As the 2018-19 NBA season comes to a close, here’s a look at what the Indiana Pacers will need to do to be successful in a playoff series against the Boston Celtics.
The Indiana Pacers have had quite the up-and-down season, peaking as high as the 3-seed and now on pace to finishing as the 5-seed in the Eastern Conference. They’ve been able to play pretty well through injuries to their star guard Victor Oladipo and against conference juggernauts like the Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers.
However, their first round matchup in this year’s playoffs is shaping up to be the Boston Celtics, who they’ve dropped two of three regular season matchups against this year. They’ll have one more chance to tie up the season series this Friday, but regardless of the outcome, they’ll have to buckle down and prepare to kick it up a notch if they want to beat Boston in a seven-game series.
Here are three things the Pacers will need to have control over if they ultimately want to win their first playoff series since the end of the Paul George era.