The Indiana Pacers walked away from Game 1’s 133-128 overtime loss to the Boston Celtics knowing they missed an opportunity to steal home court to open the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday night.
With 22 turnovers, including two costly miscues in the final 27 seconds, the Pacers let victory slip away despite leading by three points with the ball in the final 10 seconds of regulation.
“We gave it away,” Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith said. “We should’ve won the game.”
The Pacers had a 3-point lead with 27.1 seconds remaining in regulation when guard Tyrese Haliburton dribbled the ball off his foot for an unforced turnover.
Yet, Indiana got the ball back with a chance to seal the win at the free throw line with 10 seconds left.
The only issue was they had to inbound the ball. With 8.1 seconds remaining, an errant inbound pass from Andrew Nembhard to Pascal Siakam sailed out of bounds and gave Boston another chance to tie the score, which Jaylen Brown took advantage of with a 3-pointer in the corner.
“I think it’s on us,” Haliburton said. “They’re a great defensive team, they got great defenders, individual and team defenders, but they’re not a team who forces a ton of turnovers. I just felt like more of them were on us than them. We got to clean that up.”
The Pacers also missed a chance to foul before Brown’s tying 3-pointer, which Siakam said was his intention on the play, but Brown caught the ball in the corner with his shoulders squared to the basket and Siakam did not want to risk fouling a shooter and give up a four-point play.
The Pacers became the first team since at least 1997-98 to lose a playoff game despite inbounding the ball up 3 in the final 10 seconds, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Indiana’s 22 turnovers were the second most it has committed all season and it contributed to 32 points for Boston, the most for the Celtics in any game this season.
“A lot of things had to go wrong for us and right for them,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.
The Pacers have dropped Game 1 in each of the previous two rounds of the postseason and then gone on to win a long series. It left Haliburton encouraged despite the disappointment of losing in such fashion, especially when he considered how well they played on Tuesday night.
Game 2 is Thursday.