Indiana Pacers vs. Boston Celtics prediction: Who will win Game 1 in NBA playoffs?
BOSTON -- The Pacers are one of the last two teams standing in the Eastern Conference. While they are, as Pacers coach Rick Carlisle called them, the "uninvited guests," the team they're playing is the one everyone expected to be where they are and the team everyone expects to move on.
The Boston Celtics' 64-18 record was the best in the NBA by seven games and the best in the Eastern Conference by 14. They finished 17 games ahead of the Pacers even though Indiana hung two losses on them, which made them one of just four teams to beat them twice, the others being Denver, Milwaukee and Atlanta.
The Celtics have arguably the best starting five in the NBA. The Pacers have the league's best bench. They were the two most explosive and the two most efficient offenses in the NBA, but the Celtics also had a top five defensive team and the Pacers very much did not.
The series begins at 8 p.m. on Tuesday at Boston's TD Garden. Here's our prediction for Game 1.
Dustin Dopirak, Pacers beat writer: The Pacers will have the advantage of momentum in this game with the Celtics having spent the last six days waiting after cruising to a 4-1 win over the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Indiana enters this series with nothing to lose while the Celtics carry the burden of knowing that anything less than an NBA Finals appearance -- especially considering they're playing the No. 6 seed -- will be considered an abject failure and even winning the East might not be considered enough if it ends in a Finals loss.
That makes the Pacers dangerous in Game 1 so an upset here wouldn't be a major surprise. That being said, the Celtics do have arguably the most talented team in the league. In Derrick White and Jrue Holiday they have two of the best on-ball defenders in the NBA to take on Tyrese Haliburton and they have two of the most talented wings in the NBA in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The Pacers may have beaten the Celtics twice in the regular season, but they didn't do it in Boston, and for now we'll say that trend continues. Celtics 130, Pacers 120
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers vs. Celtics game prediction for Game 1 of NBA playoff series
