Celtics get all they can handle in a Game 1 nail-biter against Indiana

A 3-pointer by Jaylen Brown forced overtime which is when the Celtics came alive and escaped with a Game 1 win.

BOSTON — Jaylen Brown could not have defended the play any better.

Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, like most of the night, had the ball in his hands, with a handful of seconds to play with near the end of the third quarter.

Haliburton had stopped his dribble, behind the 3-point line, with Brown all over him defensively.

With no clear shot at the rim due to Brown’s suffocating defense, Haliburton double-clutched a leaning 3-pointer that hit every part of the rim before finally falling through to bring the Pacers within a single point going into the fourth quarter.

It was symbolic of the kind of scrappy play that has come to define their postseason journey.

And for Boston, it would serve as yet another moment when this upstart Pacers team, no matter what the Celtics did well, simply would not go away quietly, forcing Boston into a rare test of their late-game execution in a game that mattered.

So how did they fare?