INDIANAPOLIS — With roughly 10 minutes left, Tyler Hansbrough wrenched the ball out of Kevin Garnett's hands.
The future Hall of Famer hung his head briefly before running down the other end. Doc Rivers rescued Garnett with a substitution, but leaks were springing all over this old boat.
Three minutes later George Hill — the 6-foot-2 George Hill — blocked a Paul Pierce shot, sending Indiana to its 23rd fast-break point of the night.
As repeatedly illustrated during a 97-83 loss last night to the Pacers, the Celtics are especially vulnerable to youth with any kind of upside right now — youth with athleticism, youth with strength, youth with speed. You name it, it's enough to beat the Celtics.
The Celtics, as a result, lost their fourth straight game, fell to 4-7, and have yet to beat a team with any kind of playoff potential. They already have lost to the Pacers twice in the last two weeks.
But in the face of creeping age — or maybe that affliction is now knocking down the door — the Celtics have gone into group therapy.
"Tonight (before the game), Doc went through all of the guys' responsibilities, and I think it was most needed," said Garnett, who, despite the breakdowns, had his strongest offensive performance of the season with 21 points on 10-for-19 shooting. "He talked about guys' roles out loud, in front of everybody, and I think it was beneficial. He gave an assessment of where I stand with everything, and I was just trying to be as unselfish as I could.
"It's tough — as my personal friends know, my basketball game is very similar to my life. I'm a giver first. I like to make sure that everything around me is comfortable, and that's no different from basketball. I like to get Ray and Paul open, and (Jermaine O'Neal) and I have to be on the same page, very similar to how Perk and I used to be. So coach tells me, 'Hey, look for your own every now and then.' It's on me every night to create that balance."
The Celtics got that much right last night. The first two touches of the game went to Garnett in the post, and they got off to their best start in two weeks. But that first-quarter success aside — the 24 points marked the first time in five games they scored 20 or more in the opening period — familiar sins piled up.
After turning over the ball twice in the first quarter, they turned it over five times in the second, six times in the third and five in the fourth.
They were ultimately outscored 42-24 in the paint, 23-9 in second-chance points and 23-12 on the break.
"When you're in a funk like we're in a funk right now — we're in a four-game losing streak — we're getting beat basically the same way every night," O'Neal said.
"We make a run and the other team just keeps coming at us. It's like you know what to do, and you're trying to do it, but it just hasn't happened. It really is disappointing, but we're at a point now where we just have to win games. It's not about talking anymore, or whatever it is that we may be thinking.
"You want to do the right thing, make the shots and sometimes it's just difficult. You put more pressure on yourself than is needed, and you see the mistakes in the game — turnovers, easy shots, rebounds, we're pressing too much."
This time the dreaded power drain came in the third quarter. The Celtics scored 19 points in that stretch on 31.8 percent shooting, but doubled their peril down the other end, where Indiana enjoyed a 26-point period. This included a brutal 9-0 mid-quarter run by the Pacers that Danny Granger capped with five straight points, including a 3-pointer for a 78-60 lead.
Rivers talked of the positives he witnessed, though the math ultimately pointed to something else.
"We just got unorganized in the third quarter," the C's coach said. "That stretch of turnovers — to me that just gave the game away."
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