Teams that have had trouble closing out games recently take to the Garden hardwood in an Eastern Conference battle.
The Pacers wasted double-digit leads twice while splitting a recent four-game road trip, but they haven’t had much trouble shutting down Boston, defeating the Celtics in each of their two previous meetings.
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TRAVEL
The Pacers closed out a four-game road trip with a difficult overtime loss to the Rockets on Sunday night. They return home for one game, against Phoenix on Tuesday, before hitting the road once again to visit the Celtics. Indiana’s road trip was bookended with overtime losses, first to the Heat in Miami, then to the Rockets. In both games the Pacers held a double-digit lead in the second half, leaving the 2-2 excursion with a feeling that there were wins left on the table. “We have to figure out how to close out these games,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said.
The Pacers have a short stay at home with Wednesday’s game being the second of a back-to-back, with a chance to close out a game against the Celtics, who they’ve already beaten twice this season. Indiana has gone 0-5 SU and ATS in the second game of its last five back-to-back sets. Overall the Pacers are 2-6 SU and ATS in the back end of a two-game set. Boston is facing the same back-to-back scenario following their game with New York on Tuesday. The Celtics enter that game with losses in five of their previous six following a four-game winning streak. The Celtics are 5-3 SU and 4-4 ATS in the second of their eight back-to-backs.
INJURIES
Celtics guard Avery Bradley returned Saturday after missing three games with a hip pointer. He scored 14 points in 38 minutes against Memphis. Both teams were fully healthy heading into this week’s action.
KEY MATCHUP
Boston’s frustration with its recent play reached a boiling point in Sunday’s loss to Memphis – a 101-98 defeat in which the Celtics blew a 21-point lead. Over two frustrating weeks they lost five of six games, with a pair of losses to two inferior teams – the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn Nets – and blew double-digit leads in every game of a losing streak that reached three straight against the Grizzlies. When the Celtics put together a season-best four-game winning streak in late December, some wondered if they might be the favorite to earn the No. 2 seed in a crowded Eastern Conference. Two weeks later, the Celtics find themselves hovering around .500 and on the outside of the playoff picture. One of the biggest reasons that Boston made a second half surge to the playoffs last season was that young team figured out how to win clutch games. This Celtics teams doesn’t seem like it learned how to win close games yet, and they keep losing the stomach-punch games.
ODDS AND PREDICTION
Both teams are experiencing difficulties lately and it’s shown in the results. The Pacers blew big second half leads in a pair of games last week while the Celtics’ late-game meltdowns hung losses in five of six games with the only win during that stretch against the Nets. Fortunately for Boston, the troubling areas are correctable, and having Marcus Smart back in the rotation should help the team moving forward. He missed 18 games with a knee injury and is the Celtics’ sparkplug. Indiana will play on the road for the fifth time in its last six games and defeated Boston twice in a week back in November, covering the spread each time. Paul George went for 26 in each contest and the Celtics need an answer for him. And that’s something they don’t have.
Indiana 104, Boston 100
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