Celtics Loss Upsets Fans as Haliburton, Pacers Advance in NBA In-Season Tournament

The Boston Celtics may very well go on to win the NBA title later this year.

But the NBA's best team won't be headed to Las Vegas this year for the semifinals of the league's first-ever In-Season Tournament following a 122-112 loss to the Indiana Pacers in the quarterfinals Monday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

A game that was actually played at the pace that Boston would have wanted was controlled by Indiana in the second half as Tyrese Haliburton and Co. completely took over down the stretch to seal the upset.

It was a playoff atmosphere in Indianapolis as a young, talented Pacers team took a huge step in the right direction in proving they can be contenders in the Eastern Conference.

And regardless of the amount of star power that Boston has on its roster, it couldn't overcome some deficiencies in a one-off game.

Superstar Jayson Tatum finished with 32 points but it came on a rough 13-of-26 shooting from the field. Jaylen Brown had 30 in a strong performance.

But none of it was enough.

And Celtics' fans were pretty disappointed to watch their team get knocked out so early.

While the Celtics getting bounced is huge, the true story of the game was the play of Haliburton in the biggest game of his career to this point.

The rising superstar was sensational following a quiet first half, orchestrating the Pacers' offense to near perfection, consistently making the right play against one of the best defenses in the NBA.

Haliburton finished with his first career triple-double, racking up 26 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists. There was point in the third quarter where he scored or assisted on every point the Pacers scored.

He then hit the biggest shot of the night, knocking down a three-pointer while getting fouled to give Indiana a four-point lead with just a couple minutes remaining

Haliburton has been adamant about wanting to win this tournament and all he did was knock out the best team in the league.

So, now, the Pacers will fly out to Vegas where they'll play in the tournament semifinals against the winner of Tuesday night's matchup between the Milwaukee Bucks and New York Knicks.

Meanwhile, the Celtics will return to their regularly scheduled programming.