JAYLEN BROWN SCORED 40 points to propel Boston to a 126-110 victory over Indiana and a 2-0 lead in the NBA Eastern Conference finals over a Pacers team rocked by an injury to Tyrese Haliburton.

Brown tied a career playoff high to help the top-seeded Celtics break their game-two jinx.

Winners of a league-best 64 regular-season games, Boston had dropped the second game before prevailing in each of the first two rounds.

But they head to Indianapolis for game three on Saturday in control of the best-of-seven series.

The Pacers have excelled at home, but now have concerns over All-Star point guard Haliburton, who departed late in the third quarter with a left hamstring injury and didn’t return.

Brown, who sank a three-pointer to force overtime as the Celtics held off the Pacers in a game-one thriller, scored 10 points in a 20-0 Celtics run that saw Boston take the lead for good in the second quarter.

“It’s the playoffs, man,” Brown said. “Whatever it takes to get a ‘W’ — on defence, on offence — that’s what I’m going to do.”

“He has it going,” Jrue Holiday said of his teammate.

“Great player, great leader, but wants to win and takes things into his own hands. Having a guy like that on my side, I love it. I’ll ride for him.”

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said that even though the box score reflected just two assists for Brown, he did a good job of keeping his teammates involved on offence.

“He made the right play — that’s the most important thing,” Mazzulla said.

Indiana emerged from a tight first quarter that featured 10 lead changes with a 27-25 advantage.

But Holiday’s three-pointer in the final minute of the opening period launched Boston’s scoring binge and they were up 42-27 midway through the second.

The Celtics pushed the lead to 16 before the Pacers hit back. Pascal Siakam came up with four big buckets, including a dunk that cut the deficit to 56-51 at halftime.

Siakam struck again early in the third, and his three-pointer pulled Indiana within two.

But Boston pulled away again, their 16-5 scoring run swelling the lead to 13 going into the fourth quarter, when the Pacers wouldn’t get within double digits.

- ‘Not quite there’ -

Jayson Tatum shook off a slow start to score 23 points. Derrick White also scored 23 and Holiday scored 15 points with 10 assists for Boston.

Siakam led Indiana’s scoring with 28 points. Haliburton had 10 points and eight assists before departing.

“I think they played a little better for more stretches than we did,” said Siakam, a title winner with Toronto who was acquired from the Raptors in January.

“They had a lot of good runs. We were getting there close but just not quite there.”

Siakam noted the Celtics’ edge in rebounding and second-chance points. The Pacers also produced 16 turnovers.

“They just played better,” Siakam said. “We’ve got to look at ourselves in the mirror and move on and think about the next game.”

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said Haliburton, who had left hamstring trouble during the season, had already had treatment on his leg at halftime.

He also had tests after taking a blow to the chest battling with Brown for a rebound.

“We’ll know more tomorrow and probably even more Saturday,” Carlisle said.

 – © AFP 2024