Pacers work overtime to hand Celtics first loss of season

INDIANAPOLIS – With 7.3 seconds remaining in overtime, Pascal Siakam drilled a game-winning three-pointer to help the Indiana Pacers beat NBA champions Boston Celtics 135-132 in Indianapolis on Oct 30.

Having come back several times to force overtime, Boston had another chance to tie the game, but Jaylen Brown missed a three-point attempt on their final possession as they fell to their first defeat in five games this season.

“It’s big, it’s big,” Siakam said as they outscored Boston 11-8 in overtime to win the rematch of last season’s Eastern Conference finals.

“We got a couple of games where we lost by a couple of turnovers, rebounds. So we wanted to get this one.”

Jayson Tatum scored a game-high 37 points, Brown added 25 and Derrick White scored 23 for Boston, but they could not pull off the miracle at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

“We let them come back, but I thought we fought,” said Siakam, who amassed 29 points, 11 rebounds and five assists.

Teammate Bennedict Mathurin came off the bench to score a team-high 30 points and grab 11 rebounds, while Tyrese Haliburton racked up 17 points and 12 assists as Indiana ended a three-game losing streak.

Boston were down by 24 with 3:35 left in the third quarter and trailed by 21 with 8:55 remaining but tied the game on Tatum’s three-pointer with 14.4 seconds to play.

He had converted only five of his 18 three-point attempts, with Brown only one of 11 from long range.

The Celtics trailed by eight late in the first quarter, but White made a three-pointer at the buzzer to trim Indiana’s lead to 35-31.

Indiana’s lead in the first half peaked at 13 points, and the Pacers were ahead 67-57 at half-time. Boston shot 37.3 per cent (19 of 51) from the field in the half and trailed 100-86 entering the fourth quarter.

The Pacers were without centre Myles Turner due to a sprained left ankle. Turner averaged 15 points and 6.3 rebounds in Indiana’s first four games this season. REUTERS