We gave it away – Aaron Nesmith after Game 1 loss against Boston Celtics

Indian Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith admitted they gave it away in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals as they suffered a 133-128 overtime loss to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night. The Pacers had the lead in the final 10 seconds of the game but squandered it.

The Pacers conceded 21 turnovers as they could not bring their best when it mattered the most.

“We gave it away,” Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith said. “We should’ve won the game.”

Tyrese Haliburton said that Boston Celtics is a great defensive team and they let the game slip away.

“I think it’s on us,” Haliburton said. “They’re a great defensive team, they got great defenders, individual and team defenders, but they’re not a team who forces a ton of turnovers. I just felt like more of them were on us than them. We got to clean that up.”

Haliburton is optimistic that his team can compete well with the Boston Celtics.

“We know we can play with these guys,” he said. “We know we belong. It’s discouraging just because of the plays that happened down the stretch, we felt like we were in position to win the game, just didn’t win the game.

“But what I will say, is encouraging, we had been trash in Game 1s for the first series and second series. Today we played great for about 47 minutes, just didn’t sustain for 48.”

“A lot of things had to go wrong for us and right for them,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.

Pacers center Myles Turner feels the lack of experience led to their downfall.

“We showed our age a little bit tonight,” Pacers center Myles Turner said. “Being a youthful team and being in this high stakes of a game, those uncharacteristic mistakes just made their way out.”

The second game of the series is on Thursday.