Pacers' offense goes quiet after halftime in 84-74 loss to Celtics

BOSTON — Kyrie Irving and Marcus Morris each had 20 points, and the Boston Celtics rallied in the second half to beat the Indiana Pacers 84-74 and take a 1-0 lead in their first-round playoff series on Sunday.

Jayson Tatum finished with 15 points. Al Horford added 10 points and 11 rebounds, and Gordon Hayward had 10 points. It was the first playoff game since 2017 for Irving and Hayward after each missed last year’s postseason with injuries.

Game 2 is Wednesday night in Boston.

The Pacers led by 11 points in the first half but had just eight points in the third quarter. The Celtics capitalized and led by as many as 22 in the fourth. Indiana scored 29 points in the second half, and the quarter and half were both its worst of the season.

Cory Joseph had 14 points for the Pacers. Bojan Boganovic was the lone Pacers starter in double figures with 12 points.

Celtics coach Brad Stevens and Pacers coach Nate McMillan both said before the series that the more physical team would have the edge.

After a shaky start, it turned out to be Boston.

Indiana led by as many as 11 in the first half before Boston opened the third quarter with a 22-3 run to take a 60-48 lead. The Pacers didn’t get their first field goal of the second half until Cory Joseph dropped in a layup with 3:38 left in the third. They finished the quarter 2 for 19 from the field.

Boston’s run included a brief appearance by Celtics legend and former Pacers front office executive Larry Bird, who was shown on the big screen during a timeout.

The third period ended with Terry Rozier connecting on an acrobatic 3-pointer with 0.1 seconds remaining to put the Celtics ahead 64-53. The lead grew to 84-62 on a 3-pointer by Tatum with 3:34 remaining.

Stevens went with Jaylen Brown in the starting lineup in place of Marcus Smart, who is out with a torn left oblique.

But after Boston committed four turnovers in the first four minutes of the game, Stevens quickly adjusted, inserting Morris and Hayward.

The change paid off with Morris connecting on 3 of 4 field-goal attempts in the period, including two 3-pointers, and scoring 12 points. No other Celtics player had more than two points.

The Celtics continued turning the ball over, though. They finished the first half with 10 turnovers, which led to 11 Pacers points.

Nate McMillan on the #Pacers‘ rough third quarter, during which they were outscored 26-8: “We had open looks that we didn’t knock down. I thought we lost a little confidence in that third quarter, and they got the momentum and really never let that go.” pic.twitter.com/EUsDeLH5dw

— FOX Sports Indiana (@FSIndiana) April 14, 2019