NBA Game Summary - Indiana at Boston

Boston, MA (Basketball News) - Stephen Jackson scored 24 points and the Indiana Pacers pounded the Boston Celtics, 97-70, to clinch the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series in the deciding seventh game at the FleetCenter.

The sixth-seeded Pacers won three of their four games in Boston in the series and will take on No. 2 seed Detroit in the conference semifinals. The upcoming series pits the same two teams that were involved in a notorious brawl earlier this season.

"We have great respect for them (Detroit) and I fell like they have a certain respect for us," said Pacers coach Rick Carlisle. "Any hype about negative things that will happen will be created by the press and not by the two respective franchises."

Jermaine O’Neal collected 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists for the Pacers, who were playing in their first Game 7 since losing to the Chicago Bulls in the 1998 conference semis.

Fred Jones netted 16 points for the Pacers and Anthony Johnson chipped in 13.

Indiana guard Reggie Miller can put off his retirement for now thanks to the victory. Miller, who scored just five points in the game, has declared that this will be his 18th and final NBA season.

Antoine Walker had 20 points and Paul Pierce added 19 for the Celtics, who were bounced out of in the opening round of the playoffs by Indiana for the second straight season. Saturday’s loss was the biggest home loss in a Game 7 in NBA history.

"The way we performed is extremely disappointing," said Celtics coach Doc Rivers. "I told our guys that we played bad, we played poorly tonight and we didn’t do a lot of the things that we did to get to this Game 7 tonight."

The Pacers led 35-32 at halftime, but dominated the entire second half to cruise to the win.

Indiana held a slim 43-41 edge early in the third quarter, but the Pacers responded with an 11-5 stretch capped by Anthony Johnson’s layup. The Pacers kept the pressure on and held a 64-50 cushion by the end of the third quarter.

The Pacers then outscored Boston, 33-20, in the fourth quarter to make it a blowout. Al Jefferson made a bucket to cut the deficit to 64-52 early in the period, but Jones hit back-to-back three-pointers to spark a 15-5 burst. O’Neal’s basket capped the stretch and gave Indiana a 79-57 lead with 6:07 remaining.

Indiana’s biggest lead came after Eddie Gill hit a pair of free throws to make it 97-68 with 26 seconds left.

"This blowout is an anomaly. This just doesn’t happen," said Carlisle. "We had a couple of guys step forward tonight that hit timely shots and it just sort of snowballed."

The first half was tight throughout and characterized by bad shooting from both teams. Each team shot just 33 percent from the floor in the opening half.

Boston held the biggest lead of the first quarter when Pierce’s layup made it 10-7 with 7:31 left. However, it was Indiana that would lead 22-20 by the end of the first.

The first points of the second quarter didn’t come until Johnson hit a foul shot with 8:33 left to give Indiana a 23-20 edge. The Pacers would hold a five-point advantage after Dale Davis hit a jumper to make it 35-30. Indiana would hold a 35-32 lead at the end of the second quarter.

Pierce had 14 points at the break to pace Boston, while Jackson posted 13 for the Pacers.