So a lot concerning the journey the Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers have taken to the Eastern Conference finals has been about what – or particularly who – they have not needed to face to get to right here.
Top-seeded Boston largely coasted to a 4-1 first-round collection win over a Miami Heat group that performed with out Jimmy Butler, the participant who’d tormented and damaged the center of the Celtics in Game 7 of final season’s convention finals. They then posted one other 4-1 collection victory within the second spherical over an injury-ravaged Cleveland Cavaliers group that did not have All-Star Donovan Mitchell for the ultimate two video games.
The route for sixth-seeded Indiana has additionally had some notable hurdles eliminated.
The Pacers wanted six video games to earn a first-round win over a Milwaukee Bucks group lacking Giannis Antetokounmpo. They then outlasted a New York Knicks aspect that was main the collection 3-2 earlier than tripping over a rash of accidents that included star Jalen Brunson breaking his hand in Indiana’s lopsided Game 7 victory.
But neither Boston nor the Pacers are targeted on the narratives surrounding the paths they took to get thus far. They’re right here. And starting with Game 1 on Tuesday evening (Wednesday AEST) in Boston, it is now NBA Finals or bust for each.
“You just got to focus on what matters most,” Celtics ahead Jaylen Brown mentioned.
“That’s your team. That’s each possession in front of you. That’s whatever your job is … Just be able to focus the mind on what matters because it’s easy to get distracted or eluded from what the overall goal and what the target is when you start to entertain kind of everything that’s going around you.”
Indiana guard Tyrese Haliburton mentioned the expectations they’ve had internally had been at all times excessive.
“We had pre-season camp in Nashville – just players, no coaches. That’s what we communicated from the jump. That we expected to be here. This ain’t a surprise to us,” he mentioned.
“It’s not a fluke. We expect this from our group. Once we added (Pascal Siakam) we knew we could really take off.”
The Pacers reached their first convention finals since 2014 by topping the NBA with 123.3 factors per recreation in the course of the common season, the sixth-highest common in league historical past. That was on high of scoring 140 factors a document 11 instances.
This would be the seventh playoff assembly between the 2.
All six of the earlier matchups (1991, 1992, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2019) have been within the first spherical, with the Celtics successful 4 of the collection, together with a 4-0 sweep in 2019.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
