Indiana Pacers vs. Boston Celtics prediction: Who will win Game 3 in NBA playoffs?

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Pacers have never seemed to be in a more dire situation in these playoffs than they did after Thursday night's Game 2 loss when coach Rick Carlisle acknowledged that the injury that kept All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton out of the fourth quarter was left hamstring soreness. That of course called to mind the left hamstring strain that cost Haliburton 10 games in January and put him on a minutes restriction after that.

That gave the Pacers reason to be concerned that they might not have Haliburton, recently named third-team All-NBA, for the rest of this series. However, he was listed as questionable instead of out on Friday's injury report for Saturday's Game 3, which suggests Haliburton must have gotten at least some encouraging news from evaluations of the injury that game Friday though no such results were released.

The Pacers are still down 2-0 to the No 1 seed Celtics as the series comes to Indianapolis for Saturday's 8:30 p.m. home game, so they are not in an enviable position, but Haliburton combined with All-Star power forward Pascal Siakam, who scored 28 points on 13 of 17 shooting, would at least give them a puncher's chance at taking advantage of home court on Saturday and avoiding what in the NBA has been an insurmountable 3-0 series deficit.

Here's our prediction for Game 3.

Dustin Dopirak, Pacers beat writer: Hamstrings are tricky tendons and Haliburton's left hamstring has proven particularly tricky, so it's not wise to presume that his listing on the injury report as questionable as opposed to out means he'll play in Game 3. However, it does suggest at least some form of good news, and that the tendon is probably not newly strained which would set the clock on his recovery to where it was when he slipped into a split against the Celtics on Jan. 8.

Our prediction here would hinge entirely on Haiburton's availability, and there's a good chance we won't know what that is until at least Rick Carlisle's pre-game press conference on Saturday and possibly not until closer to game time. The Pacers have won without Haliburton before, even beating the Celtics in the game in which he was injured. However, Jayson Tatum also didn't play in that game and the Paces also got strong performances from Bennedict Mathurin, who is out for the year with a labrum tear, and Buddy Hield, who was traded to the 76ers in February. Pascal Siakam is better than both of them and if the Pacers are without Haliburton, they'll be able to place more on Siakam than they could ever put on Mathurin's or Hield's shoulders. But against a Boston team getting production from Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday and Derrick White on a nightly basis, one top scorer isn't going to be enough. If the Pacers don't have Haliburton, they need Siakam to be All-NBA caliber, they need Myles Turner at his best and they're going to need one or more breakout performances from the likes of Aaron Nesmith, Andrew Nembhard, T.J. McConnell and Obi Toppin.

But for the sake of this exercise, we're going to presume Haliburton does play and that he's healthy enough to be effective. In which case, we're presuming the Pacers will be inspired in a home Game 3 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, which has provided a comparable homecourt advantage to Madison Square Garden and TD Garden in these playoffs, which is a big part of the reason why the Pacers haven't lost at home since March 18. The Pacers didn't get this far to be swept, and we're saying that if Haliburton is anything like he's been in recent games, they won't. Pacers 130, Celtics 123.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers vs. Celtics game prediction for Game 3 of NBA playoff series