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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME FLOW
BOSTON (AP) – The Celtics and Pacers found themselves in a
playoff atmosphere on Friday night.
|  | | Austin Croshere scored a career-high 32 points for Indiana. He also grabbed 10 rebounds. |
It was a much more comfortable situation for Indiana, which reached the NBA Finals last season.
"There gets to be a point in the game where the playoff
experience, or the veteran leadership takes over," said Austin
Croshere, who hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 38 seconds left
to lead the Pacers to a 92-87 victory over Boston.
Croshere scored a career-high 32 points, adding 10 rebounds to
help pull the Pacers even with the Celtics in the race for the
final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Each team has 10 games remaining, including a head-to-head matchup on April 13 in Indianapolis.
"We blew a golden opportunity to go up two games," said Boston
forward Paul Pierce, who had 23 points and nine rebounds. "But
we're still tied for the eighth spot. There's no need to panic."
The Celtics have won an NBA-record 16 championships, but they
haven't made the playoffs since 1995 -- their last year in the
Boston Garden. The Pacers are the defending conference champions,
and they haven't missed the postseason since 1997.
"There's absolutely no doubt that tonight was huge," Croshere
said. "It was a playoff game, undoubtedly."
Indiana coach Isiah Thomas said that even though his team has
its share of veterans, it also has young players like Jermaine O'Neal and Al Harrington who haven't seen the pressure the playoffs can bring.
"This was what we've been waiting for," said Thomas, the Hall
of Fame player in his first year as a coach, "to give these guys a
chance to play in a game like this."
The Celtics jumped to a 16-point lead in the first quarter before squandering most of it by halftime. Boston fell behind 79-74
with 6:55 left in the game before mounting a 9-0 run to retake the lead.
Indiana scored seven consecutive points to take an 86-83 lead.
Pierce made two free throws and Boston briefly went ahead when Antoine Walker followed Pierce's airball, but Croshere hit a
3-pointer to give the Pacers the lead for good.
Pierce missed an ill-chosen 3-point attempt that could have won
it. The Celtics got the rebound, but Walker missed on Boston's last chance.
Walker had 20 points for Boston, which had won four consecutive games.
Jalen Rose scored 25 points and O'Neal had 15 points
and 12 rebounds for the Pacers, who had lost eight of their last
nine road games. Indiana has won seven of its last eight games in
Boston, taking this one despite 2-for-18 shooting by Reggie Miller.
"I told the guys I was either going to shoot us in or shoot us
out," Miller said. "I nearly shot us out."
The Celtics scored the first 10 points of the game and took a
26-10 lead with 3:29 left in the first quarter. But the Pacers cut
the deficit to 12 at the end of one, then mounted a 14-5 run to
pull within three points, 48-45, in the final minute of the second.
Indiana scored seven consecutive points to take its first lead
of the game, 60-59, with 4:11 left in the third.
Game notes
Tony Battie came off the injured list after missing 41 games with a sprained left ankle suffered Dec. 30 against Orlando. He received a big hand from the crowd. ... Pierce came crashing down on his back in the second quarter while defending Croshere. He returned to the game, and later came up limping after colliding with Bryant Stith in the fourth quarter. Travis Best returned to the Indiana lineup after missing consecutive games with a sore left heel. ... The crowd of 18,624 was Boston's fifth sellout of year.
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ALSO SEE
NBA Scoreboard
Indiana Clubhouse
Boston Clubhouse
RECAPS
Philadelphia 102
Golden State 89
Toronto 110
New Jersey 99
Indiana 92
Boston 87
Denver 103
Charlotte 96
Detroit 100
Orlando 97
Utah 95
Cleveland 88
Portland 96
New York 79
Seattle 94
LA Clippers 84
LA Lakers 98
Dallas 89
Sacramento 110
Minnesota 98
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