Pacers at Celtics
The Boston Celtics' best hope of remaining in the running for homecourt advantage in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs is by earning a win over the visiting Indiana Pacers on Friday. The Pacers currently occupy the No. 4 spot in the East and would host the fifth-place Celtics in a first-round series if the season ended Friday.
Boston, which also visits Indiana on April 5 for the final regular-season meeting between the clubs, trails the Pacers by one game with seven remaining and pulled itself out of a four-game slide with a 116-106 victory at lowly Cleveland on Tuesday. "I think for us, just making sure that we responded the right way, got stops when we needed to, taking good shots on offense, and we just answered every run they had for us," Celtics center Al Horford told reporters of the positives coming out of Tuesday's win. "It just feels good. It feels good to win. Obviously, we weren't perfect, but I was happy with the focus of the group going into tonight." The Pacers looked like they were on their way to a second consecutive win on Wednesday before allowing the Oklahoma City Thunder to go on a 24-0 run in the third quarter of a 107-99 loss. "That was basically the game," Indiana coach Nate McMillan told reporters. "Offensively, we just didn't get organized. We had some turnovers in that stretch, and they made their run and were able to get the momentum to just really take control of the game."
TV: 7 p.m. ET, NBATV, FS Indiana, NBCS Boston
ABOUT THE PACERS (45-30): Indiana had a chance to put the No. 4 seed out of reach while Boston was struggling but instead dropped five of its last six games. "We are putting ourselves in a position to win, but a few turnovers and some bad spacing on offense, we aren't getting ourselves over the hump," Pacers forward Thaddeus Young told reporters after Wednesday's loss. Swingman Bojan Bogdanovic was the bright spot in the loss with 28 points and is averaging 31.5 points over the last two contests.
ABOUT THE CELTICS (44-31): Boston was missing All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving (rest) on Tuesday and coach Brad Stevens took the opportunity to tinker with the lineup, starting Horford alongside center Aron Baynes to give the team more size. "It helps me a lot," Horford told reporters of sharing the court with Baynes. "He's a great defender. He's always protecting the rim. It was good to play with him. I got to play with him a little more tonight than usual." Baynes in the starting lineup pushes power forward Marcus Morris to the bench, and he boosted the reserve unit with 14 points in 29 minutes on Tuesday.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Celtics SF Jayson Tatum (back) returned from a one-game absence on Tuesday and delivered 21 points on 9-of-17 shooting.
2. Pacers PG Darren Collison (quad) returned from a three-game absence on Wednesday and managed eight points on 3-of-10 shooting.
3. The teams split the first two meetings with Boston crushing Indiana 135-108 at home on Jan. 9.