The Pacers are coming into this game after beating the Knicks in game 7 on the road by 21 points. They were dominant in that game as they took a very early lead and never looked back, leading the whole way. They are going up against a Celtics team that won their last series against the Cavaliers in 5 games and also won their series in the 1st round against the Heat in 5 games. The Celtics have been getting a lot of rest between rounds so far, but that could actually hurt them a lot more in this game. The Celtics have been off for a week so they could come out with a much slower start here as they shake off the rust, and that is going to be problematic since they are facing a very different team than what they saw in the first 2 rounds. They have had it easy so far as they faced a Heat team that was missing their best player in Jimmy Butler and then they followed up with a series win against a Cavaliers team that was missing Allen as well as Mitchell near the end of that series. Both of those teams also played at a much slower pace as they were both more defensive teams, but the Pacers are not a defensive team and they play at the fastest pace in the NBA. They are going to catch the Celtics offguard in this 1st game as the Celtics are still missing Porzingus who is one of their better defenders. The Pacers are not a team that has folded against the Celtics this season either. They had 1 bad game at the beginning of the season which they lost in Boston by 50+ points, but since then they have actually won 2 of the 4 meetings against the Celtics, including a game that really mattered to both as the Pacers kicked the Celtics out of the NBA IST in the quarter finals, and even their last meeting prior to the playoffs starting was a meeting in Boston that the Celtics only won by 5 points. The Pacers are going to have a lot of confidence coming into this game after beating the Knicks on the road in game 7 and they are going to get up for the team that had the best record in the NBA this season. The Pacers have the ability to win this game outright and take game 1, but they will at least cover if they do not win. The Pacers will cover the spread in this game.