The Indiana Pacers have lost their second straight game in Game 2 against the Boston Celtics Friday night, 126-110, Thursday night as things did not go their way in terms of performance and especially player availability. One of the few bright spots from the outing was Pacers star Pascal Siakam who spoke after the game about the feeling of himself and his teammates.
Siakam scored 28 points as he made 13 out of his 17 shot attempts from the field in what was another efficient night for the star that was acquired by the Pacers via trade from the Toronto Raptors this season. He would say that while it is going to “suck” in terms of losing, he is confident that they are “going to bounce back” according to Dustin Dopriak of The Indianapolis Star.
“It's gonna suck tonight, losing,” Siakam said. “But we have guys that understand how hard it is to win. We're going to bounce back.”
Siakam talks how he can adapt against Celtics to help Pacers in series
If there is one aspect of the 0-2 series deficit that the Pacers find themselves in, it's that the same happened in the semifinals round against the New York Knicks where they lost the first two, but then won the next two on their home floor. They enter the same situation as Siakam expressed that it is more important to be consistent throughout the game as they led after one period and never sniffed the lead after that.
“We got stops and we started running a little bit,” Siakam said via The Indy Star. “It obviously feels good when you're making a shot or whatever, but the fact is we were more aggressive. We got stops. We got rebounds, which we didn't do for good parts of the game. However we want to play as a team, I'm able to do that. If we want to play fast, I can do that. If we want to play slow I can do that.”
There is no doubt that the Celtics have arguably been the best team in the NBA this season in terms of their record, but also in other areas like scoring margin that make them one of the best teams of all time on paper. Boston not only excelled in their talent, but also in their intensity in crashing the glass which was mentioned by Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle as being a point of emphasis for Game 3 according to Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
“These guys spread you out a little differently than New York does and they have great athletes, so they beat us to some balls,” Carlisle said after the game. “So, we’ve gotta flip that on Saturday.”
What led to the Pacers going down 0-2 in the series against the Celtics
When facing a team like the Celtics, there is very little to no room for error as in the past two games, Indiana has lost the turnover battle and has not separated themselves on the glass. Especially in Game 2 where in terms of defensive rebounding, the Pacers struggled even when they went smaller to keep with Pacers big-man Myles Turner.
“That led to a lot of their easy buckets,” Turner said after the game. “They made a different lineup tonight, a switch tonight, I mean, their fives aren’t going to able to guard me, so they decided to put some of their smaller guys on me, and I wasn’t able to get as involved in the pick-and-roll, but (we’ll) watch the film, make adjustments and take it from there.”
Uncertainty regarding Tyrese Haliburton
Now the Pacers enter the same situation as said before where they come back to their home court in the Gainbridge Fieldhouse down 0-2 in the series, but the cards are stacked against them even more for a couple of reasons. The first being that digging the hole deeper against Boston is a recipe for success and the other lies on the health of their star player in Tyrese Haliburton who was injured in the third quarter and didn't return due to “left leg soreness.”
“We hope that this is a very short-term aggravation,” Carlisle said regarding Haliburton. “Tyrese hit the floor, so he came back here and had a couple of tests done with his chest. He fortunately returned pretty quickly.”
After a collision with Jaylen Brown in the first quarter, that is when Haliburton started to feel pain in his leg and hamstring area. It prompted work to be done at halftime as said by Carlisle and while he gave it a shot in the second half, it seemed he aggravated the injury in the third quarter.
“He was getting worked on the entire halftime,” Carlisle said via The Athletic. “He came out, gave it a shot and was giving it all the effort he could. I haven’t talked to him directly and I can’t read minds, but it wasn’t going well. The trainers determined that he needed to go in the back to get worked on.”
Pacers could have cards stacked against them for Game 3
For the Pacers to have any shot in this series, Haliburton has to be present since he's the main engine for the team and the success they've had this season. However, Turner is taking the approach that the weight should not fall on one player's shoulders.
“It’s not a one-man job,” Turner said. “We got here as a team, and that’s how we’re going to have to continue to play.”
While Indiana waits for a status update regarding the young star, they would most likely have to rely on Siakam and others such as Andrew Nembhard to set the offense and try to fill in the void. Haliburton had a steallar season as he averaged 20.1 points, 10.9 assists, and 3.9 rebounds per game as teammate T.J. McConnell, who would be crucial if the 24-year was out, said that it's time for the team to have the next man up mentality.
“When your franchise guy goes down, obviously it’s tough, but that’s a time for this group — who has done it this year — for everyone to step up and take a bigger role,” McConnell said. “We’ve done a good job of that when he has been out, and obviously, it hurts when he goes down, but (it’s) one of those things where it’s the next-man-up mentality. … We haven’t heard anything about him yet, but guys just have to step up and be ready.”
On the bright side, the Pacers go back home where they have been undefeated in the postseason thus far as Game 3 is Saturday night.
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