Jayson Tatum leads Celtics rally over Pacers in Game 3 win: 10 takeaways

“That pass behind the back to the corner to Al, hang it in the f—ing Louvre,” Jaylen Brown said. “Like it was crazy. We just had a great grit win tonight.”

Tatum also caught fire from three early, which is a nice sign, even if he did cool off a bit as the game went on. The Celtics will be pretty tough to beat, even in the Finals, if Tatum starts cooking from behind the arc. 

3. Al Horford was even hotter — a fiery 7-for-12 from behind the arc, en route to 23 points. The Celtics pick-and-popped him open once again, which has been a consistent theme in this series, and Horford made the Pacers pay this time.

“I’ve been very blessed to still be in this position to be able to play at this type of level, to be a part of a team like the Celtics and really making sure that I’m doing everything I can do to contribute to the team and just I’m grateful for the opportunity,” Horford said. “It is pretty unique, pretty special, and that’s why I give the glory to the Lord, because it’s very special. It’s not me and this position that I’m in right now, it’s very unique, and I’m very grateful for it.”

4. The Celtics went small in Game 2 to great effect, allowing Oshae Brissett to come in and hypercharge the team’s speed. Brissett was less effective in Game 3, and he finished -6 with just a rebound and a blocked shot (and no field goals attempted). 

Xavier Tillman, however, played his first rotation minutes since he announced that his father passed earlier this week. 

Tillman was solid in his 13 minutes, during which the Celtics outscored the Pacers by 12. His size gives them a more sustainable option against a player like Myles Turner.

“He has the gift defensively to be able to play both drop and switch,” Mazzulla said. “And so we were able to change our coverages when he was out there pretty frequently. He can guard different matchups because of his ability to play and drop and in switch, and so he just gave us some versatility. And I really appreciate what he’s going through right now just him being here, and then the ability to call on him, and him deliver for us just says a lot about who he is as a person. So I appreciate him for that.”

5. The Pacers built an 18-point lead on incredibly hot shooting inside the arc. They are up to 60.6 percent from two for the series, despite their struggles in the second half as the Celtics held them to 21 points in consecutive quarters to rally.

When asked about that shooting postgame, Mazzulla gave a lengthy (and insightful) answer. 

“I like to differentiate the two-point field goal percentage that were long twos vs. transition twos vs. layups vs. paint twos,” he said. “That 60 percent can be a little misleading because some of the 2-pointers we have to live with, because they are good at the other stuff, especially with Haliburton, so we have to break that number down and figure it out. …

“They do a really good job of fighting to get the ball lower and lower which makes it harder to switch, and they do a really good job of counteracting our ball pressure by getting it low, like first drive. The second drive gets a little bit lower. By the time you get to the third drive, it’s really hard to switch that, and they end up already having a foot in the paint.”

6. On a related note, we would just like to reiterate that Andrew Nembhard is a hooper with a very bright future. He finished with 32 points on 12-for-21 shooting, and (unlike certain unnamed players in the Heat series last year) his shooting/scoring feels largely sustainable (although it’s probably running a little hot at the moment). 

7. Sam Hauser’s struggles continued. He missed all three of his 3-point attempts, including a crucial one that would have tied the game in the fourth quarter. Instead, his miss got a mini Pacers run going that pushed the lead as high as seven again.

Hauser’s struggles have been masked a bit by his team’s success, which is fine for the time being, but he will almost certainly need to pick back up again in the Finals. If he hits 3-pointers, he’s an essential piece capable of swinging a quarter or two (and thus an entire game) by himself.

If he misses them, he doesn’t bring much playoff-rotation quality play to the table.

8. Much has been made of the Celtics’ lack of clutch performances in the playoffs and their struggles in the clutch during the regular season, all of which is fair. However, in this series, they got a key stop, a last-second basket and a stellar overtime performance in Game 1, followed by Saturday’s impressive, grinding performance in Game 3. 

The Celtics might not have answered every question, but they’ve shown some legitimate progress.

“I felt like in the first half, it kind of caught us by surprise that we were down by that much,” Mazzulla said. “And I kind of told them, like, ‘Fellas, it’s going to happen, it might not be the last time we’re down by double digits.’ So I liked the way we handled that, and it was just a test of mindset and toughness, and I thought the guys came through big time.”

9. Could Kristaps Porzingis return for Game 4 to knock some rust off and help the Celtics punch their ticket to the Finals? We still don’t know, but if Adrian Wojnarowski’s reporting was accurate, Porzingis might have a shot to come back as the Celtics look to close the series. 

10. Game 4 will take place in Indiana on Monday at 8 p.m.

If the Celtics win, they are back in the Finals.

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