Boston Celtics – Indiana Pacers · NBA

Win probability changed during the game. · 26 December 2025

BOS140–122IND

Is it worth watching?

Skippable

It was more exciting than 25% of NBA games since 2017

It measures how much the win probability moved during the game —without looking at who won or at the score— and compares it with the 10,950 NBA games with a curve since 2017. “Highly recommended” is the most intense 20%, “recommended” runs from 50% to 80%, and “skippable” is the rest. Source: ESPN.

↑ IND winsBOS wins ↓

Home team's win probability across the game (source: ESPN). The band rises when IND leads and falls when BOS does.

This is how the game was decided.

Jaylen Brown decided it, the Boston Celtics player with the most points (30, with 3 rebounds and 4 assists; +19 with him on the floor); the winner's best plus-minus was Luka Garza's (+26). The criterion: the winner's points in the box score; plus-minus says who was on the floor when the game opened up.

Indiana Pacers 122-140 Boston Celtics (December 26, 2025) was not decided in the closing minutes: the Boston Celtics went ahead for good in the second quarter (7:24 left), with a free throw by Jaylen Brown for 49-48, and never gave up the lead.

The biggest run of Indiana Pacers 122-140 Boston Celtics (December 26, 2025) was a 13-0 run by the Boston Celtics in the second quarter (from 7:45 to 5:48), from 44-48 to 57-48. The Indiana Pacers' best was a 8-0 run in the fourth quarter (from 5:24 to 4:23), from 101-129 to 109-129.

▸See where these figures come from

I count as the game-winner the basket that puts the winning team ahead for good. Source: the official NBA play-by-play (since 2002-03) and each team's official box scores.

A run here is consecutive points by one team without the opponent scoring. Source: the official NBA play-by-play (since 2002-03) and each team's official box scores.

Source: the game's official box score and play-by-play.

This is how the two teams compared in passes and jump shots.

Boston made 264 passes and Indiana made 320.
BOS 264320 IND
Boston made 37 of 68 jump shots and Indiana made 26 of 63.
BOS37/68
IND26/63

Passes come from the NBA's optical tracking (NBA.com) for this game: each team's total adds up its players' passes. Jump shots come from ESPN's play-by-play: every field-goal attempt ESPN logs as a jump shot counts, threes included.

Rotations · who was on the floor

Closing lineup · BOS

Pritchard · Gonzalez · Simons · Garza · Scheierman

Closing lineup · IND

Thompson · Potter · Furphy · Jones · Peter

Q1Q2Q3Q4

BOS

Payton Pritchard

38′ · +8

Derrick White

33′ · +16

Jaylen Brown

32′ · +19

Neemias Queta

21′ · -3

Jordan Walsh

19′ · -5

Hugo Gonzalez

12′ · -13

Anfernee Simons

21′ · +7

Luka Garza

27′ · +26

Sam Hauser

17′ · +17

Baylor Scheierman

20′ · +18

IND

Andrew Nembhard

30′ · -17

Bennedict Mathurin

30′ · -13

Pascal Siakam

28′ · -10

Jay Huff

21′ · -2

Quenton Jackson

16′ · +3

Ethan Thompson

26′ · -8

Jarace Walker

18′ · -19

Tony Bradley

7′ · -6

T.J. McConnell

14′ · -18

Micah Potter

18′ · -7

Johnny Furphy

18′ · -5

Kam Jones

7′ · +6

Taelon Peter

7′ · +6

Each bar is a stint on the floor (source: NBA). The number is minutes played and the team's +/− with him on the court. BOS and IND.

These lineups played the most minutes together.

Boston Celtics

Brown, White, Queta, Pritchard, and Walsh played 8.4 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 6 points.
Brown, Pritchard, Garza, Hauser, and Walsh played 6.7 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 8 points.
Brown, White, Pritchard, Garza, and Scheierman played 6.1 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 13 points.

Indiana Pacers

Siakam, Nembhard, Huff, Mathurin, and Jackson played 14.7 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 8 points.
Thompson, Potter, Furphy, Jones, and Peter played 6.7 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 6 points.
Thompson, Potter, Walker, Furphy, and McConnell played 5.3 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 3 points.

▸See every lineup of the game

Boston Celtics

White, Simons, Queta, Scheierman, and Gonzalez played 3.1 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.
White, Simons, Garza, Hauser, and Gonzalez played 2.9 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 1 point.
Brown, White, Queta, Pritchard, and Scheierman played 2.9 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 3 points.
Brown, White, Queta, Pritchard, and Gonzalez played 2.8 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 7 points.
Brown, White, Simons, Pritchard, and Garza played 2.7 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 3 points.
Simons, Pritchard, Garza, Hauser, and Walsh played 2.7 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 1 point.
White, Simons, Queta, Hauser, and Scheierman played 2.1 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 6 points.
Simons, Pritchard, Garza, Hauser, and Scheierman played 1.5 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 1 point.
White, Simons, Garza, Scheierman, and Gonzalez played 1.3 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 2 points.
Brown, Simons, Pritchard, Garza, and Hauser played 1.2 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 4 points.
Simons, Pritchard, Garza, Scheierman, and Gonzalez played 1.2 minutes together.
Their team tied that stretch.

Indiana Pacers

Siakam, Nembhard, Huff, Thompson, and Mathurin played 3.4 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 1 point.
Siakam, Potter, Walker, Furphy, and McConnell played 2.9 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 4 points.
Siakam, Bradley, Thompson, Walker, and McConnell played 2.1 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 1 point.
Bradley, Nembhard, Thompson, Mathurin, and Walker played 1.9 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 4 points.
Siakam, Bradley, Nembhard, Thompson, and Mathurin played 1.7 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 4 points.
Nembhard, Thompson, Potter, Mathurin, and Walker played 1.6 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 1 point.
Siakam, Nembhard, Thompson, Mathurin, and Furphy played 1.6 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 3 points.
Bradley, Thompson, Mathurin, Walker, and McConnell played 1.3 minutes together.
Their team won that stretch by 1 point.
Nembhard, Huff, Mathurin, Jackson, and Walker played 1.0 minutes together.
Their team lost that stretch by 5 points.

▸See where these figures come from

The lineups come from the NBA's official rotation: who was on the floor and when. Each lineup's plus-minus is worked out from every player's stints and is only shown when they all add up with each other and with the final score.

Payton Pritchard covered 4.73 km, more than anyone in the game.

Andrew Nembhard touched the ball 88 times, a game high.
Andrew Nembhard made 68 passes, a game high.
Jay Huff defended 6 shots at the rim, a game high, and opponents made 2.

▸See what was measured for each player

Boston Celtics

Player	km	km/h	Touches	Passes
Payton Pritchard	4.73	7.1	83	57
Derrick White	4.30	7.3	78	55
Jaylen Brown	3.83	6.7	58	29
Luka Garza	3.64	7.6	30	22
Neemias Queta	2.75	7.5	35	28
Anfernee Simons	2.64	6.9	27	15
Baylor Scheierman	2.61	7.2	27	22
Jordan Walsh	2.40	7.1	13	11
Sam Hauser	2.22	7.3	28	18
Hugo González	1.64	7.4	8	7

Indiana Pacers

Player	km	km/h	Touches	Passes
Bennedict Mathurin	3.81	7.2	53	36
Andrew Nembhard	3.70	7.0	88	68
Pascal Siakam	3.57	7.1	53	35
Ethan Thompson	3.51	7.4	41	30
Jay Huff	2.61	7.0	34

The figures come from the NBA's optical tracking (NBA.com) for this game; speed is each player's average while on the floor.

This is how each team's plays were shared among its players.

Boston Celtics

Player	Min	Usage (%)
Payton Pritchard	37:42	26.7
Derrick White	33:06	25.0
Jaylen Brown	32:10	32.1
Luka Garza	26:38	12.7
Anfernee Simons	21:11	20.4
Neemias Queta	20:43	14.0
Baylor Scheierman	20:07	8.5
Jordan Walsh	18:57	4.5
Sam Hauser	17:03	23.8
Hugo González	12:23	3.1

Indiana Pacers

Player	Min	Usage (%)
Bennedict Mathurin	29:51	19.0
Andrew Nembhard	29:32	23.4
Pascal Siakam	28:24	25.7
Ethan Thompson	26:19	17.2
Jay Huff	21:08	18.2
Johnny Furphy	18:22	16.7
Jarace Walker	18:08	18.4
Micah Potter	17:49	10.3
Quenton Jackson	15:44	15.0

Usage is the NBA's official figure (NBA.com) for this game: out of every 100 team plays while he was on the floor, how many he finished with a shot, a turnover or free throws.

Who guarded whom

Andrew Nembhard guarded Jaylen Brown for 6.9 minutes, over 38 possessions.
In that time, Jaylen Brown scored 6 points and made 3 of 5 shots.
Jaylen Brown guarded Bennedict Mathurin for 6.0 minutes, over 28 possessions.
In that time, Bennedict Mathurin scored 2 points and made 1 of 4 shots.
Payton Pritchard guarded Andrew Nembhard for 4.4 minutes, over 19 possessions.
In that time, Andrew Nembhard scored 3 points and made 1 of 4 shots.

▸See all 18 matchups of two minutes or more

Boston Celtics defending

Defender	Attacker	Min	Poss	Pts (FG)
Brown	Mathurin	6.0	28	2 (1/4)
Pritchard	Nembhard	4.4	19	3 (1/4)
White	Jackson	3.0	15	2 (1/3)
Pritchard	Thompson	3.0	18	3 (1/2)
Queta	Huff	2.4	15	3 (1/1)
Walsh	Siakam	2.3	13	2 (1/1)
Garza	Huff	2.2	12	2 (1/4)

Indiana Pacers defending

Defender	Attacker	Min	Poss	Pts (FG)
Nembhard	Brown	6.9	38	6 (3/5)
Mathurin	White	4.4	23	2 (1/3)
Potter	Garza	4.3	13	2 (1/1)
Huff	Queta	4.1	21	4 (1/2)
Thompson	Pritchard	3.3	16	5 (1/2)

Matchups come from the NBA's tracking (NBA.com) for this game: how long each defender guarded each attacker and what the attacker produced in that time. Only matchups of two minutes or more are shown.

Who stood out on defense during the season

These figures cover the whole 2025-26 regular season, not this game.

Boston Celtics

Jaylen Brown recovered 0.8 loose balls per game over his 71 games.
He ranks 13 of 399 in the league.
Neemias Queta contested 7.8 shots per game over his 76 games.
He ranks 24 of 399 in the league.
Derrick White drew 0.10 charges per game over his 77 games.
He ranks 29 of 399 in the league.

Indiana Pacers

Taelon Peter drew 0.19 charges per game over his 31 games.
He ranks 10 of 399 in the league.
Jay Huff contested 8.7 shots per game over his 81 games.
He ranks 14 of 399 in the league.
T.J. McConnell recovered 0.6 loose balls per game over his 54 games.
He ranks 46 of 399 in the league.

Hustle figures come from the hustle stats the NBA publishes (NBA.com) and rim defense comes from its tracking; both cover the regular season. For each player in this game we show the figure that ranks him highest in the league, and for each team, the three best ranked. Ranks count players with at least 30 games and, at the rim, at least 4 defended shots per game.

The Indiana Pacers have won 100 of their 234 games against the Boston Celtics.

100-134record of the Indiana Pacers · NBA 1976-77 – 2025-26, regular season and playoffs

1-3in 2025-26

See the full head-to-head in the Analyst

See where it comes from

Official NBA box scores, regular season and playoffs, 1976-77 – 2025-26. It counts every game between the two teams that the house holds, this one included.

SportiveWorld knows much more about this game

Game context

Attendance

17.004

94.9% of capacity

Gainbridge Fieldhouse · Indianapolis

Scoring

262

combined points

30.8 above the season average (231.2)