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Hot off a seven-gamer with New York, the Pacers look to carry their momentum against the dominant Celtics.
By Spencer Galloway | May 21st, 2024
Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images
The Eastern Conference Finals kicks off tonight with what hopes to be an electrifying demonstration of bucket-getting in the most efficient of fashions between the Boston Celtics (sure, that checks out), and the Miami-- no, that's not it, the Milwaukee-- no, not them either. The New Yo-- let me stop you right there. The guns blazing, catch us if you can, Indiana Pacers. Emphasis on the pace. If you're wondering how we got here, let me catch you up. Indiana drew a not-so-favorable first-round matchup when they learned they'd drawn the Bucks, that is until learning that Giannis Antetokounmpo would go on to miss the entirety of the series. His All-Star teammate Damian Lillard would go on to take a seat beside him in the second half of the series. Milwaukee put up some fight, thanks to some unexpected heroics from Khris Middleton, but it was all Indiana in the end, as they handed the Bucks their second-straight year of first-round disappointment.
Turn it over to round two where Indiana arrives to a raucous Madison Square Garden crowd, cheering on what little remains of their two-seeded Knicks squad. Injuries were suffered by Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson, O.G. Anunoby, Josh Hart, and their 600-horsepower engine powering the whole unit, Jalen Brunson, leaving game seven early with what turned out to be a fractured hand. The Pacers, on the other hand, are able-bodied and are very comfortable playing their nine-man rotation. Making it through the first two rounds of the playoffs without suffering injuries to your existing rotation has been the meal ticket to the conference finals for most participants. The Celtics are the one outlier, having seen Kristaps Porzingis suffer an early exit in round one against the Miami Heat. Indiana, Dallas, and Minnesota all have remained healthy and intact (unless you would consider the sidelining injury to Wolves head coach Chris Finch as part of this exercise).
Still, though, New York put up a tremendous fight given their dire circumstances. They did not make it easy on this Pacers squad who now enters TD Garden on Tuesday night having only had one day of rest. Boston however, has been waiting patiently at home since their series against a gutted Cleveland team ended in only five games. Kind of how their series against the also gutted Heat ended in just five games as well. Injuries have told much of the story in these playoffs, but outside of Indiana maybe appearing in a conference final a year early, no team feels too out of place. It is however a bit strange seeing the oldest star of the final four being Jayson Tatum, who is only 26. This playoff is as much about a passing of the torch as it is any other narrative.
The Celtics are the team best-positioned to seize their title opportunity amid this ultra-youthful, and largely inexperienced final four. Anything short of a championship and those who already exude their doubts about this core's ability to win it all will voice their opinions louder than ever, and those who may have had this group pegged to finally get over the hump will fast turn on their heads to shout from behind the podcast-mics to "blow it up!". For so long as you have a 64-win team and a duo that has seen six of the last eight conference finals, you don't "blow it up". You do, however, look in the mirror. Hard. That's exactly what is on the line for this Celtics team. A long, hard look at themselves in the mirror for an entire summer, while hot takes go off like bombs all around them. The other side of that? They win the title, and we head into the 'Summer of Jayson' as talks of him maybe being the game's best player send him off into the Paris Olympics and presumably one of the biggest extensions in league history.
For Boston, they don't get to bask in all the glory though without first making it through this pesky Pacers squad that will be playing as though they have nothing to lose. They, unlike Miami and Cleveland, have the depth and versatility to keep Boston on their toes. While there is a sizeable talent disparity, you cannot discount all the ways in which the Pacers can beat you. They are an exceptional shooting team, as we all saw in game seven inside of MSG. They made 67.1 percent of their field goal attempts on Sunday, and while they may not keep that up over the course of the series against the league's second-ranked defense, it was a good visual of what they are capable of on their hottest nights.
There is a 7'3" question mark looming greatly over this series as the Celtics await the return of perhaps the most dynamic member of their rotation, Kristaps Porzingis. Something that was often questioned in the early days of the Jays was whether or not both Brown and Tatum were redundant, or did too many of the same things. Speaking honestly, there is some truth to that. While they are two of the league's premier two-way wings and look like they were created in a lab, they beat you in vastly similar ways.
Photo by Brian Fluharty/Getty Images
Part of what made the Nuggets title run so hard to stop was the two-man game between Murray and Jokic. Two vastly different flavors of basketball required different game plans for each, and if you were able to successfully turn one of them off for an evening, the other was exploiting the inevitable hole you left in your game plan. That's what Porzingis does for this Celtics squad, he has the size and skill set of someone that the Celtics have been looking for since the inception of this duo seven years ago. His elite floor spacing and the post-up game is a disaster to defend, and on the other end, he is a sturdy rim deterrent and shot blocker.
Without Porzingis, I would expect the Pacers to look to attack an older and slower-footed Al Horford in both pick-n-roll and pick-n-pop opportunities. Turner spaces the floor as well as any seven-footer in today's game and can also exploit the lack of athleticism in Boston's frontcourt with rim runs. Reports state that Porzingis could be back as early as game four of this series, which could be considered right on time if Boston is poised to take the series by that point and would allow KP to get the necessary reps to prepare for the Finals.
On short rest for Indiana, it will be interesting to see if they come out with the same all-star game levels of scoring that they have all season long, or if Boston can put them down early and take care of homecourt. I would expect points aplenty this series in what should easily be the most exciting series the Celtics have played yet, however, I wouldn't bet on this one going the distance. Both Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum had some of their most prolific games against Indiana this season, and Boston is the last team that you want to get into a shootout with. The Celtics should take care of this in five games, given their favorable talent gap and defense that feels built to slow Indiana.
Given all the breaks that have gone Boston's way, it feels like now is as good a time as ever to cue the duck boats. Now, they just have to go out there and make it happen.