Celtics use furious rally to win Game 3, push Pacers to brink

INDIANAPOLIS — As Andrew Nembhard got here streaking down the left facet of the court docket within the closing moments of Recreation 3 of the Japanese Convention finals inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse, together with his Indiana Pacers down one and trying to, one way or the other, claw their manner again into this sequence with All-NBA level guard Tyrese Haliburton watching in avenue garments, Boston Celtics guard Jrue Vacation was with him step for step.

However then, as Nembhard tried to chop into the center of the court docket — the place he and the Pacers had feasted on Boston’s protection for a lot of the night time — Vacation knew what was coming.

“He is a right-hand driver,” Vacation would say later, “and he’d been very, very aggressive all night time.”

And, as Nembhard went to that proper hand, Vacation stole the ball from him and raced to the opposite finish of the court docket, the place he ultimately hit a pair of free throws that offered the ultimate scoring margin on this recreation:

That rating — Celtics 114, Pacers 111 — gave Boston a 3-0 lead on this best-of-seven sequence and moved the Celtics to inside a single victory of advancing to the NBA Finals for a second time in three years. And, after the Celtics spent a lot of this recreation watching Indiana get no matter it needed defensively, it was becoming that, after Boston fully flipped that script within the closing minutes of the sport, it was a defensive play by Vacation, lengthy thought-about one of many league’s elite perimeter defenders, that turned the ultimate nail in Indiana’s coffin.

“That is a trademark steal that he at all times will get with the within hand,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla mentioned. “He will get that quite a bit often when a man is coming down the sideline, however he received it in transition.

“He made a big-time play.”

It was precisely the type of play the Celtics acquired Vacation to make once they swung a blockbuster take care of the Portland Path Blazers on the eve of coaching camp — after Portland had landed Vacation from the Milwaukee Bucks as a part of a package deal for Damian Lillard a couple of days earlier — to pair him with Derrick White and type the NBA’s finest defensive backcourt.

Solely moments earlier than his defensive play, nonetheless, Vacation had bulled his solution to the rim and given Boston the lead by changing an and-1 layup over Pacers ahead Pascal Siakam — one other instance of the type of play that Vacation, who completed this recreation with 14 factors, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and a block in 38 minutes, was delivered to Boston to make as he hopes to observe up his championship ring with the Bucks from three seasons in the past with one other one subsequent month.

And that layup set the stage for Vacation to then choose Nembhard’s pocket within the recreation’s largest second.

“I used to be making an attempt to get a shot up,” mentioned Nembhard, who in any other case performed a wonderful recreation, ending with 32 factors and 9 assists in 39 minutes as he took on a lot of the playmaking duties instead of Haliburton, who reaggravated the left hamstring damage that has bothered him for the previous few months in Recreation 2. “He received in entrance of me. I misplaced the ball, slipped. Turnover.”

When Nembhard got here into the frontcourt in opposition to Vacation, he did not have a bonus, as Boston was fast to get again on protection after a Jayson Tatum drive to the basket resulted in a missed layup — precisely the type of scenario that, sometimes, results in an odd-man benefit for the defending staff.

In consequence, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle was requested after the sport why he selected to let issues play out moderately than calling a timeout.

“With 8 or 9 seconds left, and also you’re in transition after a miss … I belief our gamers to have the ability to create higher pictures than calling timeout and having them set their protection,” Carlisle mentioned. “It is extra of a play basketball-type scenario, and we have executed properly this yr trusting our gamers.”

The Celtics additionally belief Vacation implicitly to make the appropriate play, and never commit a foul, in that form of scenario — simply as they trusted him to play regardless of being questionable to play all day and lacking shootaround after coping with a non-COVID sickness.

“I imply, cannot converse extremely sufficient about Jrue,” mentioned Tatum, who had a terrific recreation for the Celtics, ending with 36 factors, 10 rebounds, 8 assists and no turnovers in 44 minutes. “The final word teammate competitor, clearly a champion, wasn’t at shootaround at the moment, he was sick. Coping with chills and stuff like that. And we have all been there, how powerful that’s, to combat by means of it, and for him to return on the market and lay all of it on the road for us, make the game-winning play primarily, particularly on the defensive finish.

“Jrue is only a big-time participant, and he made an incredible play.”

It was a play that, finally, helped cowl up what was a scattershot efficiency for a lot of the night time. Indiana led by as many as 18 factors on this recreation regardless of lacking its talisman in Haliburton. Tatum’s offense, together with 15 first-quarter factors, was largely chargeable for retaining the Celtics within the recreation earlier than Boston ultimately started chipping away at Indiana’s lead late within the third quarter.

Then, the Celtics closed the sport with a 13-2 run over the ultimate 2:38 of recreation motion, following up a T.J. McConnell bucket that put Indiana up 109-101 with a Jaylen Brown midrange bucket; a Tatum 3-pointer; an Al Horford nook 3-pointer off an incredible no-look go by Tatum; after which Vacation’s and-1 layup.

All of that, nonetheless, simply set the stage for Vacation to steal the present together with his protection — and transfer Boston to the brink of a return to the league’s championship spherical.

“Jrue is completely different,” Brown mentioned. “Nothing actually else to say. Jrue is simply completely different.”