Indiana
Boston Celtics destroy the Indiana Pacers, 142-105
The Boston Celtics hosted the Indiana Pacers Friday, 27th of December, the first of two matchups in TD Garden, Boston. For Coach Rick Carlisle and the Indiana Pacers, they come into Boston managing five injuries with Isaiah Jackson, Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, Obi Toppin who were all ruled unavailable prior to tip-off. Kristaps Porzingis (ankle) and Jrue Holiday (shoulder) have both been ruled out for Boston. Holiday’s unavailability saw Sam Hauser slotted into the starting lineup for the C’s. Hauser’s starting nod is noteworthy, as he has been in and out of the lineup with his own back injuries and struggling with form, going scoreless in 3 out of his last 4 games.
Jayson Tatum started the game strong, physically taking it to Bennedict Mathurin for the strong and-1 post finish. Mathurin got going early for Indy, pacing his team with 2 of his team’s first 4 buckets. Jaylen Brown was perfect to start the game in this one, as he went three for three, with a pair of triples. Derrick White also got in on the action as Indy sagged off him to hit on his second bucket and his second three-pointer as Boston took an early 24-13 lead.
Boston continued to pile on points behind a crossover step back long Jaylen Brown two and then a Jordan Walsh three, as Boston stretched the early lead out to 12 points. Brown continued to excel with another three-pointer and a steal and breakaway two-handed dunk to register his fifteenth first quarter point on a perfect 6/6 from the field. The Indiana Pacers came into this game on the second night of a back-to-back, and it showed early as Boston was the hungrier team and getting to the loose balls first. The Celtics led 39-22 after the first quarter.
Boston started the second quarter very slowly, going scoreless for the first 3 minutes and turning the ball over multiple times. Luckily for the Celtics, Indy wasn’t much better, with just one three-point made basket in that stretch. The crowd well and truly woke up at the 6-minute mark of the game as JB drove past two perimeter defenders and dropped the hammer on top of an outstretched Myles Turner. Brown, not to be outdone, then stole the ball again at midcourt, leading to a dunk competition-worthy windmill jam with no Pacer player within fifty feet of the the basket.
Jayson Tatum would then return to the game after a nice break to hit his first shot, a corner three-pointer. Al Horford, then added his own triple as Boston registered a 20-point first-half lead at the 2-minute, 30-second mark. The first half would end 67-42 with Boston in complete control, spearheaded by Jayson Tatum (10 pts, 10 boards) and Jaylen Brown (23 points, 3/5 from three).
Following the Christmas Day disaster, Al Horford cited “inconsistent effort” postgame after the brutal loss to conference rival Philadelphia 76ers. Boston was looking to get back into form before facing a 4-game west coast road trip in early January. The third quarter proved to be just the test, as Boston continued to exploit Indiana’s lack of perimeter size and picking the Pacers apart with crisp passing and good pace en route to a massive 31-point lead with 5 minutes remaining in the third.
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Indiana came into Boston playing 4 games over 6 nights, and the fatigue was starting to show late in the third quarter with Indy a step slow, Boston would reach the penalty bonus with 4 and a half minutes to go in the quarter. To Indiana’s credit, they did not let the lead creep out more as the quarter would end 103-78, Boston up 25 points.
JB logged his fortieth point of the game, his highest score of the season, with a mind-blowing eleven minutes left in the game. Eventually Joe Mazzulla would substitute out Brown to a standing ovation and a 44-point night, shooting a stellar 66% split from the field with 6-11 from three. Rick Carlisle would go to his deep bench around the 8-minute mark, giving his younger guys a test against Boston. Payton Pritchard would add 18 points, 10 assists, and 8 rebounds; Jayson Tatum had a double-double night with 22 points and 13 rebounds; Al Horford chipped in 13 points, whilst Derrick White added 9 points and 6 assists.
Drew Peterson, Jordan Walsh and Jaden Springer all saw significant garbage minute time for Boston to finish off the game. The Celtics, who now sit just a few games ahead of the 3rd placed New York Knicks in the Eastern conference needed a comfortable win and they got this tonight behind a well-rounded team performance. Boston will next face these Pacers once more at home on Sunday, 29th of December at 6pm.
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.
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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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