Pacers: ‘We gave away the victory in Game 1’

The Indiana Pacers walked away from Game 1’s 133-128 OT defeat against the Boston Celtics, understanding they missed a chance to steal home advantage to start the East Conference finals yesterday.

With 22 turnovers, including 2 huge in the last 27 seconds of the match, Indiana let the win slip away despite leading by 3 points with the possession in the final 10 seconds of the regular time.

“We gave away the triumph,” Indiana forward Aaron Nesmith claimed. “We should’ve won the match.”

Indiana had a 3-point lead with 27.1 seconds on the clock until the end, when star Tyrese Haliburton dribbled the ball off his foot for an unforced error. Despite that, the Pacers got the possession back with the opportunity to seal the victory at the free throw line with 10 seconds until the end of the regular time.

The only problem was that Indiana had to inbound the ball. With 8.1 seconds, Andrew Nembhard made a mistake when he tried to give the ball to  Pascal Siakam and gave the Celtics another opportunity to even the result as Jaylen Brown notched a 3-pointer to force overtime.

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"We know we can play with these guys…We know we belong."

Tyrese Haliburton after Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. pic.twitter.com/q5qM4KhMDf

— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) May 22, 2024