The Indiana Pacers will try to find their scoring touch and end a six-game losing streak when they meet the Boston Celtics on Friday night in Indianapolis.
The Pacers haven’t won a game since Dec. 8, leaving coach Rick Carlisle one win shy of 1,000 career NBA victories. Indiana is last among NBA teams in scoring (109.2), field-goal percentage (42.9) and 3-point percentage (32.1).
“We all have got to ask ourselves what can we do and everyone’s got to come in wanting to make a change and wanting to win,” Indiana forward Pascal Siakam said. “We’ve had some good stretches, (but) it’s not enough.
“I think Pacers fans deserve it. We’ve all got to do better. And I’m going to keep trying — trying to do my best, to do what I can for us to win. … We’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to keep fighting. We’ve got a lot to fight for. We’ve just got to find that joy, we’ve got to find that togetherness to get us out of it. That’s the only way.”
The teams met in Boston on Monday, when the Celtics rallied for a 103-95 victory. The Pacers led by 20 points early in the third quarter when Boston coach Joe Mazzulla pulled all of his starters and sent his reserves into the game.
It proved to be the spark the Celtics needed as Boston went on a 19-5 run to slice Indiana’s lead to six points before the starters returned to the court and closed out the win.
“That’s part of the depth that we have,” Mazzulla said. “I mean, 82 games is a long time. The season is long. The standard that we have to play at, the effort that we have to play at, is hard. It’s difficult, and we need everybody to be able to do it. So there’s been stretches of the season where guys have done that for us.”
The Celtics outscored the Pacers 60-34 in the second half and extended their winning streak to three games.
Jaylen Brown had 31 points, nine rebounds, two assists and two blocks in the victory. He has scored at least 30 points in each of his last seven games.
“I think this has been my favorite season so far, being able to get an opportunity to lead a group,” Brown said. “A group of guys who … some of us, we have some championship experience, but we have five or six new guys who haven’t really played NBA basketball. And now we look like one of the better teams in the league. And that’s just credit to our coaching staff and credit to our leadership that we’ve been able to get those guys comfortable.”
Indiana is coming off Tuesday’s 111-94 home loss to Milwaukee. T.J. McConnell tossed in a team-high 16 points in the loss. He did not play in Monday’s defeat in Boston because of left knee soreness.
“I think the frustrating part sometimes is obviously we have six wins, but some of the losses we haven’t played to our full potential,” McConnell said. “We haven’t fought the way we do. If we lose a game, but we fight to the finish, I think a lot of us can live with that. We have to do that more consistently.”
