Jayson Tatum led all scorers with 27 points on Tuesday night, and the Boston Celtics rallied from a 17 point third quarter deficit to defeat the Indiana Pacers 116-111 at Bankers Life FieldHouse in Indianapolis.
In a rematch of a one point Indiana win on Sunday in the same building, both teams held an early lead. The Pacers led by as many as four in the first, which was their biggest of the first half. Jaylen Brown hit a layup for a 12-10 Boston lead, who from that point didn’t trail again in the first two quarters and led by as many as eight. 11 points from Marcus Smart and 10 from Tatum and Tristan Thompson had the Celtics up with a slim 58-57 halftime lead. A three-pointer to open the third by Victor Oladipo gave Indiana (3-1) the lead back, and started a big Pacers quarter. The hosts went on a 17-1 run and built their biggest lead 88-71, outscoring Boston 37-25 in the period for a 94-83 advantage headed to the fourth. The green scored the first 11 points of the final quarter to tie it, and then took their first lead since the second quarter at 100-98 when Tatum floated a jumper off the glass about 4:31 in. Once Tatum hit two from the line for a two point Celtics lead again at 102-100, the visitors never trailed again leading by as many as nine. Brown had a steal and a layup and Tatum had two more free throws in the final 35 seconds to ice the comeback road win to improve their record to 2-2.
Tatum finished with a double double adding 11 rebounds, four assists and three steals. With his 23rd point on the night he joined Antoine Walker as the only other Celtics player to reach 4,000 points before the age of 23. Brown had 20 points and four steals. Smart finished with 16 points and five assists, while Thompson (14 points, 10 rebounds) and rookie Payton Pritchard (10 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) continued his solid play also getting into double figures. Oladipo lead six players in double figures in the Indiana loss with 24 points, six rebounds, and six assists. Boston is back home to host the Memphis Grizzlies Wednesday night.
