It's all about Haliburton's hamstring now...

The bad news is the Pacers lost Game 2 to Boston. The worse news is Haliburton tweaked the hamstring he injured previously and missed the latter portion of the game. An MRI today will reveal more.

MY COUCH, Ind. – After four high-leverage games in seven days in three different cities, the Indiana Pacers hit the wall Thursday night in Boston. Were they tired? Were they emotionally hung over after that brutal, overtime loss in Game 1, a game they had won with fewer than 10 seconds remaining in regulation? If fatigue wasn’t an issue, how do you explain why Rick Carlisle waved the white flag of surrender with 9:52 remaining and the Pacers trailing by 17 points, a significant lead but not one that can’t be overcome by the highest-scoring team in the league. I mean, Doug McDermott? Really? Is this the preseason?

Pascal Siakam, the Pacers best player Thursday night, played two minutes in the fourth quarter after being the team’s dominant go-to scorer through three quarters. Myles Turner who, in fairness, had a quiet game, didn’t play a single minute in the fourth quarter. Aaron Nesmith, saddled with four fouls, sat the whole quarter.

That’s not the reason they lost. No, they lost because turnovers (16) were a problem for a second straight game, offensive rebounding was a problem the way it was in various games during the Knicks series, and the Pacers were playing the kind of porous defense we used to see with regularity early in the season. They weren’t going to catch the Celtics napping, not Thursday, not after losing both Game 2’s in the first two rounds of the playoffs, and they certainly weren’t going to catch Jaylen Brown sleep-walking just one day after he was snubbed as an all-NBA selecton.

But somebody – in this case, Carlisle – has to explain why the Pacers pooch-kicked the fourth quarter in a game when they closed a sizeable halftime lead to just six points when Siakam scored 10 straight points. They trailed by a manageable 13 points after the fourth quarter. At which point, Carlisle called off the dogs.

Why, Rick…why?