Defensive letdowns doom Celtics in frustrating loss to Pacers

BOSTON -- Three days, two games, two very different outcomes.

After steamrolling the Indiana Pacers by 37 points Friday night at TD Garden, the Celtics were handled by the same team on the same court Sunday evening, losing 123-114.

The nine-point margin of defeat equaled the largest of the season for Boston. The Celtics trailed by 15 when head coach Joe Mazzulla lifted his starters with 2:25 remaining.

Six players scored at least 12 points for Indiana, with Tyrese Haliburton leading the way with 31 on 11-of-19 shooting.

Jaylen Brown, two days removed from a 44-point explosion in Friday’s rout, paced Boston with 31 points on 13-for-21 shooting. Jayson Tatum added 22 points and nine rebounds, with 17 of his points coming in the second half. Payton Pritchard and Derrick White finished with 21 and 17 points, respectively.

The Celtics were down starters Kristaps Porzingis (ankle) and Jrue Holiday (shoulder), who missed their second and third consecutive game, respectively, with injuries.

The loss was Boston’s sixth at TD Garden this season, matching their total from the entire 2023-24 season and postseason. The Celtics will host the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday in a New Year’s Eve matinee (3 p.m. tipoff).

The Celtics’ defense was suspect early, with breakdowns resulting in multiple open looks near the basket for Indiana. The Pacers made each of their first eight 2-point shots, their only miss in the first four minutes coming on an off-the-mark three by Pascal Siakam.

That hot start allowed Indiana to quickly build a double-digit lead and trigger an early Mazzulla timeout. The lead was short-lived, however. The Celtics, after starting 2-for-9 from the floor, staged an 18-6 run to swiftly close the gap. Made threes by Sam Hauser and Pritchard on back-to-back possessions put Boston ahead for the first time nine minutes in.

Brown played the entire first quarter for the second straight game and stayed hot, scoring 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Pritchard and Hauser each hit two 3-pointers in the first, with Hauser, who made his second straight start in place of the injured Holiday, shaking off his 0-for-5 showing from Friday night.

The made threes were the first since Dec. 15 for Hauser, who missed two games with back spasms last week and scuffled in his first three games back.

Pritchard added three more triples in the second quarter, including a near buzzer-beater 2.1 seconds before halftime. The backup guard scored eight straight Celtics points in one stretch, showing no remnants of the mini-slump he endured last week.

In the first half, Pritchard had 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting (5-of-6 from three), Brown had 18 on 8-of-10 (2-of-4) and the Celtics doubled up the Pacers in 3-point makes (10-5 on similar shooting percentages). But Indiana owned a 36-20 edge in paint points and 9-0 in fast-break points, outscored Boston by five at the foul line, and Andrew Nembhard largely neutralized Tatum.

Hounded by the energetic Nembhard, who sat out Friday’s game at TD Garden for knee injury management, Tatum went 1-for-8 from the floor and 0-for-6 from three during a five-point first half. Nembhard also was an impact player offensively as one of four Pacers to reach double figures before halftime. Indiana led 65-58 at the break.

Brown and Tatum both found some success attacking the basket in the third quarter, but Boston couldn’t consistently generate stops on the defensive end. With 15 minutes remaining, the Pacers were shooting 63%, which would have been the highest field-goal percentage by a Celtics opponent since 1996.

But Tatum helped keep the Celtics within striking distance with a pair of threes — his first of the night after an 0-for-7 start from long range — and a block on Myles Turner that led to a transition layup for Derrick White. Indiana’s lead never reached double digits in the quarter and sat at 98-91 entering the fourth.

Boston’s defensive intensity improved in the final frame, starting with a drawn charge by Brown against Bennedict Mathurin that left the Celtics star bloodied. The Celtics also forced T.J. McConnell into a bad pass turnover and blocked the veteran guard twice at the rim.

An and-one layup by Brown and a corner three by Al Horford — who, like Tatum, was ice cold from deep for much of the night — made it 105-100 Pacers with 8:24 to play. A minute later, Tatum converted a tough driving layup, drew a foul on Ben Sheppard, screamed in Sheppard’s face and then sank his free throw to make it a two-point game.

Then, the lapses returned.

Hauser, Tatum, Brown and Pritchard missed shots on successive possessions, and the Pacers got points on five straight trips down the floor, including back-to-back makes by Sheppard in transition. In less than two minutes, Indiana’s lead swelled from two points to 13.

The Pacers surpassed their Friday night point total of 105 with 7:13 remaining, and the Celtics didn’t have another comeback in them. Boston went 1-for-12 from 3-point range in the fourth quarter and were held scoreless for more than four minutes while Indiana built what proved to be an insurmountable lead.

The Celtics, who are 1-3 in their last four games and 2-4 in their last six, will have minimal practice time to fix what’s ailing them. They’re in the middle of a daunting stretch that includes their first Western Conference road trip of the season, with games in Minnesota, Houston, Oklahoma City and Denver next up after Tuesday’s Toronto tilt. Boston won’t have consecutive days off until Jan. 8 and 9.

“I’m actually really excited about it,” Mazzulla said. “It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be great.”