On a night when Jaylen Brown scored 31 points, it was Hugo Gonzalez who shined bright for the Celtics, playing nearly the entire second half. His energy was such a key in Boston’s comeback after they looked flat for the first half and the beginning of the 2nd half.
Jordan Walsh joined Jayson Tatum on the injury report with an illness. Thus, the Celtics started Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Josh Minott and Neemias Queta. For Indiana, they started Andrew Nembhard, Bennedict Mathurin, Ethan Thompson, Pascal Siakam and Jay Huff. Thompson is a two-way rookie who has made 3 previous starts in 8 appearances.
The Pacers have had a lot of injuries this season and Monday was no different. They were missing Tyrese Haliburton, Aaron Nesmith, T.J. McConnell, Ben Sheppard and Obi Toppin for the game.
The Pacers got off to a 13-9 start before Mazzulla brought in Luka Garza as his first sub off of the bench.
Indiana could not miss from beyond the arc at the start of the game, making 8 of their first 9 attempts.
Pacers are 8-9 from deep in 8 minutes. Most they’ve made in a quarter all season 😭😭😭😭
— Dan Greenberg (@StoolGreenie) December 23, 2025
After the Celtics had an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 4, Indiana closed the quarter with 5 straight points and led 35-26 after the first quarter. Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 9 points while Derrick White had 8 of his own.
The Celtics just looked out of sorts for the first half. Indiana’s defense was flying around making plays and they simply could not miss on the other end. Their dribble penetration gave the Celtics a lot of issues in the first half.
The Pacers led 61-43 at the end of the first half. Pascal Siakam dominated, scoring 23 points with 3 rebounds. Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 11 points at halftime.
Indiana gets 1.298 points/possession in the first half.
They average 1.081 for the season, last in the NBA.
Their season high for a game is 1.270
Indiana last in the NBA in 3-point shooting (32%). They go 12-20 in the first half.
61-43, Pacers, 2nd half now @985thesportshub
— Sean Grande (@SeanGrandePBP) December 23, 2025
Hugo Gonzalez started the 2nd half over Josh Minott. Joe Mazzulla has done that a couple times this season, start the 2nd half with a different lineup than what started the first half. It is not very common in the NBA to do that.
Minott ended up not playing the entire 2nd half.
Joe Mazzulla was not happy with the Celtics so he pulled 4 of the 5 guys on the floor, leaving Hugo Gonzalez as the only guy who stated the 2nd half remains in the game.
That group came into the game and went on a 10-2 run that led to a Rick Carlisle timeout.
The timeout did not stop the bench, however. They continued to play hard and fought back into the game with a 19-5 stretch with a nasty Anfernee Simons step back cut the Pacers lead to 6.
anfernee simons does like 14 things in a game to drive you crazy and then he hits a shot like that. his step back is genuinely insane.
— jack (@janderson22_) December 23, 2025
The rest of the quarter was back and fourth and the Pacers led the Celtics 82-74 at the end of three quarters. Brown still led the team in scoring with 17 while Simons had 11 off of the bench, 9 of which came in the 3rd quarter.
The Pacers went ice cold at the start of the fourth quarter, not scoring for the first 3:02 of the quarter with Carlisle calling another timeout. The Celtics defense really turned it up and were the main catalyst to making it a 2-point game.
The Celtics would take the lead but it was back and forth from that point on. Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard hit shots to keep Indiana in it.
However, Indiana just did not have any offense in the fourth quarter, with just 9 points as the Celtics went up 10 with 41.7 seconds to go in the game.
The game finished 103-95. Brown finished with 31 and White with 19 but the star of the game was Hugo Gonzalez. He played the entire 2nd half, with 6 points, 11 rebounds and 2 block, finishing a +21. He just impacts winning and at just 19-years-old, who knows how good he can become.
That was an awesome win for the Celtics. They shot 43% from the field and 30% from three while the Pacers shot 39% from the field and 33% from three. The Celtics next game is on Friday is against the Pacers, in Indiana this time, at 7:00 EST.
