Game Time: 7:30 PM ET, Monday, January 10th, 2022 

Venue:  TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts

Where to Watch:  NBA League Pass

DraftKings:  Spread: NL

BetMGM:  Spread:  NL

VegasInsider:  Spread:  NL

WynnBet: Spread: NL

Pacers: 15-25, 13th place Eastern Conference

Celtics: 19-21, 10th place Eastern Conference

A matchup of Eastern Conference opponents that are both underperforming on the season.  The Eastern Conference has seen an explosion of new contenders this season.  The Chicago Bulls went from zero to hero with all the moves made this offseason and in knowing which players were worth keeping.  The Cleveland Cavaliers finally hit pay dirt in the NBA draft by drafting PF/C Evan Mobley out of USC with the #3 pick at the same time they landed some great smaller moves, like grabbing C Jarrett Allen and further developing guard Darius Garland into an almost all-star.  The Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards showed early improvement and have since regressed to the middle… still the middle leaves room for moving up once everyone returns to full strength after the wave of the Omicron variant has worked its way through everyone in the league.  What does all this mean?... It means some of last year's good teams have had to drop precipitously to make room for all these newly minted winners.  The biggest drop of course has come from the Boston Celtics… They have plunged from contender to afterthought.  The Pacers have fallen less far, but started lower last season…. They were a losing team and now they are a tragically losing team.  

The Indiana Pacers have a much better roster than their record implies.  This season they have been ravaged by injury and Covid-absenses.  While every team has had to deal with Covid… the Pacers have been doing it while waiting for key players on the injured list.  The key missing pieces were SG Caris LaVert and SF T.J. Warren…. Sadly as these guys have been out either the whole season (T.J) or most of it (Caris)... the list has grown with SG Malcolm Brogdon  constantly questionable as he deals with a sore Achilles and TJ McConnell getting surgery for a torn ligament in his wrist… TJ will be out for an extended period and his return this season is unknown or unlikely.  The Pacers won their last game against the Utah Jazz 125-113, a very encouraging outcome against a good team, but they are still only 3 wins out of their last ten games…. With the other two wins coming against the terrible Detroit Pistons and awful Houston Rockets.  The problem is apparent, star PF Domantas Sabonis, who had 42 points last game against the Utah Jazz,  simply doesn’t have enough help.  A fun thing that happened is with so many players out, the Pacers signed SG Lance Stephenson off the street.  Lance has been out of the league the last two seasons then showed up and had 16 points and 14 assists in his first game back.  Lance has always been an enigma, a super talented guy who played without discipline and may have had some problems off the court… he found himself out of the NBA.  Maybe he has improved?  He’ll get a chance to stay as the Pacers have little else to use at the guard spots.

The Boston Celtics are a team in desperate need of a re-start.  Not a rebuild, a re-start.  The Celtics have two fine young star players in SF Jayson Tatum and SG Jaylen Brown… These guys seem to struggle to play well with each other… Outside of the stars the Celtics have a lot of unfulfilled potential (Josh Richardson, Romeo Langford) or over the hill big men (Al Horford, Enes Freedom) or guys simply playing out of position (Marcus Smart).  The collection of players was built by former GM Danny Ainge.  Ainge, a Celtic legend, built a treasure trove of picks by “winning” a great big trade with the Nets, “winning” a draft day trade with the 76ers, and even landed an outright free agent from the Utah Jazz.  He then failed to convert all those draft assets into anything but random players out of the draft.  He should have moved them all to add actual stars… and yes he got PG Kyrie Irving and Boston got burned by that flat-earther… and yes SG/SF Gordon Hayward became an injury nightmare in his first ever game with the team… still, Ainge never made that big swooping move of many picks for an all-star.  The re-start that is beginning to take shape is that one of the stars should be moved to completely build around the other… although the more likely move is to pair one of the over the hill big men (with an expiring contract) and one of the unfulfilled potential guys to a contender that needs depth and the Celtics will get back….. Potentially useless draft picks.   Boston has 4 wins in their last ten games  They played the New York Knicks back to back in their last two games… the result was 1 win and 1 loss.

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The Pacers are 15-25, but 19-19-2 ATS.  They have logged 19 Overs and 21 Unders.  They are an awful 3-15 in road games.  (they are actually a winning team if you go by home games alone… highlighting the frustration that the Pacers organization must be going through)

The Celtics are 19-21, but 20-19-1 ATS.  They have notched 17 Overs, 22 Unders and 1 Push.  They are 12-8 in home games (suffering from similar road game collapses as the Pacers). 

The Pacers are 17th in scoring with 108.1points per game, 18th in rebounds with 44.5 per, and 15th in AST/TO ratio with 1.7.  They are shooting 15th in FG%, 26th in 3PT%, and 15th in FT%.  They rank 16th in defensive numbers while allowing 108.1 ppg from opponents.. That is just around NBA average.

The Celtics are 19th in scoring with 107.7 points per game, 9th in rebounds with 45.8 per, and 20th in AST/TO ratio with 1.6.  They are shooting 23rd in FG% and 23rd in 3PT%.  They rank 9th in defense while only allowing 106.1 ppg from opponents… if they improved their shooting numbers this would be a winning team overnight.

Our prediction for Monday, January 10th is….  Celtics 118 - Pacers 103

The Celtics should roll the Pacers.  The Pacers' road troubles are a very real thing and their recent loss of Malcolm Brogdon will cause some severe woes if he doesn’t play (he is listed as Questionable).

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Boston is 1-0 versus Indiana at Indiana over the last 3 seasons.

Boston is 2-2 ATS (1 push) versus Indiana over the last 3 seasons.

4-5 of these games have gone Over the Total the last 3 seasons.

Pacers: SG Malcolm Brogdon (Achilles) Quest ** SF Torey Craig (groin) Quest ** SF TJ Warren (foot) Out ** SG Caris LaVert (illness) Out ** PG TJ McConnel (wrist) Out

Celtics: PG Payton Pritchard (covid) Out

Pacers: SF Justin Holiday, PF Myles Turner, C Domantas Sabonis, PG Duane Washington Jr, SG Keifer Sykes

Celtics: SF Jayson Tatum, PF Al Horford, C Robert Williams III, SG Jaylen Brown, PG Marcus Smart

Pacers

Points: Domantas Sabonis 19.3

Assists: Malcolm Brogdon 6.1

Rebounds: Domantas Sabonis 11.7

Steals: Lance Stephenson 1.3

Blocks: Myles Turner 2.9

Celtics

Points: Jayson Tatum 25.5

Assists: Marcus Smart 5.4

Rebounds: Robert Williams III 8.9

Steals: Marcus Smart 2.0

Blocks: Robert Williams 2.1

Pacers: Rick Carlisle

Celtics: Ime Udoka