The Indiana Pacers went into the locker room at halftime against the Boston Celtics trailing 62-47. It looked like an off night in Indiana, one that would end in a loss against the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference.
But despite this, the Pacers managed to scratch and claw their way back into the game. Victor Oladipo continues to look like a star, going off for 38 points, and it looked like Indiana would be able to rally from their halftime deficit to get a statement victory.
With a 111-110 lead and only nine seconds left on the clock, Indiana just had to inbound the ball, get fouled, and send someone to the line to ice the game. The good news was it was inbounded. The bad news was Bojan Bogdanovic threw a lazy pass and Terry Rozier broke like a free safety to pick it off. This ended up happening, and if you are an Indiana fan, I highly recommend not watching this video.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc3ghTcnMmT/
As it turns out, this was the first time that a team blew at least a five-point lead in the game’s final 30 seconds this season.
Celtics trailed by 5 with 30 seconds left in the game tonight.
Entering Monday, teams were 0-379 when trailing by 5 or more in the final 30 seconds this season
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) December 19, 2017
This is an absolutely brutal way to lose any game, let alone one that you fought so hard to get back into when facing a massive deficit. Rozier absolutely deserves a ton of credit for making this happen — the Celtics’ spark plug did what he does so well and made a massive defensive play — but this was still a heartbreaker in the hoosier state.
