Oof. So close. The Pacers dropped a heartbreaker at home to the Thunder last night. This is professional sports so moral victories are about as useful as trying to milk a bull, but I find it encouraging that the team continued its strong play and went toe-to-toe with one of the best groups in the league.

Less encouraging is the fact that Tyrese Haliburton was all but invisible from a scoring perspective, only contributing four points on six shot attempts. Haliburton's offensive passivity is pretty good sign that this team is going to lose.

Even though he had plenty of support from Andrew Nembhard and Pascal Siakam, who finished with 23/9/7 and 22/10/3, respectively, Tyrese continues to be the key to Pacers wins and losses. In fact, it reminds me of last year's playoff series against tonight's opponent, the Boston Celtics. After Haliburton went down, Nembhard stepped into the lead guard role and made our remaining games competitive affairs. However, he never could close out a win. Against good teams in the clutch, you need your stars to be stars.

Speaking of tonight's opponent, it doesn't get much harder than facing the Celtics in Boston. They are elite on both sides of the ball. On defense, they guard without fouling and on offense they take care of the ball and spam threes. Seriously, the Celtics take about 50 threes a game. The flip side of all that space on the perimeter is that it gives them easy avenues to hoops, making them a math major's dream.

To get back to winning the Pacers will need major contributions from all of their key players.

Injuries

How to Watch

Tipoff is at 7:30 PM ET.

TV: FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass

Radio: 93.5/107.5 The Fan

See ya in the comments!

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