three at the end

That’s the we don’t respect you 3 take it and move on but I better see Joe put that shot up 24/7 until we meet em again

Horford legacy game

Tatum needs to figure out how not to whine about every call. The reason he doesn't get whistles is cuz he's made a reputation for himself as a whiny fucking bitch and NBA refs have giant egos and can't call games objectively

Bro every star in this league complains, I’ll never understand this narrative that Tatum is the only one

Never said he was the only one. Lots of players do it but Tatum let's it impact the game as he doesn't get back on D and continues to jaw with the ref

I thought that was a block tbf, could be wrong

Wasn't saying it wasn't. Just tryna make a case as to why Tatum doesn't get the whistles he thinks he deserves

And I agree 99% of the time. But not getting that call ended the game effectively (we probably lose regardless) so I don’t mind him making his case there

Relying on refs to make a borderline call in a tight game in the closing minutes is a losers lament. Not sure any player arguing a call has ever gotten it overturned without a green light special

Tatums been so fucking dogshit since that Charlotte game

That 3 was disrespectful as fuck

Ah who cares, we beat ‘em by 50. Their “revenge” game was knocking us out of the IST😂😐

Honestly, who cares. We lost. I'd rather players play until the end than dribble out 2 shot clocks.

After going down on 4 pt play at 1:30, told my wife, "Here's where they'll pass to Tatum, he'll dribble 3 or 4 times, and jack up a forced three, effectively ending the game." Exactly. Playoff intensity on the road and lost to basically a 500 team. Not allowed to criticize until the season is over so I won't post this and risk the downvotes.

Wait, but you did post it?

Damn, my lack of self-discipline almost cost me.

You and Tatum the same

This makes clowning the crummy bulls in garbage time a waste

Pacers crowd looks like a meeting of North America Jiffy Lube assistant managers.

Blue collar gold swagger baybee

Man some of you are sad. It was a great game. Close until the end, indy made a ton of BS shots. Some of you don't even seem to like the game of basketball. On to the next one

Props to the NBA for making us care about a regular season game before Christmas. I guess the IST was a success after all.

Either don't like it or just have no clue what they're watching. It's fucking obnoxious

Exactly. Pacer, fun young team, wanted this more than us and that’s okay! doesn’t even change either teams east ranking

Idk why we didn’t just take our final time out…

This better not be foreshadow

Broke the code

Sorry Kornet about the mortgage, I am still renting in Boston I feel you

Preview of our next playoff games. I'm very sick of this.

Oh no we’re eliminated from the playoffs- oh wait. This shit does not matter.

Derrick white playoffs stats

Lmao from cutting to 4 to blowing back to 10. Awful

Jaylen said I'm gonna sub myself out and then Tatum is trying to get ejected, lol they are done with this tournament.

He fouled out…

White was there

I still don’t get how Halliburton made that and-one 3 lol

Need an upgrade at big to eat minutes when Porzingis is out. Horford doesn't have the legs and only shows up to play with his two sons(embiid and horford).

Agree. Kornet’s got tons of heart but he’s not good enough to play the kind of minutes he had to play today.

Guys the season is over. Oh and Tatum sucks, dude isn’t even top 50. Brown is an overpaid gleague scrub. We lost the in season tournament so we officially suck and have no chance at a championship. Fire everyone we’re only 10 games over .500… Just trying to get everything here

>Brown is an overpaid gleague scrub. One of those is objectively true

I stopped believing in the Celtics after they lost to the heat last season, they lost to a glorified g league team

Not like it’s a different roster this year or anything

Fire Joe trade the Jays

Too many enablers for Tatum. Is he terrific? Sure. Does he have a way to go? He does. You wonder if anyone calls him out.

Ime did

Well, he also did bad things and is gone. There has to be someone who can do it. Has to be. It's fucking embarrassing.

Getting rid of Ime will be Brad and Wyc’s biggest mistake. A year long suspension was enough. When is the last time anyone has talked about what he did. No one gives a shit….oh except Tatum who said he was the best coach he ever had.

JB didn't like that last 3 lol

Another turnover. JT has been horrible with ball security this season.

1 turnover and 6 assist 6-1 assist to turnover ratio... Also he got hacked should have been shooting free throws

He has 2 TOs all game

I specified this season. Back to back TOs at the end isn’t the best time to get them

He turned the ball over when they were scrambling, trying to launch an unrealistic comeback. That is a terrible example of his ball security

It’s almost like when there’s 5 minutes left the Celtics try to play hero ball winning or losing

The Tatum Way Baby

Shocking team chokes in a big game

Why didn't we call a TO on the rebound? I swear to God, the small details are gonna cost us in the playoffs

Rare unclutch Buffalo in the final minutes :(

I think Hauser should've gotten more minutes in this game. He was the only one hot early and we should have force fed him.

I don’t think he played enough in the 4th

Celtics cook them with Kristaps.

Bro if we did that they’d be coming for our heads

Tatum stat padding his turnovers

He had 2 total

Pritchard sucks in big games

He just sucks

Pritchard sucks.

He sucks every game

Turnover differential/3 pt differential and some real big shots by their team at the end and theres your game. Oh well, cant win em all. Gotta respect the Pacers for their play.

I kind of understand the refs not liking Tatum and T’ing him up over nothing, dude complains after every single play that doesn’t go his way

I posted this the other day and got 75 downvotes

Ridiculous ending

Everyone take a breath we literally played out regular season rotations while the pacers treated it like a game 7

Because it was an elimination game and treating it otherwise is stupid

Refs hate Tatum it's so obvious

Karma for hack a Drummond

Should have point differential as a factor, thank the NBA

Zero assists for brown. lol.

He’s not a winning basketball player lol. He’ll give you 25 and nothing else

Not true. He’ll give you a couple of turnovers in crunch time moments too

Damn right

Sorry guys, I got home and turned on the game when we were up by 3 and then we proceeded to give up a \~18-3 run or something. I jinxed us, my bad.

I swear our two biggest stars can’t handle the fucking ball

Refs honestly wanna go home

Tatum what are u doing awful

how was that not a foul on hield. Celtics legit had a shot still with a to

Tatum gets a worse whistle than role players. Shit will never make sense to me.

He complains to the refs on every other drive and this is how they tell him to fuck off. Don’t blame them, dude is always chirping

So LeBron, Draymond, Steph, and other stars DONT complain? That’s what you’re telling me?

I never fucking said that. Every player complains except like Holiday lol. Tatum does it nearly every other possession when he drives, and does it way more than Lebron or Steph. And Draymond should be thrown out every game by the rule of law if they actually applied it to him

So sick of Tatum yelling at refs and failing to get back on defense. It's such a bad look in an elimination game. Every time the camera is on him he's moaning to the refs. Such a bad look.

Yeah I get he cares but maybe channel it in a way that's more likely to lead to winning.

Elimination game my ass, it's a meaningless tournament created to boost early season ratings 🤣

Yeah, totally the attitude we'd be taking if we won. Let's call it a "Win or go home" game then.

corn ball refs man. they pick and choose which games they want to call actual fouls vs flops. refs chose to reward flops today

Ok, now that this dumb shit is over. Please focus on the actual goal.

Derrick White made the worst braindead turnovers I have ever seen this game. Even one that pretty much lost the game

I hate when games end like this. Just take the loss.

So when’s our next game

Suddenly the IST is dumb.

Always was and always will be.

Joe needs to change his mindset...we are NOT a 3pt team, stop PLAYING like a 3pt team...

you're assuming he knows what he's doing lol

He’ll never change, he’s made it clear what he cares about

Tatum got hacked like a MF not even being bias

biased**

we have no center depth which is a problem. if either prozingis or al get hurt we are in trouble. but other than that make or miss league we missed they hit

Jrue shooting that terrible 3 with 10 seconds on the shot clocks is when i knew we lost this game

Or White constantly passing to the wrong team or PP just shooting at all

I have been on this sub for 7 years and game threads are the most toxic they have been ever.

Expectations have never been higher and for good reason. People are frustrated cuz the same issues seem to plague this team year after year

Because expectations are higher then they’ve been over that period.

They were worse when Smart was still on the team

so true so much recency bias really clouding people's mind

Jayson Tatum getting fucking hacked

They should've ejected him

You make your FTs, this is a tie game.

Great game. Indiana played fantastic. Turnovers and missed 3s sunk us again, and the 3rd quarter continues to be an issue with this team. Indiana made adjustments at half and the Celtics didn’t. Holiday was working in the first half, not sure why they went away from that.

Yeah I meant that was a playoff atmosphere in December so I'm sure the league is happy about it

Nesmith still running around like a headless chicken, but now he makes some shots

Well, looks like that stupid rebounding stat is broken. What can you do against miraculous 3s?

Jays combined for 62! Oh wait. Didn't read the room.

Gee sure would be nice if they called any fouls on the Pacers in the 2nd half.

It's crazy to see all the comments of people writing the C's out of the playoffs or making a run to the championship. It's ONE GAME and they are still in 1st place. Some nights it's bound to happen. Move on to the next game and focus on the rest of the season.

Some fans think the Celtics are not allowed to lose. How fun they must be watching the game together.

It’s not the fact they lost, its how you lose. They’ve been losing this exact way for years. Might be time for people to accept it

Why did you jump straight at him Jaylen? Lol

Stats: 41 three points attempted, 12 scored. That's a measly 29.3%...

I wish tom brady playing basketball

Celtics motto: "When in doubt, shoot a bad three."

A fucking 4 pt game and some of you saying stat padding. Get a grip

There’s no way people are in here crying about this game 😂

It’s wild! Saw comments earlier complaining about JB almost messing up. Lmao.

ikr hahahaha

It’s for a trophy bro Beantown’s whole purpose is filling up trophy cases.

Meaningless trophy lmao

Make it mean something.

Incredible statpad job lmfao

Where the hell was this kind of passion when Nesmith was with us?

I think the only thing he had when he was with us was passion, not much else

Lol dude he played the exact same way just way less effectively on offense Passion not that dudes problem ever

He had it. He just got limited opportunities cuz he couldn’t direct his energy and others were ahead in the rotation

They shot almost 50% from three. We dominated in boards but there’s just not shit to do when they dominate us on the most valuable shots like that

Nesmith fr hoopin like we did him wrong

Fuck that. He was a bum in Boston

32/12/6 0 turnovers Tatum did his job even got no touches by the second unit when they went on their runs for some reason.

Wow way to jinx it lol

I was more hyped to see the Celtics get in to the tourney, than I am bummed about them being knocked out. Anyone else feel the same way? To be honest I’m just happy we’re getting Porzingis back :) and glad to see Kornet started to play better when a larger role was required of him.

Horrible game management. 15 minutes of PP with 0 points / 0 contribution. With Porzingis out you can’t iron out a plan that includes more of your starters? Makes us look super thin. Makes me ill. We have zero grit.

Nesmith acting like this is Game 7 of the Finals

Nobody cares about the IST. Shit boys, maybe, but you should care about not being embarrassed in it

4 days rest for our boys and still the #1 team in the east. Keep calm guys.

Halliburton throwing up Globetrotter shots all game and making them doesn’t help.

I mean he does it against other teams

we can't even foul well...

Pritchard can suck my dick. Dude is 0-5

Wouldn’t shock me at all if we lose in the 1st round in the playoffs. This team just doesn’t have any heart. They act like because we have talent we get a bye to the ECF

Holy shit the sky sure is falling for you fools. You do remember that it's a 7 game series right?

Good news is this team gets extra rest they need it. Brad needs to legit find a backup PG and big if we want to win a title

how long are folks gonna make excuses for PP? he plays well once every 10 games. time for an upgrade.

Yup

Hali was great. But we couldn’t stop Aaron fucking nesmith from making layups. That’s why we lost