Indiana
Boston Celtics benefit from costly Indiana Pacers turnovers to win Game 1 of East finals
What the Pacers need to do to have a chance versus Jason Tatum and the Celtics
USA TODAY Sports’ Jeff Zillgitt breaks down the Eastern Conference Finals matchup between the Boston Celtics and the Indiana Pacers.
Sports Seriously
BOSTON — The Boston Celtics delivered a rude welcome to the Indiana Pacers at the start of the Eastern Conference finals.
The Celtics scored the game’s first 12 points in a raucous environment at TD Garden, and it was just the kind of message the Celtics needed to send.
The Pacers, however, shrugged it off. They are not strangers to unfriendly arenas having just beat the New York Knicks in a Game 7 Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
Indiana’s relentless offense got it back in the game, and the Pacers owned a 3-point lead with 46.8 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The Pacers then committed costly turnovers and failed to protect the lead.
It was a chaotic finish, punctuated by Indiana’s missed chances and Celtics star Jayson Tatum’s offense.
Boston’s Jaylen Brown made a tough corner 3-pointer with 6.1 seconds left to force overtime, and the Celtics outscored the Pacers in the five minutes of OT for a 133-128 victory in Game. 1.
Tatum followed a 3-point play with a 3-pointer from the top of the arc, giving Boston a 127-123 lead with 42.9 seconds to go, and it was enough cushion to escape with a victory.
Tatum scored a game-high 36 points and collected 12 rebounds and had three steals. He was one of three Celtics players with at least 26 points, seven rebounds and three steals. Brown had 26 pints, six rebounds, five assists and three steals, and Jrue Holiday produced 28 points, eight assists, seven rebounds and three steals.
Game 2 is Thursday in Boston (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Offense on display
The Celtics had the No. 1 offense and the Pacers the No. 2 offense during the regular season. The scoring prowess was apparent. Both teams hovered at the 50% mark from the field with Boston 47.5% and Indiana at 53.5%, and seven Pacers scored in double-figured led by Tyrese Haliburton’s 25 points and 10 assists. Pascal Siakam had 24 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists and Myles Turner added 23 points and 10 rebounds for the Pacers.
While Boston had the league’s No. 2 defense, Indiana’s plan is to apply as much pressure as possible with their pace.
Horford continues to fill in for Kristaps Porzingis
Veteran big man Al Horford, who is in the starting lineup for the injured Kristaps Porzingis, had 15 points and six rebounds. He doesn’t place what Porzingis does but his experience helps minimize Porzingis’ absence. Porzingis hasn’t played since Game 4 of the first round because of strained right calf. He is targeting a possible Game 4 return, ESPN reported on Tuesday.
Free throw discrepancy
The Celtics shot 30 free throws, making 24, and the Pacers were just 9-for-10 from the foul line with seven of those attempts coming overtime. That’s in a part a byproduct of how both teams play. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle complained about the officiating during the Knicks series, and the NBA fined him $35,000 for “public criticism of the officiating and questioning the integrity of the league and its officials,” the league said in a news release.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A man is dead after a shooting Thursday night on Indy’s near east side, police say.
According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, just after 8 p.m., officers were called to the 2000 block of East Washington Street on a report of a person shot.
When officers arrived, they found an adult male inside an apartment with injuries consistent with gunshot wounds.
Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services transported the man to a hospital in critical condition, where died shortly after arriving.
Homicide detectives responded to the scene to begin the investigation.
Crime Resources
Gov. Mike Braun asked state regulators to reconsider their decision to greenlight a $71 million rate increase for AES Indiana, doubling down on his condemnation of a move that could leave Indianapolis residents with higher electrical bills for years.
Braun wrote in a June 18 news release that he had asked Indiana Utility Counselor Abby Gray, who heads the office representing ratepayers in proceedings before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, to petition for a rehearing of the AES rate case.
Gray indicated in the release that her office would submit the petition shortly. No petition had been posted on the IURC’s online docket as of this story’s publication.
The rate increase, which was approved by the IURC on June 17, was substantially less than the $192 million increase that AES initially requested. It was also less than the amount proposed in a settlement last October between AES and major electricity consumers.
But the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, which Gray leads, came out strongly against any increase to AES’s base rates. In September, the OUCC called for a $21 million reduction instead.
As the Republican Party grapples with rising discontent over affordability, Braun has used opposition to rising utility rates to telegraph that he’s committed to keeping costs down for Indiana residents. He signed a law in February that allows the state to make rate-setting decisions that reward or penalize utilities based on metrics including affordability.
In March, he told reporters that he would take on Indiana’s five investor-owned utilities, describing himself as the “new sheriff in town.”
And after the IURC voted 3-1 to approve the AES rate increase, he wrote in a post to X that he was “deeply disappointed.”
Braun wrote in the June 18 news release that he had appointed Gray, a longtime OUCC lawyer and judge, to her current post because he knew she “would help me fight for Hoosiers.”
According to AES’s estimates, the rate increase will cost households an additional $5 per month for every 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity they use, beginning in July. A second hike will take effect in January.
Tilly Robinson is a Pulliam fellow for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at tilly.robinson@indystar.com.
The Protect College Sports Act, legislation meant to introduce and codify sweeping reforms related to college athletics, passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday morning.
It now heads to the Senate floor.
The bill passed out of committee by a 19-9 vote. Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young voted no, his decision reflecting Big Ten concerns over the bill.
A spokesman for Sen. Young told IndyStar, “Senator Young hopes that additional changes can be made to the bill to address concerns raised by the Big Ten.”
Co-sponsored by Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), the Protect College Sports Act represents Congress’ most substantial success so far in a yearslong effort to bring legislative reform to college athletics. Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders in college sports — including the NCAA, member conferences and schools, and other major players — have lobbied for national solutions to what have become state and regional problems.
Several pieces of legislation have been introduced across the last several years, only to fizzle long before reaching the floor of either chamber. The SCORE Act, introduced last year in the House of Representatives, gained some traction and passed out of committee, but was never brought to the floor.
Which makes Thursday’s news meaningful. Moving the Protect College Sports Act to the Senate floor, while not a guarantee of any outcome, potentially takes the bill past a threshold no other such piece of reformative legislation has yet been able to cross.
Cruz told Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger on Thursday that Cruz believes Sen. Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is committed to introducing the bill to the Senate floor soon.
The bill provides a legal framework for a host of potential reforms and protections for college sports. It grants limited antitrust protection to the NCAA, places limits on certain things including potential conference realignment, builds safeguards meant to protect non-revenue and Olympic sports, addresses potential broadcast rights reforms, and more.
It enjoys significant backing, and not just among leaders in college sports. This week, the NFL, its players’ association, the National Basketball Players Association and Major League Baseball all voiced their support for the bill.
Two key constituencies not in lockstep on the bill voiced their own concerns Thursday.
In a joint statement issued just after 10 a.m. Thursday, the Big Ten and SEC — far and away the two most powerful conferences and arguably two greatest power centers, full stop, in college athletics — suggested they still hold significant reservations over the bill.
“From the outset, we identified a set of essential revisions to the PCSA necessary for the long-term sustainability of college athletics,” the statement read. “We have worked with both majority and minority staff to advance those revisions, which focus on better supporting student-athletes and stabilizing the college sports environment. We continue to believe revisions are needed to secure our support for the bill.
“Despite our sustained engagement and good faith efforts, these critical revisions have not been accepted.”
The statement went on to note the “several Commerce Committee members that share our concerns and support these recommendations.”
Young is one of several members of the committee representing a Big Ten state, including one of three Republicans. He is the only Republican member of the committee whose state contains multiple schools in the conference.
Allowing for those reservations, Thursday’s news is still significant. It marks the first time a bipartisan bill on the subject has reached this point in the Senate and, should it be brought to the floor, it would be the first such legislation to reach that stage, in either chamber.
The bill could be brought to the Senate floor as early as July, though that timeline remains fluid.
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