Indiana Pacers Team Report - November 12

(Basketball News) - The Indiana Pacers lost 78-76 to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Jermaine O’Neal paced Indiana with 25 points and 11 boards. However, he scored only four points in the second half. Al Harrington netted 17 points and grabbed six rebounds for the Pacers, who had a five-game winning streak snapped. Indiana managed only 28 points in the second half.

Boston scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter to grab a 68-62 lead. Mike James’ three-pointer with 8:01 left culminated the run.

Indiana then broke a 9 1/2-minute field goal drought on its next possession, as Jeff Foster converted a layup. The Pacers would go on to score the next six points as well to regain the advantage at 70-68 with 3:55 remaining.

The teams then went back-and-forth and Paul Pierce’s free throw with 54.9 seconds left gave Boston a 75-74 edge.

O’Neal then scored inside on a second effort to put Indiana in front with 37.1 seconds remaining.

On the next possession for the Celtics, Vin Baker drove to the lane and hit the fade-away jumper to make it 77-76 in favor of Boston.

O’Neal then missed a turnaround jumper and the Celtics got the rebound. James was finally fouled with just 7/10ths of a second left. He made the first attempt from the line and missed the second intentionally to kill off the remaining time.

The Pacers are off until Friday when they host the Seattle SuperSonics.