5 things to know about the Celtics ahead of the Eastern Conference finals vs the Pacers

With a 130-109 Game 7 win over the Knicks in Madison Square Garden, the Pacers have advanced to their first Eastern Conference finals since 2014. They’ll play the Boston Celtics, who defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games to get there.

Here’s everything to know about Boston before Game 1 on Tuesday.

Pacers went 2-3 against the Celtics in the regular season

Similar to when the Pacers faced the Bucks in the first round of the NBA playoffs, they’ll be facing a team they’ve already seen five times due to the inaugural In-Season Tournament. The Pacers defeated the Celtics 122-112 in Gainbridge Fieldhouse in the In-Season Tournament en route to Indiana’s runner-up finish. Boston won the last meeting between the teams, a 129-124 win in TD Garden on Jan. 30. The Bucks, Nuggets and Hawks(?!?!) were the only other teams to beat the Celtics twice this season.

Kristaps Porzingis not expected to play in first two games

On Friday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that former All-Star Kristaps Porzingis is expected to miss Games 1 and 2 of the series with a soleus strain of his right calf. The center averaged 20.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game for Boston in the regular season. Porzingis injured his calf in Game 5 of the Celtics’ 4-1 first-round takedown of the Miami Heat and did not play in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Cavaliers. Boston is starting 37-year-old big man Al Horford in Porzingis’ place.

Battle of the best offenses

According to NBA.com, the 64-18 Celtics had the top offensive rating in the regular season (122.2) while the Pacers had the second (120.5). Through two rounds of the playoffs, that has flipped, with Indiana being first (121.7) and Boston at second (118.9). Needless to say, these have been the two best offenses in the league all season.

The Celtics had three players — Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Porzingis — average at least 20 ppg in the regular season. While the Pacers’ scoring isn’t as top-heavy, they had seven players average at least 10 ppg in both the regular season and playoffs. Expect to see a lot of buckets on both sides in this series.

The Celtics have been here before. The Pacers … not so much.

There’s a ginormous difference in experience between these two teams heading into the series. The Celtics are in their third consecutive Eastern Conference finals and sixth in eight years. The 2022 Eastern Conference champs, the Tatum and Brown-led Celtics are used to this round of the playoffs.

Nobody on the Pacers has gotten this far as a Pacer, and only three Pacers have ever been to a conference finals. Two of those players — Jalen Smith with Phoenix in 2021 and Aaron Nesmith with Boston in 2022 — played less than five minutes per game when they made deep playoff runs with their old team. Pascal Siakam, a 2019 NBA champion with the Raptors, is the Pacers’ only player who’s been a key contributor to a run this deep. The experience factor favors Boston, although the Pacers have overcome their lack of experience in the first two rounds.

Boston enters the series well-rested

When Game 1 tips off Tuesday, it will have been almost a week since the Celtics closed out their series against Cleveland last Wednesday. Due to Boston making quick work of the Cavs and the Pacers going the full distance with New York, the Celtics have four more days of rest than the Pacers. The Celtics also had six days between the end of their first-round series with Miami and the Cleveland series.

The Pacers have already played 12 playoff games to the Celtics’ 10, plus Boston rested starters for the last two games of the regular season while the Pacers clinched a playoff spot on the final day of the season. If this is a deep series, the difference in rest could make a difference.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 5 things to know about the Celtics before the East Conference Finals