Celtics pull out gutty 83-81 win over Pacers on last second shot by Jeff Green

The Celtics pulled out a gutty 83-81 win over Indiana, a team Boston could very well face as a first round playoff opponent.

The word of tonight’s game was sloppy with lots of turnovers, bad shots and overall discombobulation. The cause of all the disorganized play from Boston was the stellar defense of the Pacers.

There had been talk of Indiana really turning into a defensive-minded squad and that talk was confirmed in this game.

Boston (33-27) shot a miserable 41 percent from the floor and were shooting below 40 percent most of the game. Paul Pierce was held to four points in the first half and Jeff Green missed his first three shots. The good news was the Celtics defense was even better, holding Indiana to 36 percent shooting from the floor.

On the other side of the court, Roy Hibbert had himself a field day, netting a double-double before the half.
All of the Pacers (38-23) owned the paint scoring 30 points inside by the break.

Indiana led by as much as 14 in the third quarter, but Boston came back to tie the game up with just over a minute left in the game. The Celtics had a chance to take the lead with 45 seconds left, but Pierce missed the jumper. Boston had another chance to take the game with the final shot

As poor as the Celtics shot all night, they made the biggest bucket when it mattered with Kevin Garnett giving a great bullet pass to Jeff Green for the easy score with 0.5 seconds left.

Garnett was the player of the game with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Pierce finished with 13 points and eight rebounds Green chipped in with 11 points and seven rebounds and Avery Bradley had 13 points.

For the Pacers, Hibbert finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds, David West had 11 points and 16 rebounds and Paul George had 16 points and seven rebounds.

The Celtics are now 15-17 in back-to-backs after winning both tonight and last night, a mark they really need to improve on in order to climb higher in the playoff seeding. Speaking of playoffs, Indiana currently sits in the #2 spot and Boston is #7 so the two would meet up in the first round of the playoffs if the teams stay where they are.

Boston is now 12-18 on the road, not horrible, but they also need to get that mark closer to .500 if they hope to host the first round of the playoffs. Also, don’t sleep on Milwaukee as they are currently one game behind the Celtics in the loss column.

Other notes

Kevin Garnett passed Wes Unseld for 10^th all-time in rebounds.

Boston was only outrebounded 50-47.

D.J. White saw his first minutes in green and had two blocks and two rebounds in four minutes.

The Celtics play Atlanta on Friday.