Tyrese Haliburton shines as Indiana Pacers avenge blowout loss to Boston Celtics

LOS ANGELES – Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla lamented his side’s defensive deficiencies after Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton scored 31 points, as the Pacers turned the tables on the National Basketball Association (NBA) champions with a 123-114 victory at TD Garden on Dec 29.

Two days after Jaylen Brown’s 44 points propelled the Celtics to a 142-105 blowout victory over the Pacers, Indiana got their revenge.

Said Mazzulla: “When you’re not playing well defensively, that’s on everybody, that’s on the staff, that’s on the coaching, that’s on the players...

“We’ve got to pay attention to the tendencies. And we have to know where we can help from and force more kickouts... It starts at the point of attack.”

Eddie House, who won a title with Boston in 2008, added on NBC Sports: “I think we’ve taken a step back... Defensively, I feel like we aren’t engaged the way that we need to be engaged to win a championship... 

“Do I still believe that we are a championship team? Yes. But do I think that we’re giving championship effort on the defensive end? I don’t believe that.”

Haliburton added six rebounds and seven assists without a turnover. Six players scored in double figures for Indiana, whose lights-out shooting in the second quarter saw them seize a seven-point half-time lead that they would push to as many as 16.

Brown stayed hot, delivering 31 points on 13-of-21 shooting and adding six assists. Jayson Tatum had 22 points with nine rebounds and six assists.

Pascal Siakam and Andrew Nembhard scored 17 points each for Indiana. Nembhard added eight rebounds and assists as he returned after missing the previous game with left knee tendinitis.

Nembhard said maintaining their pace in the fourth quarter, when Boston cut an 11-point deficit to two with seven minutes and 38 seconds to play, was key.

“I think that was the biggest thing we did late in the game,” he said. “We kept pace in the game. We didn’t slow it down and worry about the score too much.”

In Orlando, Cole Anthony drove for the game-winning lay-up as the Magic erased a 21-point deficit to beat the Brooklyn Nets 102-101.

The Nets were without veteran Dorian Finney-Smith, who was traded along with Shake Milton to the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec 29 in a deal that sent D’Angelo Russell to Brooklyn.

Meanwhile, Miami’s Tyler Herro scored a game-high 27 points before he was ejected in a bench-clearing brawl that saw six people tossed in the waning seconds of the Heat’s 104-100 victory over the Rockets in Houston.

The Heat were up 99-94 when Rockets reserve Amen Thompson flung Herro to the court with 35.7 seconds remaining.

Both players, who had been jostling for position before an inbounds pass, were ejected, along with Miami’s Terry Rozier and Houston guard Jalen Green, Rockets coach Ime Udoka and his assistant Ben Sullivan.

“I didn’t see it live, but I rewatched it,” Udoka told ESPN. “They were in each other’s face, bumping chests a little bit and one guy’s stronger than the other.”

Houston’s Fred VanVleet had been ejected with 47 seconds remaining in an unrelated incident.

In a game that featured 13 lead changes, the Rockets led by seven with eight minutes 10 seconds to play.

Herro’s basket with one minute 56 seconds left put Miami up 95-94 and they pulled away to win amid the closing chaos.

In Oklahoma City, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 35 points to fire the Western Conference-leading Thunder to a 130-106 victory over the injury-hit Memphis Grizzlies.

Gilgeous-Alexander was an efficient 14 of 19 from the floor, with six rebounds, seven assists and four blocked shots. With the game in hand, he sat out most of the fourth quarter.

Elsewhere, Atlanta’s Trae Young posted a double-double of 34 points and 10 assists as the Hawks handed the Toronto Raptors a 10th straight defeat, 136-107.

Young made seven of the Hawks’ 18 three-pointers, his efforts from beyond the arc matching the Raptors’ total of three-pointers.

De’Andre Hunter added 22 points off the bench for the Hawks, who won their fourth straight game and spoiled the season debut of Toronto’s Bruce Brown after his recovery from knee surgery. AFP