BOSTON — With exactly 10 seconds left in Game 1 of the East Finals, all the Pacers had to do to steal home-court advantage was to execute their way to the win. They were up by three points with the ball after the C’s failed to convert a number of solid chances to cut into the Pacers advantage.
But on the ensuing inbounds, Andrew Nembhard’s pass went awry as Jaylen Brown knocked it away from Pascal Siakam. Then Brown hit an off-balance, improbable 3-pointer to tie the game as the Garden crowd — minus some early departures — burst with its loudest cheer of the night.
The Celtics went on to snatch Game 1 from the Pacers to take the 1-0 series lead in the East Finals. And after the game, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle was blunt in his assessment of himself.
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“This loss is totally on me,” Carlisle said. “With 10 seconds left in regulation, we should’ve just taken the timeout, advance the ball and found a way to get in and made a free throw or two at the end of the game. It didn’t happen. We made some other mistakes. But our guys just need to concentrate fighting the way they fought in this game from start-to-finish.”
Now, it’s not all on Carlisle. The Pacers had multiple gaffes in the final 30 seconds of regulation, including a separate turnover after Tyrese Haliburton simply mis-dribbled the ball away, leading to Aaron Nesmith diving out of bounds for the ball. Indiana had 21 total turnovers Tuesday, allowing the Celtics some breathing room — especially in the final minute. There were also mistakes in the overtime period even though the Pacers had the lead at multiple points.
So as the Celtics escaped with a win to avoid scrutiny Tuesday, on the opposite side, the Pacers faltered in the final minutes. They’ve been a resilient team, clawing back from a 2-0 then 3-2 series deficit against the Knicks to win in seven games in the East semifinals.
But their inexperienced showed late as they gave the best team in the NBA enough chances to improbably force overtime. All the Pacers can do is turn to Game 2, which is set for 8 p.m. Thursday at TD Garden.
“Look, a lot of things had to go wrong for us and right for them,” Carlisle said. “They did. And so, we gotta own it and we gotta get ready for Thursday.”
