BOSTON -- Kyrie Irving had a plan for how to finish the Indiana Pacers off.
For most of those last ticks off the clock in the game, they knew exactly what he wanted to do and had an effective counter for it.
He wanted to get the ball on the in-bounds.
They weren’t having that.
They did their best to deny him getting the ball from Al Horford in a half-court set.
Again, Irving was in adjust-on-the-fly mode.
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But with just a few ticks left, a head fake by Irving finally caught the Pacers off guard.
Boston Celtics
Game over.
That was just enough for Irving to get into the lane for a game-winning layup, leaving just 0.5 seconds to spare.
Here, Irving breaks down the key sequences in his winning basket in the Celtics' 114-112 victory Friday night at TD Garden.
INDIANA DENIES IRVING ON THE IN-BOUNDS
“Well, I saw that they were gonna try to deny me with Corey [Joseph] and Wes [Matthews] and I told Al [Horford], ‘Just take off, get it up court.’ ”
Horford did just that and kept his dribble alive, seemingly focused on either taking the potential game-winner or getting the ball back into the hands of Irving.
“It was one of those things where I kind of had to make a decision,” Horford said when I asked him about the game-winning play. “I still felt if I gave him the ball, he was going to have a lot of room to operate and he had the option to throw it back to me or go attack. He kept the defense on their toes. He still faked like he was going to pass it to the corner...just a very crafty play.”
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Indiana’s Darren Collison added, “Kyrie just made a good move, great hesitation; he made a good move.”
THE HEADS-UP, PASS-FAKE BY IRVING
Irving eventually got the ball from Horford which was Boston’s primary goal at that point in the game.
“He [Horford] found Kyrie when we just wanted to give him space on that side of the floor, and, you know, let him be him,” said Celtics coach Brad Stevens.
After Irving had the ball in his hands, Indiana’s Myles Turner appeared as though he was coming to double-team Irving.
That’s when Irving went into his bag of tricks, faking out Turner at the most critical moment of the game.
“I saw Myles Turner about to commit to the double team and then I just kind of game a pass-fake with my eyes and then went to the rim,” Irving said. “Luckily it went in.”
And with the win, the Celtics (45-31) are tied with the Pacers for the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference.
Because Boston now leads the series 2-1, they would have the fourth seed - and the home-court advantage that comes with it - if these met in the playoffs now.
The Pacers will have a chance to even the season series when the teams face off on April 4 in Indianapolis.
While Irving has maintained his focus is on preparing for the playoffs, facing the team Boston would most likely see in the playoffs with home-court advantage up for grabs did make this more than just another regular-season tilt.
“It was definitely a great pre-feel-out game, if you want to call it for the playoffs,” Irving said. “Home-court advantage was at stake and we see them again one more time [in the regular season]. We’ll see how that goes and just keep on getting better for the rest of the regular season.”
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