Jaylen Brown, Sam Hauser lead way as Celtics breeze past Pacers

Zack Cox, Boston Herald on Jan 21, 2026

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BOSTON — Last week’s Celtics-Pacers matchup was decided by a controversial call in the closing seconds.

Wednesday’s rematch required no such dramatics.

Boston dispatched last-place Indiana, 119-104, at TD Garden behind 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists from Jaylen Brown and 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting from Sam Hauser, who went 5 for 7 from 3-point range in the win. Neemias Queta added 17 points, nine rebounds and four blocks for Boston.

Pascal Siakam — whose late game-winner in the teams’ previous meeting should have been nullified by an illegal screen — finished with 32 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, but he received limited assistance from Indiana’s depleted supporting cast, which was missing injured starters Tyrese Haliburton and Bennedict Mathurin.

The game closed out the season series between the last two Eastern Conference champions, with all four meetings taking place in the last 30 days. The Celtics, who took three of four from the Pacers, improved to 27-16, strengthening their grip on second place in the East standings. Indiana fell to 10-35.

Boston now will play a road back-to-back this Friday and Saturday, visiting Brooklyn and Chicago, respectively.

The Celtics started hot Wednesday with two Hauser 3-pointers in the opening 68 seconds, then they closed the first quarter with a 12-2 run to take a 30-20 lead. Luka Garza drew two shooting fouls during that Boston push, including one off a contested offensive rebound. Baylor Scheierman contributed a corner 3 and a steal, using the latter to spark a fast break that yielded a Payton Pritchard triple.

Scheierman has seen regular playing time since mid-November — he even started two games during Boston’s recent road trip while Brown and Pritchard nursed injuries — but the second-year pro rarely is part of Joe Mazzulla’s first round of substitutions, as he was Wednesday.

Fellow depth wings Jordan Walsh and Hugo Gonzalez chipped in 3-pointers early in the second quarter, with Gonzalez’s halting an 8-0 Pacers rally. The high-energy rookie also used a strong cut to the basket to score off a Celtics inbounds pass.

Gonzalez’s buckets were part of a 15-0 Celtics run that broke the game open. Boston led by as many as 23 points in the first half and carried a 66-46 advantage into halftime.

It was a balanced offensive effort from the Celtics, who had just one scorer in double figures at half (Brown, with 17 on 5-of-13 shooting) but nine others with between three and nine points. An aggressive one, too: Boston attempted 16 first-half free throws — more than it’s shot in 15 full games this season, including last Monday’s loss at Indiana — and made all 16.

The Celtics entered Wednesday ranked last in the NBA in free-throw attempts per game (19.2) and second-to-last in fouls drawn.

Hauser’s fourth 3-pointer of the night, four Derrick White free throws and a pair of strong Brown drives helped Boston remain in command until the midway point of the third quarter. That’s when Indiana began pushing back.

The Pacers staged a 15-4 run that spanned nearly five minutes and cut Boston’s lead from 20 points to nine. The Celtics then proceeded to turn it over twice in the first 29 seconds of the fourth quarter, including one on the opening inbounds pass. Indiana foul shots after the second giveaway made it 91-80.

But any hope of a full-fledged comeback bid was extinguished by Hauser and Brown, who hit 3-pointers to give Boston some breathing room, then scored three times from inside the arc as Boston rebuilt a 20-point cushion.

For Brown, it was his third straight 30-point game and seventh double-double of the season. For Hauser, it continued a stretch of efficient, high-volume 3-point shooting. The veteran wing, who came in shooting 39.5% from deep this season, has appeared in 10 games since the start of January and made at least five threes in half of them.