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Key Moment
With a whole lot on the line Friday night, the Boston Celtics needed someone to deliver in the clutch. Kyrie Irving answered the call, with just a little help from the visiting Indiana Pacers.
The winner of this game was to gain the edge for home court advantage in the first round of these teams’ nearly guaranteed matchup in the postseason. A win would push the C’s into possession of home court, while an Indiana victory would give the Pacers a two-game lead for home court.
At the end of the night, the C’s wound up as the higher-seeded team in the standings, thanks to Irving.
With the score knotted up at 112-112 with 10.2 seconds left, Boston came out of a timeout looking for a game-winning bucket. It inbounded from the sideline and Al Horford wound up catching the entry pass.
Horford got the ball into Irving’s hands with a dribble hand-off on the right wing with 6.0 seconds left. Horford then spaced out to the top of the 3-point arc, and that’s when things went haywire for Indiana.
The two defenders in the action, Myles Turner and Wesley Matthews, miscommunicated on the Horford-Irving hand-off. Matthews stayed on Irving’s back hip, thinking that Turner would remain between Irving and the basket. Turner, however, flared back out to defend Horford, which opened up a driving lane to the basket.
Irving will never fail to take advantage of that.
Boston’s leading scorer immediately turned on the jets and drove to the rack for what turned out to be a relatively simple layup off the glass. His game-winner dropped through the net with 0.5 seconds left. Indiana was unable to get a shot off before the horn sounded on the final play of the game, leaving the C’s with a 114-112 victory.
Key Player
Have yourself a night, Aron Baynes!
Baynes started his second consecutive game alongside Al Horford Friday night and he brought the goods for his increased role. Not only did he grab a season-high and game-high 13 rebounds, but he also poured in 13 points on 6-for-10 shooting.
Lucky number 13s, you might say?
Baynes also contributed two assists, a blocked shot, and a heck of a lot of great defense while he was on the court. There was no doubt that the C’s were at their best defensively while he was between the lines.
Which brings us to another interesting note: Baynes played a season-high 32 minutes and 47 seconds on the night. That’s nearly eight minutes more than his previous season high in minutes played (24 minutes, 50 seconds), and it even approached his career high in the category (33 minutes, 41 seconds).
Box Score Nuggets
- Kyrie Irving scored a game-high 30 points.
- Aron Baynes grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.
- Both teams dished out 27 assists.
- Boston's scoring decreased in each quarter, from 35 in the first, to 28 in the second, to 26 in the third, to 25 in the fourth.
- Bojan Bogdanovic led Indiana with 27 points.
- Darren Collison dished a game-best seven assists.
- Al Horford's three blocks were one more than Indiana's team total (two).
- Jaylen Brown led all reserves with 16 points.
- Marcus Smart grabbed a game-high four steals.
Quote of the Night
Kyrie Irving on the win