IND @ BOS, Easter Conference Finals, Game 1 Game Thread

[greenhornSLO]

Talking about Tony Brothers. It wouldn't hurt to see different faces every now and then. More or less the same crews every single time. With a heavy dose of the most controversial figures Foster, Brothers, Guthrie.

A man (Tony) who doesn't like basketball at all and became a judge because he couldn't become a law judge because of bad grades! In his interview, the sentence that stuck in my memory the most was "Being a basketball referee is even better than being a judge in law, because now I am both a judge and a jury"! A disastrous person!

[Knutsen]

Pacers better hope this game doesn't come back to haunt them. It was there for them.

If they manage to win game 2 they will be fine - they probably wouldn’t have won game 2 if they had won yesterday, because of desperation by the Celtics and the league plus them being content. 

If they get blown out in game 2 they probably threw away their best chance to win this series yesterday.

[Chicagojk]

Just a killer ending for Indy. They played so well. Outplayed Boston. Some of the concerns of Boston freezing up late in games were re-appearing for the first time in the playoffs. Indy let them off the hook.

This will be a short series. I predict a big win for Boston in game 2. Indy may win one game at home, but I think Boston takes at least one. They close them out in Boston in game 5.

[dirkfansince1998]

Pacers getting outhustled. Inexcusable in a ECF. Brown and Holiday are diving on the floor. Siakam and Haliburton just watching the ball.

[Branduil]

No revelation here but the Mavs would definitely play better D on Boston than Indiana is

[Smitty]

Siakam is such a great fit in Indiana. Him, Haliburton, Turner & McConnell are fun to watch.

[Chicagojk]

Not watching the game but Myles Turner is such an enigma. Great and game one but he just doesn’t bring it every night. 0 points and 3 rebounds in the third quarter.

[Winter]

I'd love for the Mavs to get the opportunity to play Boston. They look vaguely uninterested right now. They go in spurts. Indiana getting most everything it wants on offense. If Indiana loses this series, it's only partially because of Boston. It will also be because the Pacers are young and occasionally clumsy. But Indiana is going to a real handful at some point. Their entire playoff rotation could all score 20+ points and it wouldn't surprise me.

[dirkfansince1998]

I guess it is time for the annual Brown > Tatum hot takes.

[dirkfansince1998]

RC with a controversial decision. Pulled the starters early in the 4th quarter. Down 17. And they never returned. Deep bench guys almost brought it back to single digits. Celtics closed the game with the starters. Pacers with the garbage time lineup.

[Chicagojk]

Boston is good. I feel like they have been the best team all year long. They have gotten every break in these playoffs. They haven't even needed to play their A game to win a game. That will change in the finals, but it must be nice to know you only need to really bring your A game for one series.

[omahen]

They haven't even needed to play their A game to win a game.    

I was wondering just the other day, who has the actual advantage here. A team that will get to finals through three bloody battles or a team that will easily walk there over a wide red carpet? Sure Boston will be fresher, but they might face a surprise of a totally different approach and intensity of the opponent they are used to. Might shock them a bit.

I agree though, that it is difficult to build a better team that Boston has. So few flaws. Only a title is a success for them.

[Winter]

Boston is good.  I feel like they have been the best team all year long.  They have gotten every break in these playoffs.  They haven't even needed to play their A game to win a game.    That will change in the finals, but it must be nice to know you only need to really bring your A game for one series.

Watching them, I felt like Boston wanted to turn it on several times.... and just couldn't. The Pacers would bail them out doing something dumb.

Boston looked really vulnerable to me... but maybe they just weren't as sharp knowing they would likely win. The Pacers are hard to figure as an opponent. They are flat out scary on offense, but still a work in progress on defense.

[KillerLeft]

I'm so bummed about this series. IND had game 1 in the bag and gave it away, and now Halliburton is probably out for the rest of the series.

Boston is going to sweep them and get old man Horford so, so much rest before the finals.

Plus, I really LIKE watching Indiana when Haliburton has that offense humming. It's a team offense, and very beautiful basketball.

[dirkfansince1998]

No Haliburton. No bad decisions. McConnell unleashed. Spamming pick and roll/drive and kick. Embarassing two of the best perimeter defenders in the world.

[dirkfansince1998]

Nembard cannot miss. Really hope that the Pacers can at least force the series to go six.

[Jym]

I don't get why Rick has sat Siakam and Turner so much this quarter
Really giving the Celtics a chance to come back

[dirkfansince1998]

Pacers running out of steam. Just difficult to close playoff games without elite iso scorers. Not sure if Haliburton would help. That's probably his biggest weakness. Siakam has been the closer for them.

[Branduil]

Indiana's defense is just absolutely terrible. They would be up 2-1 in this series if they could even play passable team defense.

[dirkfansince1998]

Two crucial mistakes from Siakam. Blows the layup on offense and gives up the and-1 on defense.