Indiana Pacers lament Game 1 overtime loss to Boston Celtics - ESPN

BOSTON — The Indiana Pacers walked away from Game 1's 133-128 overtime loss to the Boston Celtics knowing they missed an opportunity to steal home court to open the Eastern Conference Finals.

With 22 turnovers, including two costly turnovers in the final 27 seconds, the Pacers let a game slip away despite leading by three points with the ball in the final 10 seconds of regulation.

«We gave it away,» Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith said. «We should've won the game.»

The Pacers had a 3-point lead with 27.1 seconds remaining in regulation when guard Tyrese Haliburton dribbled the ball off his foot for an unforced turnover. Yet, Indiana still got the ball back with a chance to seal the game at the free throw line with 10.0 seconds remaining.

The only issue was they had to get the ball inbounds. With 8.1 seconds remaining, an errant inbound pass from Andrew Nembhard to Pascal Siakam went out of bounds and gave Boston another chance to tie the game, which Jaylen Brown took advantage of with a 3-pointer in the corner.

«I think it's on us,» Haliburton said. «They're a great defensive team, they got great defenders, individual and team defenders, but they're not a team who forces a ton of turnovers. I just felt like more of them were on us than them. We got to clean that up.»

The Pacers also missed a chance to foul before Brown's game-tying 3-pointer, which Siakam said was his intention on the play, but Brown caught the ball in the corner with his shoulders lined up to the basket and Siakam did not want to risk fouling a shooter and giving up a 4-point play.

The Pacers became the first team since at least 1997-98 to lose a playoff game despite inbounding the ball up 3 in the final 10 seconds, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

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