No contest: Celtics roll over Pacers

Gary Payton added 14 points and seven assists for the Celtics, who shook off a cold start to outscore Indiana 39-11 in the second quarter en route to the blowout victory.

Antoine Walker and Ricky Davis each finished with 13 points while Paul Pierce, who missed his first nine shots and finished 2-of-11 from the floor, had 12 points to go along with nine rebounds and five assists in the win.

Stephen Jackson scored 25 points to lead the Pacers, who will look to even up the best-of-seven series Monday night in Game 2. Austin Croshere came off the bench and was Indiana’s only other scorer in double figures with 10 points.

The two teams are meeting in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs for a third consecutive year. After Boston won in six games in the 2003 first-round series, Indiana swept the Celtics in a first-round matchup en route to the conference finals last year.

Boston, which shot poorly and trailed by eight in the early part of the first quarter, went into the second trailing by two.

However, the Celtics took their first lead of the game when Al Jefferson made it 22-20 with a pair of free throws a minute into the second quarter. Marcus Banks then came off the bench and gave Boston a spark with a steal and a layup followed by back-to-back three-pointers in his first couple of minutes on the floor.

"We’ve got a pretty deep bench," said Banks. "We played great and came out with a lot of energy."

Two straight baskets by Walker put the Celtics up 45-26 with 4:13 left in the second. Tony Allen’s dunk with in the final seconds of the period gave Boston a 26-point halftime lead of 57-31.

The Celtics’ bench outscored Indiana’s reserves by a 29-2 margin over the first 24 minutes of the game.

"In the first quarter, the Pacers really came out in the beginning of the game and I thought they were the aggressor. I thought they attacked the basket," said Boston head coach Doc Rivers. "Then in the second quarter with the bench, we had two things going on. We were attacking the basket off the dribble and we were attacking the basket with post play."

Indiana head coach Rick Carlisle and guard Reggie Miller each picked up technical fouls in the second quarter. Miller finished with just seven points and went 1-of-7 from the floor.

Boston cruised in the second half, going up by as many as 37 points on a three-pointer by Walker with 5:59 remaining in the third that made it a 76-39 contest.

"What we have to do is match the energy that second unit brings," said the Pacers’ Jermaine O’Neal, who finished with just seven points, about the Celtics’ bench. "The first quarter went the way we wanted it to go, but that second quarter just kind of got out of hand."

The Celtics shot 51 percent (38-of-74) from the field, going 10-of-18 from three-point range.

Meanwhile, the Pacers hit on just 35 percent (23-of-66) of their field goal attempts. They went 6-of-12 from beyond the arc.

"That was a demolition," said Carlisle. "I thought we played a good first quarter, but then it went down really quickly in the second."

Indiana got off to a quick start, taking a 12-4 lead on a tough turnaround jumper by Jackson with 5:43 left in the first quarter.

Boston, which opened the game just 1-of-11 from the field, pulled to within 14-12 after LaFrentz buried three-pointers on consecutive possessions. The Celtics tied it at 18-18 on a basket by Walker with 1:35 remaining in the stanza, but trailed 20-18 after a quarter of play.