Indiana Pacers explain mistakes after final loss to Boston Celtics in game 1

Overtime was needed to separate the Celtics and the Pacers and, in the end, it was the top seed who claimed a 128-133 victory on the night.

After the Game, which sees the Pacers Travel once again to the TD Garden, now 1-0 down, the players were downbeat and self-critical as they thought the result was theirs and they let it slip.

Here’s what the players and the coach, Rick Carlisle, had to say:

Haliburton blames his side for lost

Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith began by saying that “We gave it away. We should’ve won the game.”

“We showed our age a little bit tonight,” centre Myles Turner added to his teammate’s comments. “Being a youthful team and being in this high stakes of a game, those uncharacteristic mistakes just made their way out.”

Tyrese Haliburton admitted after the game that “it’s on us. 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.”

“We know we can play with these guys,” he said, flipping his previously negative view of the game. “We know we belong. It’s discouraging just because of the plays that happened down the stretch, we felt like we were in position to win the game, just didn’t win the game.

“But what I will say, is encouraging, we had been trash in Game 1s for the first series and second series. Today we played great for about 47 minutes, just didn’t sustain for 48.”

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When is Pacers - Celtics game 2?

The game between the Pacers and the Celtics will be played at TD Garden on Thursday, May 23, with tip-off at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.

How can I watch Pacers vs Celtics?

As well as catching the Game on FuboTV (free trial available), ESPN will also be broadcasting the action. You can be sure not to miss a moment of the action by joining our live text commentary right here on AS USA.

Carlisle: ‘we felt like we were in position to win the game’

“A lot of things had to go wrong for us and right for them,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.

“All year long, our battle cry has been ‘continue to play, continue to push tempo, continue to execute, keep playing no matter what,’” Carlisle said.

“It’s served us well, and it did tonight too. So, we got -- it’s unfortunate we did so many good things in this game that it came down to a couple of mistakes at the end. But this is the NBA playoffs. And we’ve got to learn from it, and we got to bounce back.”