Pacers forward Pascal Siakam hit the go-ahead shot with 6.1 seconds left in regulation to hand the Celtics their second straight loss.
Pacers forward Pascal Siakam hit the go-ahead shot with 6.1 seconds left in regulation to hand the Celtics their second straight loss.Doug McSchooler/Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS ― The Pacers entered Monday’s matchup against the Celtics with an 8-31 record, the worst in the NBA. But before the game, Boston coach Joe Mazzulla warned that Indiana has been getting back some of its injured players, at least starting to resemble the team that challenged the Thunder in last season’s NBA Finals.
Then the game began, and the Pacers shook off a rocky offensive start and secured a 98-96 win when Pascal Siakam banked in a runner with 6.1 seconds left. Boston was held to 40 points in the second half.
Payton Pritchard had 23 points to lead the Celtics, who were just 9 of 35 from the 3-point line.
Jaylen Brown, who was fined $35,000 by the NBA earlier Monday due to his critical comments about the officiating in Boston’s loss to the Spurs on Saturday, sat out Monday because of back spasms. Forward Josh Minott missed his fifth consecutive game with a sprained ankle.
Siakam had 21 points to lead Indiana and Jay Huff added 20. The Pacers made 16 of 37 3-pointers after a 1 for 6 start.
The Pacers took an 89-81 lead in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter before the Celtics began to crawl back.
A Derrick White 3-pointer with 4:53 left pulled Boston within 91-90. After the Pacers stretched their lead back to 5, a Pritchard 3-pointer with 2:14 left made it 96-94.
Then both teams scuffled through empty possessions, with some shots rattling in and out and layups swatted away.
After Andrew Nembhard missed a 16-footer with 36 seconds left, the Celtics grabbed the rebound and called timeout. White attacked for a quick layup to tie the score at 96 with 28.6 seconds left, setting up a two-for-one chance in the process.
After a timeout, the Pacers ran a two-man game with Nembhard and Siakam, with Siakam eventually spinning past White in the paint and banking a shot in off the glass with 6.1 seconds left.
After a timeout, White inbounded the ball from the sidelined and quickly got it back, but his contested 3-pointer from the top of the key was long.
Both teams started slowly offensively. The Pacers emphasized early Siakam post-ups but couldn’t establish a rhythm with them. And the long-range shooting was grisly.
A Jay Huff floater with 4:21 left in the first quarter gave the Pacers a 17-16 lead, but they mustered just two points over the rest of the frame. After back-to-back driving layups by Anfernee Simons and White gave the Celtics a 22-17 lead, Indiana called a timeout. Then the Pacers returned to the court and committed a shot-clock violation, a sequence that would irritate any coach.
Indiana was just 1 for 6 from the 3-point line in the opening quarter, with four turnovers. But those shooting struggles were not permanent.
A Micah Potter 3-pointer with 10:22 left in the second quarter started a stretch in which the Pacers drilled seven consecutive 3-pointers, with the Celtics struggling to close out authoritatively on some.
A pair of dunks by Huff helped the Pacers take a 48-45 lead, their largest of the half, but Simons continued to add scoring pop off the bench to keep Boston humming. He had 12 points in just six minutes in the period and the Celtics took a 56-53 lead to halftime.
White started the third quarter by missing a layup, and that was how things went for much of the period for Boston.
The Celtics were held scoreless for the first 4:28 of the third, and careless passes led to a rare turnover spree that put extra stress on their defense.
The Pacers, meanwhile, continued to distance themselves from their slow start beyond the arc by finding space in the lane and spraying passes to open shooters, who faced minimal resistance there.
A step-back 3-pointer by Nembhard with 4:42 left in the third gave the Pacers a 73-60 lead, their largest. But the Celtics bounced back from their unsteady start to the half with a better finish.
Garza grabbed an offensive rebound and found Pritchard for a 3-pointer before adding a floater that pulled Boston within 79-77 by the start of the fourth.
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him @adamhimmelsbach.