Sign up for Celtics updates🏀
Get breaking news and analysis delivered to your inbox during basketball season.
Celtics
With a three-point lead late in the game, one could argue that the smart play would be to foul a player before they can get a potential game-tying shot off.
But, when Jaylen Brown rose up for the tying basket with 46.1 seconds to go in Boston’s 133-128 win over Indiana in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Indiana’s Pascal Siakam chose not to go for the foul.
Lakers star LeBron James tweeted that he would choose to foul when up three points every single time. J.J. Redick said that he agrees with James. Dick Vitale tweeted that Indiana had the game won and never should have allowed the shot.
Even Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said he instructed the team to foul. So, why didn’t it happen?
“He caught the ball and he was face up, so Pascal decided to lay off which I understand that’s probably the right decision,” Carlisle said. “You don’t want to give up a four-point play. A lot of things had to go wrong for us and right for them. They did, and so we’ve got to own it and get ready for Thursday.”
Carlisle opened his postgame press conference Tuesday night by saying that he is responsible for Indiana’s Game 1 loss. He said that the Pacers should have taken a time our with 10 seconds to go in regulation and advanced the ball.
He said he loved the way his team fought, but that those mistakes and others had caught up with them.
As with any strategy, there are risks when fouling up three points, namely sending a free-throw shooter to the line with three attempts to tie the game.
If Brown was fouled, he would have had to hit three free-throws to tie the game, instead of the one 3-pointer. Brown has struggled from the free-throw line this postseason, shooting 61.5 percent.
James said the key is to foul while the player is dribbling the ball.
“If you’re going to foul, you have to foul on the downward dribble,” James said during an episode of the “Mind the Game” podcast. “It’s hard and sometimes a lot of guys are afraid to do it too. A lot of coaches are afraid to tell their team to foul when up three because either one they haven’t worked on it, or two with our rules and things it gets tricky sometimes and you send a guy to the free-throw line because you tried to foul him in a case.”
“But, I am fouling, I am fouling, I am fouling. Guys are too great, man. Guys are too great.”
The Celtics didn’t give Indiana much of an opportunity to do foul Brown. Jrue Holiday inbounded the ball to Brown behind the 3-point line, and Brown rose up for the shot without taking a dribble.
Brown sank a pivotal 3-pointer and the Celtics hung on for the Game 1 win. The Pacers didn’t foul, and Boston’s stars delivered in the clutch.
Get breaking news and analysis delivered to your inbox during basketball season.
Stay up to date on all the latest news from Boston.com
Safety and preparation are the keys to staying safe this winter
Officials talk about winter preparedness, safety, tips. Safety and preparation are the keys. Here are some tips.
At least 50 Indiana counties are under a travel advisory, and 20 counties were issued a travel watch for Dec. 14, following an overnight snow storm.
The Indiana Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) travel advisory map has each county shaded in red for a travel warning, orange for a travel watch, yellow for a travel advisory and gray for a county without an elevated status report on it’s current travel conditions.
Here’s how you can check your county to see where it lands on the map.
According to DHS, a travel advisory is the lowest level of a related advisory.
“Routine travel or activities may be restricted in areas because of a hazardous situation, and individuals should use caution or avoid those areas,” the department says on its website.
According to DHS, a watch advisory is issued when conditions are threatening to a county’s safety.
“Only essential travel, such as to and from work or in emergency situations, is recommended, and emergency action plans should be implemented by businesses, schools, government agencies and other organizations,” the department’s website states.
According to DHS, a warning advisory is the highest level of a related advisory, where people may be told not to travel at all.
“Travel may be restricted to emergency management workers only,” the department’s website states.
🚨 Indiana Weather Alerts: Warnings, Watches and Advisories.
⚡ Indiana power outage map: How to check your status.
💻 Internet outages: How to track them.
🚫 What you should and shouldn’t do when the power is out.
🐶 Your neighbor left their pet outside. Who you should call.
Jade Jackson is a public safety reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at Jade.Jackson@IndyStar.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON.
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Indiana basketball coach Darian DeVries and senior forward Tucker DeVries met with reporters after the Hoosiers’ 72-60 loss to Kentucky on Saturday night at Rupp Arena in Lexington.
Here’s what the DeVries duo said during their near-seven-minute press conference.
Q: I guess, Darian, it’s sort of another night where it feels like it just kind of gets difficult to really break down an opponent off the dribble, kind of get that inside-out sort of paint touch to three looks you want, just like what, I guess, are you guys, what’s not happening there, what’s just kind of sort of failing at the source offensively when that’s not working?
DD: Yeah, I thought the first half, you know, we got some pretty good action, pretty good movement, I thought the second half, Kentucky certainly turned up the pressure and was able to get into us and we didn’t respond well enough and we turned the ball over too much and live ball turnovers against them are really hard because now they’re out in transition playing in space, so the turnovers and the offensive rebounding, I mean, that flipped the game around that second half.
Q: On Kentucky’s long run, what was the problem there?
Yeah, I thought the turnovers, it was a combination of things, I thought, you know, we left our feet a few times, I thought we just, you know, got on our heels a little bit and didn’t play as disciplined as we needed to, you know, as that, you know, the crowd got cranked up and things, that’s the time where you got to really dig in a little bit more, your screen’s got to be better, you got to play off of two feet more, and then the offensive rebounds, you know, they just went and got them and, you know, we didn’t do a good enough job of creating space and getting bodies and going and securing the ball.
Q: What do you think you need to improve on, the team needs to improve on against ball pressure at the point of attack?
DD: Yeah, the number one thing when you get at ball pressure is everything from an execution standpoint and a movement standpoint, it’s just got to be done with more force, you can’t continue just to get pushed out and everybody stands, so you have to find ways to give yourself up with a back hook, give yourself up with a screen, set up those screens with more force, you know, and get some movement to, you know, even as, you know, they had gotten ahead and we started to break it off a little bit, once we got movement again, we were able to get those clean looks or better looks, so it’s something we got to get better at, there’s no question.
Q: Tucker, your individual line tonight was really great, I mean, your effort was fantastic, 15 points, 7 rebounds, a lot of the three point shots tonight didn’t go down like they normally do for the Hoosiers, what do you think that is, was it just not seeing the basket as well, was it the defense, was it not in the offense where you were getting clean looks?
TUCKER DEVRIES: To be honest, making and missing shots, I thought tonight, honestly, wasn’t a problem, I know, certainly, I did not shoot it great, as a team we didn’t shoot that great either from three, but, you know, even with that being said, I think there were certainly areas that we needed to be a lot better at, as a group, and if we were able to, you know, especially in the second half, execute in those areas, I think that would have made up for some of those, you know, shooting habits and miscues, but, you know, making them missing shots sometimes is basketball, but I thought in the other areas, if we could just, you know, execute there a little bit.
Q: On that, if shots maybe weren’t the problem, what kind of was, do you think?
TUCKER: I mean, he hit on it pretty good, the turnovers and obviously the offensive rebounds they had, especially in the second half. I mean, I take full responsibility for both of those areas. Obviously, four turnovers is far too many. As a group, I think when they pick up the pressure, I think we just need to really focus on our execution a little bit more on every possession. But good thing is we get a good week here before we play again to really dial in on some of those areas that we’ve maybe lacked in the beginning.
Q: When Lamar picked up his fourth foul and missed nearly nine minutes, what went wrong offensively?
DD: Yeah, I don’t remember the exact sequences there, but, you know, not having Lamar out there is certainly a big part of our offense, and, you know, his foul trouble tonight certainly limited him with only the 21 minutes because he was, again, he’s, you know, a big focal piece of what we try to run our offense through, so, you know, I believe during that little stretch that he wasn’t out there, that’s when the turnovers started to happen and
we weren’t able to get into, you know, maybe some of our actions the way we needed to.
Q: Darian, you mentioned Kentucky’s offensive rebound and kind of flipping that game. Was that just their physicality, their effort out beating you guys or something else that you saw going on?
DD: Yeah, I thought their effort, their physicality in the second half was, you know, really good. I mean, they certainly cranked it up a notch in that second half and we needed to respond to it, but, you know, I thought their aggressiveness defensively, their aggressiveness in the offensive glass, you know, was ultimately the factor.
Q: Darian, you mentioned Lamar, but how much did the foul trouble for not just him, but other guys, affect you tonight?
DD: I mean, foul trouble is foul trouble. You have it every night, so you’ve got to figure out a way to deal with it and, you know, we just didn’t do a good enough job with that.
Q: Just to follow up on that, with this team, and you’ve talked about sort of where you are with the two bigs and things like that, like does foul trouble become sort of a compounding problem when it disrupts rotations? It felt tonight like maybe guys were just not either on the floor long enough to find the rhythm or maybe had to be on the floor too long because other guys were in foul trouble.
DD: Again, our guys, you know, their numbers are called, they’re ready to go. You know, certainly, you know, a guy like Lamar, you want him out there, but when he’s not out there, I feel very confident that the guys that are coming in are going to do their part and do their job and, you know, we certainly have a lot of faith in them, so, you know, unfortunately it just didn’t work out the way we wanted it to tonight.
Kentucky basketball’s Mark Pope sees pride-worthy potential in squad
Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope says he’s done a poor job of getting the competitive spirit out of his team despite a 103-67 win over NC Central.
Basketball icons Dick Vitale and Charles Barkley headline the broadcasting crew for Indiana vs. Kentucky on Saturday, Dec. 13.
Vitale, a longtime ESPN analyst, and Barkley, a Basketball Hall of Famer-turned analyst, are teaming up to call two games this season, with the first coming between a pair of blue bloods in a nonconference matchup. Dave O’Brien will handle play-by-play duties.
Vitale and Barkley will broadcast together for the second time this season during TNT and CBS Sports’ First Four coverage of the men’s NCAA Tournament in March.
Watch Dick Vitale, Charles Barkley call Indiana vs. Kentucky live with Fubo (free trial)
The humorous duo will be appointment viewing for many college basketball fans, as both are known for their larger-their-life personalities. The team-up became possible after TNT lost its broadcasting rights for NBA games, moving TNT’s “Inside the NBA” to ESPN.
Vitale is returning to regular broadcasting in 2025 after battling multiple forms of cancer since 2021. He has called over 1,000 games for ESPN since joining the network in 1979.
Barkley, an 11-time NBA All-Star, averaged 22.1 points and 11.7 rebounds across his 16-year career. He was drafted No. 5 overall out of Auburn in the 1984 NBA Draft.
Indiana-Kentucky will air live on ESPN, with streaming options available on the ESPN app or Fubo, which offers a free trial.
Indiana vs. Kentucky is set for a 7:30 p.m. ET tipoff on Saturday, Dec. 13, from Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.
Howling Mat-Su winds leave thousands without power
Texas Tech football vs BYU live updates, start time, TV channel for Big 12 title
LIVE UPDATES: Mudslide, road closures across Western Washington
Matt Campbell reportedly bringing longtime Iowa State staffer to Penn State as 1st hire
Urban Meyer, Brady Quinn get in heated exchange during Alabama, Notre Dame, Miami CFP discussion
Man shot, killed at downtown Cleveland nightclub: EMS
Chiefs’ offensive line woes deepen as Wanya Morris exits with knee injury against Texans
How much snow did Iowa get? See Iowa’s latest snowfall totals