The Celtics continued their recent slide on Wednesday, falling to the Pacers 117-112 despite a furious second-half rally and 41 points from Jayson Tatum.
Here are the takeaways.
1. Hold your applause for the Celtics’ second-half rally, and consider shelving your rage at the officials. Sure, the Celtics played significantly better in the final 24 minutes, and the referees themselves admitted they missed a potential flagrant foul committed by Jalen Smith against Tatum (which turned into two Pacer free throws on the other end).
But to paraphrase a famous tweet by Weird Twitter legend @dril: When a team falls behind by 30 points and rallies, you do not, under any circumstances, “gotta hand it to them.