Boston Celtics: Home court advantage all but wrapped up after win vs Indiana Pacers

The Boston Celtics headed into Indiana knowing that a win would just about lock them in the fourth seed and ultimately home-court advantage through round one of the playoffs. They took care of business in convincing fashion with a 117-97 blowout victory.

With the NBA Playoffs just a week away, time to lock into ‘playoff mode’ was running out for the Boston Celtics. Following two straight victories over the Miami Heat, the Celtics needed to take care of business in Indiana to all but guarantee themselves home-court advantage in their eventual matchup with the Pacers.

To some, home court advantage may not be all that big a deal. To the Celtics, it really matters. As good as Boston is at home (28-12) this team struggles to get similar production away from the TD Garden parquet. In fact, after the win in Indiana, they just broke even with a 20-20 record on the road. Couple that with their complete lack of success in last years’ playoff run and this team could be in for a rough playoff run should they fail to land home court advantage.

With that in mind, its safe to call their Friday night matchup with the Indiana Pacers their biggest to date.

After a back and forth first quarter of action Boston really broke the game loose with a 34-20 2nd quarter that ended with an 11 point half time lead. For the majority of the season, the Celtics struggled with third quarters. But not tonight. They followed their 34 point second quarter performance up with a 33 point third, silencing the fans in Bankers Life Fieldhouse for good.

Gordon Hayward put on a masterful performance in the victory, going off for 21 points on 9-9 shooting to go along with 4 rebounds and a game-high +23 plus/minus. He was particularly aggressive in getting to the rim, as exhibited on this play.

The Boston Celtics’ success in the postseason will be significantly influenced by the quality of play the team gets out of Gordon Hayward. If Gordo can bring to the playoffs what he has brought in the month of March, this group is in for a long playoff push. In March Hayward is averaging 18 points on 52% shooting to go along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists. He is also getting to the free throw line a remarkable 7.5 times a contest, showing his increase in aggressiveness.

Boston also got substantial production out of Jayson Tatum, who continues his hot stretch of quality performances. Tatum logged 22 points and 7 rebounds to go along with 3 steals in a game-high 23 minutes of action. His best stretch came early in the 4th quarter utilizing a break off of an Indiana turnover.

The ensuing possession ended with yet another Tatum slam that was assisted by Gordon Hayward on another fast break.

The Celtics finish their regular season up with a home game against the Orland Magic and a road matchup with the Washington Wizards. All they need to do in order to officially lock up home-court advantage is win one of the two upcoming matchups. If Indiana loses one of its final two remaining games Boston would snag the 4th seed still due to owning the head to head tiebreaker.

Boston looks to be rounding into playoff form just in time. Winning their matchup with Indiana was a confidence-building move. Now it’s time to put it all together for a long postseason run.