Why the Celtics Will Win Eastern Conference Finals

Following their team’s 116-103 victory over the New York Knicks in Game 6 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series, Indiana Pacers fans filled Gainbridge Fieldhouse with the sound of a familiar chant as they filtered out of the arena.

“We want Boston.”

Those three words have been heard time and time again dating to the “Showtime” Lakers of the days of Magic vs. Bird. Of more recent vintage, Pat Riley’s latest club – the Heat – brought the chant back first this postseason when Miami was on the verge of beating the Chicago Bulls in a play-in game.

Less than two weeks later, the season ended for the Heat at the hands of the Celtics.

The Cavaliers would soon face the same fate, but they didn’t know that when the notorious chant rained down from the Cleveland crowd during a Game 7 win over the Orlando Magic in a first-round series.

Who could have ever guessed that wishing to play a team that won 64 games during the regular season would turn out so bad?

Still, Indiana fans got what they asked for, as the Pacers stormed past short-handed New York on Sunday to set up a date with Boston in the Eastern Conference finals.

And it shouldn’t have taken Tuesday’s 133-128 overtime loss to the Celtics in Game 1 to make Indiana realize that it’s in a world of trouble.

Even if Pacers fans had kept quiet, it wouldn’t be enough to save Indiana against an experienced Boston team that is in the Eastern Conference finals for the sixth time in eight years.

Unfortunately for the Pacers, no number of Tyrese Haliburton celebrations following a trey will cancel out the Celtics’ deep playoff runs over the past decade that have provided Boston with one valuable lesson after the other.

Scrappy plays from T.J. McConnell won’t do the trick, either.

Give credit where credit is due, though. The Pacers nearly stole the series opener -- on the road -- and it looked like they might actually have what it takes to extend this series to five, six or maybe even seven games.

But what we saw on Tuesday is the best basketball that we’re going to see from Indiana.

The Pacers went up by five following Andrew Nembhard’s 3-pointer with 1:57 left in regulation, but they got sloppy down the stretch, committing a pair of turnovers in the final 27.7 seconds that helped the Celtics force the extra session.

Mistakes like that don’t get made by seasoned teams. They do, however, get made by teams that haven’t been to this stage of the playoffs in 10 years.

“That (expletive) was chaos. That (expletive) was wild,” Celtics star Jayson Tatum said of the wild Game 1 finish. “As long as there’s time still on the clock, and the game is within reach, we feel like we have a chance. This core group has been in so many big-time games, big-time moments.”

Although it did come up short, Indiana was going toe-to-toe with Boston throughout Game 1 -- aside from the first three-plus minutes, where the Celtics put together a game-opening, 12-0 run.

It was the type of inspired performance that almost makes you want to be the one in the group chat who sends the “Pacers in 7” text just so you can have bragging rights for the foreseeable future if Indiana somehow does win the series.

But don’t. You’ll thank us later.

Completely writing off the Pacers feels somewhat wrong, but believing that Indiana can outlast Boston in a seven-game series could be deemed a cardinal sin. Here, it’s probably wise to go with the lesser of two evils.

So, who really wants Boston next?