Boston Celtics qualify for the Playoffs after defeating Indiana Pacers

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Boston Celtics defeated the Indiana Pacers by 114-111 at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse, to clinch their spot for the playoffs on Tuesday. Playing on their road outing, the visitors dominated the first quarter with a constant lead over the hosts as the scores after the first quarter stood out to be 30-22. 

From the Celtics’ side, it was Jayson Tatum who took the in charge as he scored in 30 points, also had six rebounds and involved in two assists. The Celtics quickly took a 16-9 lead with the help of Kemba Walker’s 3-pointer and pushed the lead as high as 15 points after a trip for forward Gordon Hayward with just under eight minutes left in that quarter. In the second quarter, Domantas Sabonis took the in-charge of Pacers in scoring as he cut down the differences from 15 to six in a few minutes. Jayson Tatum continued to stay hot as he shot a 3-pointer with six minutes left in the period to put Boston up 48-33. Sabonis’s effort went the vain as the visitors got back to the 15 points lead over the hosts. 

Indiana again tried cutting down the differences as they fought hard by cutting down the double-digit differences to as few as four points, however, Celtics were unstoppable, as they pushed the scores back to 59-50 going into the break, with a 9 points lead. The third quarter started with a 3-Pointer from Gordon Hayward as he started Boston started taking increasing the lead over the hosts. In that quarter, visitors went up to 17 points lead during the times in the frame. The penultimate quarter saw Indiana Pacers scoring 30 points while Celtics continued to roll in with 35 points.  

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Celtics were lowkey during the final quarter by scoring 20 points, over their 31 points as TJ McConnell cut the lead to 14 points for the Pacers who proceeded to whittle the Celtics’ lead to 104-101 with a Victor Oladipo trey with 3:30 remaining in the game. 

The final scores were 111-114 with Boston Celtics qualifying for the playoffs for the sixth consecutive time. 

The highlighted performances were:

  • Gordon Hayward (27 points: 10 rebounds and 5 assists)- Boston
  • Jayson Tatum (30 points: 6 rebounds and 2 assists)-Boston
  • Domantas Sabonis (28 points: 9 rebounds and 8 assists)- Indiana
  • TJ Warren (22 points: 5 rebounds)
  • Victor Oladipo (27 points: 7 rebounds and 4 assists)