Indiana Pacers vs Boston Celtics Prediction, Odds and Picks

The Indiana Pacers and the Boston Celtics will play for the second time in three days at TD Garden. In the first game, Boston blew the Pacers out 142-105. Boston shot 51% from the field and went 23-56 from beyond the arc. There are little-to-no teams that can match Boston when they shoot the way they did. The Pacers couldn’t find their shot all night, only shooting 41% and 28% from three. Jaylen Brown continued to show that he is one of the best two-way players in the NBA. Brown scored 44 points on 66% shooting, and he did this all while picking up Tyrese Haliburton full court for 37 minutes. The Pacers did manage to beat the Celtics back in October of this year, 135-132.

The Celtics and Pacers are two NBA teams that predicate themselves on pace and try to overwhelm their opponent with a flurry of points. The Celtics are currently 3rd in the NBA in offensive rating with a rating of 119.6. The Celtics shoot an absurd amount of three pointers each game. They rank 1st in the NBA with 50.5 three-point attempts per game. In comparison to the rest of the league, 2nd place is the Bulls with 43.6 three-point attempts per game. The Celtics roster is designed to make the three, and they make it at a rate of 36.6%.  The Pacers are not far behind the Celtics on offense, ranked 11th with an offensive rating of 115.4. What the Pacers lack in offensive rating, they make up for in pace. Indiana ranks 7th in the NBA in pace played with a score of 100.78. The fast-paced offense has led to an average of 114.4 points per game. Usually, I like for the team that just got blown out to come back with a better effort in game two of a back-to-back, but with how many threes the Celtics take, they can be a hard team to predict. Instead, I like for the Pacers to lean into what they know best and to have a better offensive outing tonight.

Pacers vs Celtics prediction: Over 233.5 (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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