BOSTON — Jayson Tatum scored 36 points, including 10 on Jaylen Brown’s 3-pointer with 6.1 seconds left in regulation, and the Boston Celtics cruised to a 133-128 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night. Eastern Conference 1 game.
Jrue Holiday added a season-high 28 points for the Celtics, while Brown finished with 26 points.
Game 2 is set for Thursday night in Boston.
Tyrese Halliburton had 25 points and 10 assists for the Pacers.
But Boston dialed in its defense and finished with 11 steals — three each by Brown, Tatum and Holiday. The Celtics became the first team in NBA playoff history to have three players score 25 points and three steals in a single game.
“We continue to talk about protecting home court,” Celtics forward Al Horford said. “That’s all it takes.”
Pascal Siakam added 24 points and 12 rebounds, and Myles Turner finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds for the sixth-seeded Pacers, who twice blew 3-point leads in the final 30 seconds of regulation.
Brown made Indiana pay for the second, hitting a 3 from the corner to tie the game at 117 and force overtime.
“Jaylen had great balance,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzula said. “Great pass, great shot.”
Packers coach Rick Carlyle said the loss was “totally on me” for not calling a timeout to advance the ball before Brown’s turnover.
When asked about the 21 turnovers Indiana made, Halliburton said many of them were preventable.
“I think it’s more on us,” he said. “I felt a lot of them were against us rather than forcing change.”
The Celtics are now 2-2 when their opponent scores 100 or more points.
“I think we always knew there was a chance. We’ve always seen crazy things happen,” Holliday said. “I don’t think we’ve lost the game until we’ve lost it and that’s one of the reasons why we’re so strong.”
Indiana pulled back to within 123-121 after Halliburton was fouled and hit all three free throws with 1:46 left in the game. Tatum then muscled up and was fouled by TJ McConnell. Tatum completed the three-point play to put Boston ahead for good.
Halliburton turned it over on the next possession and the ball eventually found its way to Tatum at the top of the key. Tatum drained the pump, sidestepped a defender and sank a 3 to make it 127-123 with 43 seconds left.
Then Derek White and Siakam made a trade. The celebration later broke down and he hit two free throws to give Boston a 131-125 cushion to clinch the victory.
“It’s unfortunate that we did a lot of good things in this game, but in the end it came down to two mistakes, but it’s an NBA game,” Carlyle said. “We have to learn from it and bounce back.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.