BOSTON — Home-court advantage appeared to be slipping away from the Celtics in their opening-round playoff series with the Indiana Pacers.
They were facing a 12-point deficit in the opening minute of the fourth quarter in Game 2 Wednesday night and were struggling at the offensive end.
But with Kyrie Irving and Jayson Tatum leading the way, the Celtics turned things around in crunch time to take a 2-0 series lead over the Pacers at the TD Garden.
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BOSTON — Home-court advantage appeared to be slipping away from the Celtics in their opening-round playoff series with the Indiana Pacers.
They were facing a 12-point deficit in the opening minute of the fourth quarter in Game 2 Wednesday night and were struggling at the offensive end.
But with Kyrie Irving and Jayson Tatum leading the way, the Celtics turned things around in crunch time to take a 2-0 series lead over the Pacers at the TD Garden.
The Celtics earned a thrilling 99-91 victory by outscoring Indiana, 10-0, in the final 50.9 seconds. They closed the game on a 29-9 run after falling behind, 82-70, early in the fourth quarter.
Tatum made two clutch plays in the final minute to put the Celtics ahead and Irving got the comeback going after he was re-inserted into the game following a brief rest at the start of the fourth quarter.
Irving led the Celtic with 37 points, hitting six 3-pointers, to go with seven assists and six rebounds. Tatum finished with 26 points while Gordon Hayward added 13 points. Game 3 is Friday night in Indiana with Game 4 Sunday afternoon.
With the Celtics trailing, 91-89, Tatum made a 3-pointer with 50.8 seconds to go, then set up a cutting Hayward for a layup with 12.1 seconds remaining for a 94-91 lead. Wesley Matthews then threw an inbounds pass out of bounds on the other side of the court.
The Celtics were trailing, 82-70, with 11:20 remaining with Tyreke Evans hit a 3-pointer, but they scored the next 16 points to take an 86-82 lead with 4:44 remaining
Al Horford connected on an 18-footer, Tatum scored on a tip-in, Terry Rozier converted an offensive rebound and Tatum went in alone for a dunk, forcing coach Nate McMillan to call a timeout with 8:33 remaining.
Irving then delivered a 3-pointer with 6:37 to pull the Celtics within 82-81 and then another 3-pointers with 5:26 remaining for an 84-82 advantage. He followed that with a 10-footer to cap the 16-0 run and give the Celtics a four-point edge.
The Pacers went 6:10 without scoring, missing 10 shots in a row but a Matthews’ 3-pointer pulled Indiana within 86-85 with 3:26 to go.
After an Irving foul shot, Bojan Bogdanovic (23 points) made a 3-pointer to give the Pacers the lead again at 88-87 with three minutes to play. A Hayward jumper put the Celtics back in front, 89-88, but Bogdanovic followed with another 3-pointer and a 91-89 Indiana lead with 2:19 remaining.
The third quarter is when the Celtics took control of the Pacers in Game 1, outscoring Indiana, 26-8. But there was a different story in the third quarter of Game 2.
After holding a 52-50 lead at halftime, the Celtics were overwhelmed by the Pacers right after the break.
Indiana outscored the Celtics, 29-16, in the third quarter and held a 79-68 lead going into the final 12 minutes.
The Pacers went on a 10-2 run in less than four minutes to grab a 70-58 lead and the Celtics were not closer than seven the rest of the quarter. Darren Collison scored seven of his points to lead the Pacers.
The Celtics trailed for nearly the entire second quarter, falling behind by as many as eight points early.
The Pacers shot just 35 percent in the quarter and the Celtics were able to move in front, 52-50, at the half on a floating bank shot just before the buzzer by Irving.
The Celtics were led by Irving with 18 and Tatum with 12 in the first half as they combined to shoot 13 for 20. The rest of the team was just 8 for 21 with Marcus Morris and Horford going without a field goal.
The Pacers made 11 of their first 14 shots to open the game and had a 27-19 lead with Bogdanovic scoring 10 of the points for Indiana
The Celtics scored eight straight points after falling behind by eight with Tatum and Hayward hitting 3-pointers and Rozier adding a driving layup. But the Celtics’ fifth turnover of the quarter led to an Aaron Holiday fast-break layup with 21 seconds left and the Pacers had a 33-29 lead.
Indiana shot 65 percent in the quarter after struggling in the second half of Game 1.