Tyrese Haliburton’s turnovers cost the Pacers in Game 1 against the Celtics

BOSTON (AP) — The Indiana Pacers kept turning the ball over and, just like that, they gave the Boston Celtics a victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Tyrese Haliburton made two key turnovers – one at the end of regulation and another in overtime – to help Boston recover from a five-point deficit in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter and win 133-128 on Tuesday night .

“Just turnovers. Turnovers,” Haliburton began. “I had two bad turnovers that I think cost us the game.”

The Pacers arrived in Boston having beaten the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round and the New York Knicks in the second – both times after losing the first game. The Celtics are the top-seeded team in the NBA, seven wins ahead of their closest competitor and 17 wins. better than the Pacers.

And when Boston opened a 12-0 lead Tuesday night, it looked like the series might not even be competitive. But Indiana tied it up at halftime, led 115-110 with 1:57 left in regulation and even had a three-point lead with 40 seconds left.

“We know we can play with these guys,” Haliburton said. There are a lot of people here who say we don’t belong here. We don’t really care. We know we belong.

It was the turnovers – 22 for 32 points, and several in key places – that cost them dearly. In addition to dribbling past Haliburton with 28 seconds left in a three-point play while he wasn’t closely guarded, he also lost the ball out of bounds with 1:02 left in overtime.

“Big turnovers,” Pacers center Myles Turner said. “We showed our age a little bit tonight, being a young team in this high stakes game. We made mistakes. Lots of unusual twists and turns.

The Pacers led 117-114 with the ball after Jayson Tatum missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer with 37 seconds left. But Haliburton dribbled his foot, giving Boston two more looks at the basket before Turner grabbed a rebound and was fouled with 10 seconds left.

That’s when Andrew Nembhard rejected the inside pass, giving the Celtics another chance. Jrue Holiday found Jaylen Brown in the left corner; Pascal Siakam was supposed to foul but hesitated, fearing to give up three free throws.

Brown drained the 3, tying the score at 117 for all. Haliburton got the ball back with a good look at the basket, but he went for a better one and ended up launching an off-balance, heavily contested shot at the buzzer.

“It’s already repeated in my head several times,” Haliburton said. “That was probably the look I needed to shoot.”

Game 2 will take place Thursday night before the series moves to Indianapolis. The Pacers will need to win at least once in Boston, and they probably won’t have a better chance.

“That loss was all my fault,” coach Rick Carlisle said, blaming himself for not calling a timeout to advance the ball with 10 seconds remaining. “We made other mistakes. … We have to own it and we have to prepare for Thursday.

Carlisle, who was fined $35,000 for complaining about officiating during the second-round series against the Knicks, declined to comment on a 30-10 – 23-3 free throw differential in regular time.

“My daughter is already going to be away for a semester at college,” he said. “I can’t make him take a whole year off.”