For the third time in six days, the Boston Celtics added a tally to the loss column. Their 108-106 defeat to the league-worst Indiana Pacers on Monday could’ve very easily been a win, even without Jaylen Brown in the lineup.
Midway through the third quarter, the Cs looked dead. Deader than dead, actually. They’d gone scoreless for the first four and a half minutes of the second half while their offensive trips resulted in either missed shots or turnovers.
The trend continued for another three minutes as Indiana built a 13-point lead while Boston reminded everyone how important Brown has been to their success. Then, something clicked. For the final 4:43 of the third, the Celtics looked like the team we’d all watched in December.
They nearly erased the deficit completely by the time the buzzer sounded, trailing by just two heading into the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately, the fourth quarter has been unkind to the Celtics for the past week
The fourth quarter, by the way, which has essentially been a house of horrors for Boston lately. Over the past five fourth quarters, including Monday’s loss in Indy, the Celtics have the third-worst net rating in the entire NBA at -18.4.
That’s quite the contrast to what it’s been the entire year. Boston sits second-best with a 9.5 fourth-quarter net rating on the season.
Their offense, in particular, has been quite good with a 123.1 offensive rating, three points better than the second-best Houston Rockets. Typically, they make shots at a high rate, take care of the basketball, and get themselves across the finish line.
All of the above makes it all the more frustrating that they failed to do so against the Pacers. Boston had momentum. They got the stops they needed to win the game (even though they gave up a game-winning bucket to Pascal Siakam in the closing seconds). The Celtics held Indy to just 19 fourth-quarter points, their lowest since the opening frame in this one.
They just couldn’t put the ball in the basket. Partly, this has to do with Brown’s absence. Whenever you’re without your best player, it’s simply harder to score.
Regardless, the results weren’t there against Indiana. Down the stretch, the Celtics shot just 7-19 from the field, and 2-8 from three, including a desperation fadeaway from Derrick White to try and win the game.
Not to mention that they tallied on two more turnovers, after giving away 10 through the first three quarters.
Reporters on-site weren’t able to get any sort of answer from Joe Mazzulla on his team’s late-game struggles. He simply answered every question with “illegal screen.”
Here was Joe Mazzulla’s full postgame presser with reporters in Indiana, as seen on NBCSB. Replied “illegal screen” to all six questions he received.
Clearly unhappy with the play that led to Siakam’s game-winner. pic.twitter.com/LdMFYBVS2E
— Zack Cox (@zm_cox) January 13, 2026
It sure looks like Mazzulla was right, as Siakam took out White with his hip before receiving a pass on the final possession for the Pacers.
Hard to argue with Joe here. This is very clearly an illegal screen https://t.co/eGG9m9wt2T pic.twitter.com/9mIlvgw9HV
— Ian Inangelo (@iinangelo) January 13, 2026
Unfortunately, no matter what tomorrow’s two-minute report says, the Celtics still didn’t do enough to beat the worst team in the NBA.