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BOSTON – In the locker room afterward, nobody was saying a word. Nobody but Darren Collison, the veteran, the team leader willing to meet the media after the doors opened, after the roof caved in, after the Indiana Pacers blew – and I mean completely blew – this chance Wednesday night at evening their first-round NBA playoff series with the Boston Celtics.
In one corner of the locker room, sitting inches apart, saying nothing, were Myles Turner, Domantas Sabonis and Bojan Bogdanovic. Turner’s head was tilted down, staring at his phone or his feet or maybe the carpet. Sabonis was covering his face in a towel, leaving room only for his eyes, which were scanning his phone. Bogdanovic was slumped into his locker, gazing at nothing, perhaps seeing in his mind’s eye the disaster that was the fourth quarter of this 99-91 loss to the Celtics in Game 2.
And it was a disaster, an epic collapse. To a lose a game like this, and to lose it like that, required a flurry of fail.
This loss to the Celtics required (A) an unfathomable cold stretch from a team plumbing new depths of offensive ineptitude this postseason. And then it required (B) a bevy of defensive breakdowns. And then – oh no, we’re not finished yet – it required (C) the worst inbounds play you’ve ever seen. Followed by (D) an equally bad inbounds play on defense.
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It required all of that, A + B + C + D, to equal this F in a game the Pacers could have won. And with it, stolen home-court advantage.
Instead, they were walking off the court even before the final horn sounded, trying to get out of TD Garden Arena, and out of Boston, as fast as possible. The series shifts now to Indianapolis, with Game 3 set for Friday. Will it be different? Well, it should. The Pacers are dramatically better at home. Then again, the Celtics blew them out by 20 last week in a de facto playoff game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, a game both teams needed to claim the Eastern Conference’s No. 4 seed and home-court advantage.
And here’s another truth: This series is bringing out the worst in the Pacers.
On Sunday in Game 1, the Pacers scored eight points in the third quarter, the lowest-scoring quarter in franchise history, and this is a franchise that has played 1,044 quarters in the playoffs.
On Wednesday in Game 2, for nearly nine minutes of the fourth quarter, they were worse. With 3:26 left in the fourth quarter, the Pacers had scored three points. And that came on their first shot of the quarter, a 3-pointer by Tyreke Evans that gave the Pacers an 82-70 lead.
What happened next? Like I said: A flurry of fail.
The Pacers missed their next 10 shots. Didn’t score for almost exactly eight minutes. Think about that: An NBA team playing eight straight minutes without a point. Can’t happen, you’d think.
But this Pacers team is doing the impossible in these playoffs. That eight-point third quarter on Sunday was impossibly bad, the result of 2-for-19 shooting in the period. This fourth quarter was arguably – no, demonstrably – worse, because the fourth quarter of Game 2 saw a systemic breakdown at both ends. And, seeing how those two inbounds plays in the final 12 seconds were the final two nails in this coffin, the breakdown was on the bench as well.
Pacers coach Nate McMillan wasn’t running from it, either.
“We’ve all got to do a better job,” he said. “I have to do a better job. We all have to do a better job.”
The Celtics outscored Indiana 31-12 in the fourth quarter, with Kyrie Irving going all cold-blooded on the Pacers, scoring his final nine points. He finished with 37 points. It was an offensive masterpiece, but an absurd final 12 minutes.
But those final 12 seconds …
It started with 12.1 seconds left and Boston’s Gordon Hayward getting free – as in, completely ignored by the Pacers – under the rim for a layup and a 94-91 lead. The closest Pacer, Myles Turner, was looking around in dismay because Hayward wasn’t his man. Who was defending Hayward? Couldn’t tell you. Whoever he was, he did it so poorly, he wasn’t in the vicinity.
Now the Pacers are coming out of a timeout, trailing 94-91. Whatever play McMillan called, it couldn’t have been this: Wesley Matthews in-bounding the ball, looking for Bogdanovic drifting across the court, launching a pass at the exact moment that Bogdanovic stopped drifting. Matthews’ pass sailed over Bogdanovic’s head and into the Celtics bench, where Marcus Morris caught it. Matthews freaked, of course, flapping his arms like an angry bird of prey.
Another timeout. Another play call, this one by Celtics coach Brad Stevens. This one, designed to avoid a foul by the Pacers, saw a series of quick Boston passes – boom, boom, boom – ending with Al Horford finding Jayson Tatum alone at the rim for a dunk.
Well, almost alone. Bogdanovic arrived as Tatum was rising for the dunk, fouling him, giving Tatum a three-point play for a 97-91 lead.
Not that it mattered, but the Pacers turned it over one last time on a Turner pass with 5.7 seconds left. Hayward hit two free throws for the final margin, and that was that. The collapse had a final score. The series was shifting to Indianapolis for Games 3 and 4.
Will it return to Boston for Game 5? Anything’s possible. Two games into this series, the Pacers have proven they’re good enough to compete with the Celtics – and bad enough to find new and excruciating ways to lose.
Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.
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